Executive Order 119

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Executive Order 119 (1899)
by President of the United States

Amending Civil Service Rules610412

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See the Notes section for a list of Executive Orders affected by or related to the issuance of this Executive Order.

Signed by President William McKinley Monday, May 29, 1899

610412Executive Order 119 — Amending Civil Service Rules6104121899President of the United States

The civil-service rules are hereby amended as follows:

Rule II.

Rule II, section 8, is hereby amended to read as follows:

No removal shall be made from the competitive classified service except for just cause and for reasons given in writing; and the person sought to be removed shall have notice and be furnished a copy of such reasons, and be allowed a reasonable time for personally answering the same in writing. Copy of such reasons, notice, and answer, and of the order of removal shall be made a part of the records of the proper department or office; and the reasons for any change in rank or compensation within the competitive classified service shall also be made a part of the records of the proper department or office.

Rule III.

Rule III, section 8, is hereby amended to read as follows:

The following-mentioned positions or employees shall not be subject to any of the provisions of these rules except sections 1, 2, and 3 of Rule II:
(a) Any position filled by a person whose place of private business is conveniently located for his performance of the duties of said position, or any position filled by a person remunerated in one sum both for services rendered therein and for necessary rent, fuel, and lights furnished for the performance of the duties thereof: Provided, That in either case the performance of the duties of said position requires only a portion of the time and attention of the occupant, paying him a compensation not exceeding, for his personal salary only, $300 per annum, and permitting of his pursuing other regular business or occupation.

(b) Any person in the Military or Naval Service of the United States who is detailed for the performance of civil duties.

(c) Any person employed in a foreign country under the State Department, or who is temporarily employed in a confidential capacity in a foreign country under any Executive Department or other office.

(d) Any position the duties of which are of a quasi-military or quasi-naval character, and for the performance of which duties a person is enlisted for a term of years, or positions in the Revenue-Cutter Service where the persons enlist for the season of navigation only.

(e) Any local physician employed temporarily as acting assistant surgeon in the Marine-Hospital Service.

(f) Any person employed in the Marine-Hospital Service as quarantine attendant at the Gulf, South Atlantic, Tortugas, Reedy Island, and Angel Island quarantines; and any person temporarily employed as quarantine attendant on quarantine vessels or in camps or stations established for quarantine purposes during epidemics of contagious diseases in the United States or beyond the seas.

(g) Any person in the Quartermaster's Department at large of the United States Army employed as train master, chief packer, foreman packer, pack master, master baler, foreman of laborers, superintendent of stables, or forage master. Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the President.

(h) Any person in the Medical Department at large of the United States Army employed as chief packer, packer, or assistant packer. Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the President.

(i) Any person in the Ordnance Department at large of the United States Army employed as foreman, assistant foreman, forage master, weigher, skilled laborer, guard, or on piecework. Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the President.

(j) Any person in the Engineer Department at large of the United States Army employed as subinspector, overseer, suboverseer, superintendent, master lock manager, deputy lock manager, assistant superintendent of canal, chief deputy inspector, deputy inspector, rodman, stadiaman, chainman, foreman, timekeeper, lock master, assistant lock master, custodian, storekeeper, fort keeper, torpedo keeper, assistant torpedo keeper, light keeper, board master, subforeman, master laborer, gauge reader, steward, dam tender, assistant dam tender, helper, carpenter's helper, machinist's helper, quarry master, blacksmith's helper, climber, barge master, recorder of vessels, track man, gardener, assistant gardener, or weigher. Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the President.

(k) Any person in the national military parks at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Vicksburg, and Antietam, employed as commissioner, assistant in historical work, agent for purchases of land, historian, secretary, rodman, chainman, assistant superintendent, chief guardian, guardian, guard, inspector, carpenter, steam engineer, or painter. Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the President.

(l) Any person employed as office or field deputy in the office of a United States marshal.

(m) All persons at navy-yards, naval stations, and at private shipbuilding and manufacturing establishments where work is done by contract for the Navy Department, employed as special mechanics and civilian assistant inspectors of work and materials (including ordnance, armor, armor plate, marine engines, hulls, buildings, dredging, etc.). Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter on tests of fitness prescribed in paragraphs 74 to 83, inclusive, of Navy-Yard Order No. 23, revised. Pending the result of such examinations the Secretary of the Navy may appoint to the above positions qualified persons for a period not to exceed thirty days.

(n) All physicians employed as pension-examining surgeons, whether organized in boards or working individually under the direction of the Commissioner of Pensions. This paragraph shall not include medical examiners in the Pension Office.

(o) Indians employed in the Indian service at large, except those employed as superintendents, teachers, teachers of industries, kindergartners, and physicians.

(p) Temporary clerks employed in United States local land offices to reduce testimony to writing in contest cases, not paid from Government funds.

(q) Temporary clerks employed in the offices of surveyors-general, and paid from the funds deposited by individuals for surveying public lands.

Rule IV.

Rule IV, section 3, is hereby amended by adding an additional exception clause as follows:

(c) To test the fitness of a person whom the head of an Executive Department or the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution shall nominate for appointment to a position in the classified service. The appointing officer in making such nomination shall certify that, in his opinion, the position to be filled requires such peculiar qualifications in respect to knowledge and ability, or such scientific or special attainments wholly or in part professional or technical as are not ordinarily acquired in the executive service of the United States, and for the reasons set forth the best interests of the public service require that an examination should be waived in whole or in part. If the President of the United States shall approve such nomination, the Civil Service Commission shall thereupon grant a certificate of qualification, upon such evidence as may be satisfactory to it, that the person so nominated is eligible for and may be appointed to such position by reason of his ascertained qualifications, and by reason of his age, health, and moral character: Provided, That a person so nominated and appointed shall not be transferred to any other position in the classified service except to one that may be filled under the provisions of this clause, and shall not be assigned to any other duties than those pertaining to the particular position to which thus appointed.

Rule VI.

Rule VI is hereby amended to read as follows:

The following-named employees or positions which have been classified under the civil-service act shall be excepted from the requirements of examination or registration, unless as otherwise herein specifically stated:

EXECUTIVE OFFICE.

Not exceeding two private secretaries or confidential clerks to the President.

ALL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.
Not exceeding two private secretaries or confidential clerks to the head of each of the eight Executive Departments.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to each of the assistant heads of the eight Executive Departments.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to each of the following heads of bureaus appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate in the eight Executive Departments: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the Treasurer of the United States, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Comptroller of the Treