GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN.

BY MRS. PATTIE L. COLLINS.

Since the appearance of my first article on this subject, in the October number of The Chautauquan, I have received letters, asking further information, from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I have tried to answer all of them, but to none could I return more than a brief, and I fear unsatisfactory reply. I therefore resume the subject in this public way, with the hope of furnishing full information to all who are interested.

My former article was much criticised by my friends, scarcely one of whom agreed with me entirely. Some said that my view of the Civil Service was an ideal one—as it should be, not as it is—and others that I wrote from the standpoint of a successful (!) woman. A person high in authority gave me food for reflection in the following inquiry: “Do you not think that in justice to those who wish to apply for examination, you ought to say how many have already successfully passed, for whom places can not be found?”

This was a new phase of the question, and quite staggered me. With my accumulating correspondence around me, I began to feel as if I had ignorantly committed a serious blunder which I must lose no time in explaining. The fact that the Commission already had on file the names of many women, with a bare possibility of the list being exhausted at a remote period, was an aspect of the case which I had not adequately considered.

The reason for the great excess in the number of women’s names over those of men left on file, is officially stated to be that, whenever vacancies occur in any of the departments a demand is usually made for a male instead of a female clerk. I think that I am not mistaken in saying that appointments have hitherto been made in the ratio of six to one. The Commission has been allowed no discretion. When a demand was made for a male clerk, a female could not be supplied. With my observation and experience among department clerks, this appears to me an unjust discrimination. I have often asked the reason for this of those who ought to be able to furnish intelligent opinions upon the subject, but have never succeeded in eliciting anything satisfactory. One general argument used is that it is more difficult to enforce discipline among women. This, however, is such a weak statement, though oft repeated, that I am not inclined to discuss its merits or demerits. A really strong point is made in their average loss of time. It is claimed by some of the aggrieved class that this would be rectified by a just apportionment of salary as it would relieve them of much additional labor after office hours. I am not prepared to suggest the remedy, I only desire to speak of the service as it exists. Whenever a proposition is made to introduce a woman clerk into one of the cosy, well-furnished apartments occupied by three, four or six clerks of the opposite sex, it is met by a prompt and indignant protest.

Why? Well, this is a question I will answer myself, and if it be treason, I am absolutely indifferent to the consequences. Pass along the corridors and glance through the half-open doors into these pleasant offices; observe the occupants engaged with fresh newspapers, their chairs tipped back, barely preserving a perilous balance by making footstools of the desks; observe also the clouds of fragrant smoke; if the weather be warm, graceful negligé costumes will not escape you; a vacant chair, perhaps many vacant chairs will be sadly suggestive to the unenlightened, but if you inquire, the answer will be reassuring: “He has only stepped out” (for an hour or two). Paradoxical as it may appear, the affairs of an entire department may be administered while the $8,000 head, accompanied by his bureau officers, is fishing in the Adirondacks, making an excursion to Florida, crossing the plains, or summering at Mount Desert; and all along the line there are delicious masculine privileges which the ambitious female must not even cherish a profane desire to possess. In the light of these exclusive dispensations I have often seriously considered the tenets of the Arcadian settlement upon the bayou Têche. No woman is allowed to enter its peaceful borders who can read and write, consequently they are lovely cooks and have no wrinkles. The difficulty seems to begin when they are allowed to master the alphabet—after that there is no stopping them. In a word, the intelligent, deft, skillful, conscientious women workers of the departments have trespassed alarmingly upon the ancient, solidified rights of the original “lords of the territory,” and that, too, just as they were most aggressively and menacingly arrayed. The passage of the Civil Service act was “a trumpet pealing news of battle above the unrisen morrow”—to women. Visions of the beautiful “equal work, equal pay” doctrine rose thick and fast beyond the dark limit line of a hitherto narrow horizon; visions of regular promotions for well performed work. Alas, instead of this, the departments are permitted to discriminate in favor of male clerks, and no laws have yet been enacted in reference to promotion. In view of these two truths perhaps I ought to take back all that my former article contained. If the operation of the law is to practically exclude women, while it offers no opportunities of advancement to those already within the gates, certainly I owe it to my readers to admit it. But this admission—even with the six to one, or even greater ratio confronting me, I am not prepared to make. I have shadowed forth the reasons for this state of things, and I shall continue to hope and to believe that wise legislation will regulate the system, and time will adjust it to harmonious working order.

In reading the complete and exhaustive work upon the Civil Service of Great Britain, by the Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, chairman of our own Commission, I find that when women were first employed in that enlightened land they were considered too dishonest to be trusted with letters that had not been first cut open by men clerks, and all valuables removed! They were also under the constant surveillance of a “matron.” Now they fill numberless places of trust and responsibility, and a large class of earnest, self-reliant, independent women has been the outgrowth of an experiment which had this puny, almost despicable beginning. Therefore, despite facts and figures, we need not be discouraged in this country. It ought to be comforting to those clamoring upon the outside that there are friends and allies within. It is said that there are twelve hundred women in the Treasury alone, while those in the other departments must aggregate many hundreds more. A certain historian affirms that the Bourbons mainly owed their restoration to the throne of France to the following message sent by Prince Talleyrand to the allied sovereigns and their generals: “You may do everything and you dare nothing; for once, then, be daring.” I repeat the warlike sentiment to women desiring work here. If you do not ask for it, assuredly you will not receive it. If you do ask—you, or you, my sister—from the North, East, South or West, may be successful. Some of you certainly. In direct response to questions which have been asked me by numerous correspondents, I make the following statements: Each state and territory is entitled to a quota of appointments based upon its population, without reference to present incumbents who were appointed under the old system. Examinations are held in various places, thereby affording all who desire an opportunity to attend. A letter addressed “Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C.,” containing a request for information, will obtain a printed form containing full particulars as to every step of procedure. Age, moral character, previous employment, where educated, etc., must be testified to under oath, and each applicant must be endorsed by not less than three nor more than five reputable persons to whom he or she must be personally known. All applicants will be informed when and where the first examination most convenient to them will be held. A thorough, rudimentary education is all that is necessary for the $900 examination. For the $1,200 places something more is required; a knowledge of book-keeping, and our civil government, and wider historical and geographical information. There are special and technical examinations for linguists, mechanical experts, etc. The ordinary work—by which I mean all that is usually performed by clerks of the lower grades—is never of an intricate character. It is easily learned, whether it be keeping books of records, copying or briefing letters, counting money or reckoning percentages. I do not wish to convey the impression that there is any child’s play in the matter—far from it. There is an abundant field in which industry and intelligence can exhibit themselves advantageously. The extracts appended are from the first annual report of the Commission, submitted to the President in February, 1884. I have endeavored to outline the difficulties that lie all along the way, and to show that long waiting may follow even a successful examination. I am not conscious of being even at heart a strong partisan, and think that I have presented a calm and impartial statement. In conclusion, I may add that although good penmanship may be considered as a rather low accomplishment, it is an important factor of success in this special direction.

APPENDIX No. 5.

The questions below are an example of those used in the grades which fall under the first and fourth clauses of Rule 7, known respectively as the general and limited examinations. They are a fair sample of all those used in those grades. It is at one or the other of those grades that fully 95 out of every 100 applicants have been examined under the rules. The questions are frequently varied, indeed almost at every examination, without materially changing their grade, and there are special adaptions of them to various places in the postal and customs offices. For the sake of brevity the ample spaces for the answers on the examination papers are omitted.

GENERAL EXAMINATION UNDER CLAUSE 1 OF RULE 7.—FIRST SUBJECT.

Question 1.—One of the examiners will distinctly read (at a rate reasonable for copying) fifteen lines from the Civil Service Law or Rules, and each applicant will copy the same below from the reading as it proceeds.

Question 2.—Write below, at length, the names of fifteen states and fifteen cities of the Union.

Question 3.—Copy the following, which is section five of the Civil Service act, in the blank below:

Sec. 5. That any said commissioner, examiner, copyist, or messenger, or any person in the public service who shall willfully and corruptly, by himself or in coöperation with one or more other persons, defeat, deceive, or obstruct any person in respect of his or her right of examination according to any such rules or regulations, or who shall willfully, corruptly, and falsely mark, grade, estimate or report upon the examination or proper standing of any person examined hereunder, or aid in so doing, or who shall willfully and corruptly make any false representations concerning the same or concerning the person examined, or who shall willfully and corruptly furnish to any person any special or secret information for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or chances of any person so examined, or to be examined, being appointed, employed, or promoted, shall for each such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not less than ten days, nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SECOND SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Multiply 307968 by 490875 and divide the product by 307968. Write in full the operation.

Question 2.—Divide three fourths of eight ninths by one seventh of three fifths and subtract one seventh from the quotient.

Question 3.—Divide one thousand and eight and three one-thousandths by three and eight one-hundredths, expressing the process in decimal fractions.

Question 4.—The compensation of a clerk, beginning June 30th, was $133.33 a calendar month. On the first of October his salary was increased 15 per cent., and so remained until June 1st, when it was increased a further amount of three per cent. on the original salary. What was the whole amount payable to the clerk for the year?

Question 5.—A commissary suddenly forced to change quarters had on hand 980 bushels of wheat which cost 80 cents per bushel. He sold six per cent. of it at a loss of four per cent. and four per cent. of it at a loss of three per cent. How much was the whole loss incurred by the sale?

THIRD SUBJECT.

Question 1.—A note for $2,647.34 is payable eleven months from date with interest at 3½ per cent. What will be the amount due on the note at maturity? Give all the figures in the operation.

Question 2.—A disbursing agent failed, owing the government one item of $308.45, another of $2,901.02. The government agreed to make a discount of 13 per cent. on the first item and 11½ per cent. on the second. How much was payable under the agreement?

Question 3.—June 30, 1880, A gave B a note for $1,005 payable July 4, 1882, with interest at 4 per cent. May 1, 1882, A paid $235. What was the amount of principal and interest due B when the note matured?

Question 1.—A contractor furnished the government articles as follows: June 8, 1880, 300 barrels of flour at $4.50 a barrel, and July 6, 1880, 187 yards of carpet at $1 a yard. August 4, 1880, 1,000 yards of carpet at 87 cents a yard. The government paid on account as follows: June 12, 1880, $1,000; July 10, 1880, $100; August 4, 1880, $500. State the dealings between the parties in the form of a debit and credit account, showing the balance due.

FOURTH SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Give a definition as full as the space will allow of (1) a verb; (2) a noun; (3) an adverb; (4) an adjective; (5) a preposition; (6) a conjunction; and of (7) the phrase, “the grammar of the English language.”

Question 2.—Write a letter, addressing it to the President and giving your views, as far as you are willing to express them, in regard to the duties and responsibilities of an officer in the public service which you seek to enter. Let it fill, as nearly as may be, the following space.

FIFTH SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Which States extend to or border on the sea or tide-water? What is the capital of each of said States?

Question 2.—What is meant in our history, (1) by the Colonial period; (2) by the Continental Congress; (3) by the Declaration of Independence; (4) by the Emancipation Proclamation? Let your answers, as nearly as may be, fill this blank.

Question 3.—State in general terms, but as particularly as the space below will permit, what are the authority and functions of (1) the Congress of the United States; of (2) the Supreme Court of the United States; of (3) the President of the United States; and give the names of each of the executive departments at Washington.

LIMITED EXAMINATION UNDER CLAUSE 4 OF RULE 7.

First subject same as in examination under Clause 1.

SECOND SUBJECT.

Direction.—In case the examiners think that any of the following examples may have been seen by the applicants, they can in the first strike out a line of the figures, and, in the others, change some of the figures without altering the grade of the question.

Question 1.—Add the following:

64379582

28597346

91731625

52613719

26598421

53679713

83576532

62985274

79365497

Question 2.—Find the difference between the following numbers:

905127038624

605138759928

Question 3.—Subtract ten thousand one hundred dollars and six cents from one hundred thousand and seven dollars and five cents, giving all the figures required in the operation.

Question 4.—Multiply 7089 by 983.

Question 5.—Divide 368506 by 375.

Question 6.—When board costs three dollars and seventy-six cents per week what will it cost from March 15th to July 4th?

Question 7.—How many times is 17 cents contained in ten thousand dollars and ten cents?

Question 8.—There are seven hundred and three dollars to be divided between nine men and three boys. The boys are to have twenty-five dollars and five cents each, the residue is to be equally divided among the men, what is each man’s share? Give all the figures involved in the solution.

APPENDIX No. 6.

The following tables show the statistics of the examinations in the three branches of the classified service. These considerations should be borne in mind in considering them:

1. That the ratio of those who fail to those who succeed is likely to be much less when the grade of questions shall be better understood; for the more incompetent will see they have little chance of succeeding. Besides, a better class has appeared at each succeeding examination.

2. It was necessary in the outset to examine a large number to make sure of having those competent to fill every variety of vacancy. Many appointments may be now made without further examinations. The excessive number examined from the District of Columbia was the result of conforming to a rule having an unanticipated effect, which has been since amended.

3. In regard to education, the records of the Commission are defective in not showing how long those who have been at an academy or college have remained at either, nor how many are graduates. If a person has been but a month at an academy or college, he is put under the head of those institutions. The habit of calling so many schools academies, and so many academies colleges, helps to make this unavoidable classification the more misleading.

TABLE

Showing numbers of examinations, number of those examined, passed, appointed, age, education, etc., in the Department Service, Washington.

States, Territories, and Dist. of Columbia. Number examined. Male. Female. Average age. Education. Number passed at 65 per cent. or over. Number appointed.

Common School. Academy. College.

Alabama 4 2 2 42 2 2 .. 2 ..

Arizona Territory 1 .. 1 33 .. 1 .. 1 ..

California 7 6 1 30 2 2 3 5 1

Colorado 4 2 2 37 1 3 .. 2 ..

Connecticut 9 3 6 29 4 2 .. 3 1

Dakota Territory 2 1 1 29 1 1 .. 1 ..

District of Columbia 125 54 71 25 48 53 24 74 3

Delaware 1 .. 1 25 1 .. .. 1 ..

Florida 2 .. 2 36 .. 1 1 1 ..

Georgia 3 2 1 25 .. 1 2 .. ..

Illinois 24 16 8 31 4 6 14 15 4

Indiana 40 29 11 26 15 12 13 18 2

Indian Territory 1 1 .. 30 .. 1 .. .. ..

Iowa 3 2 1 23 1 1 1 3 1

Kansas 15 13 2 32 7 2 6 9 2

Kentucky 21 16 5 28 4 7 10 13 2

Louisiana 6 3 3 34 2 4 .. 3 ..

Maine 14 10 4 26 2 11 1 11 2

Maryland 66 40 26 26 13 35 18 44 3

Massachusetts 36 27 9 30 6 17 13 26 1

Michigan 18 12 6 28 3 10 5 10 3

Minnesota 7 5 2 36 3 .. 4 4 ..

Mississippi 4 3 1 30 2 1 1 1 ..

Missouri 15 11 4 34 10 4 1 7 2

Nebraska 1 .. 1 25 .. 1 .. .. ..

New Hampshire 6 2 4 35 .. 6 .. 3 1

New Jersey 16 7 9 28 5 9 2 10 2

New York 94 65 29 26 20 54 20 50 5

North Carolina 38 26 12 27 2 24 12 19 1

Ohio 64 45 19 32 20 27 17 42 4

Pennsylvania 42 30 12 30 10 22 10 22 5

Rhode Island 6 4 2 42 5 1 .. 1 1

South Carolina 13 11 2 24 1 6 6 9 1

Tennessee 4 1 3 31 2 2 .. 2 ..

Texas 3 1 2 36 .. 3 .. 3 ..

Vermont 5 1 4 28 2 3 .. 4 1

Virginia 37 21 16 32 9 22 6 24 2

Washington Territory 1 .. 1 40 .. .. 1 1 ..

West Virginia 19 13 6 30 7 6 6 10 1

Wisconsin 7 6 1 32 3 3 1 5 2

Total 784 491 293 32 217 366 201 459 53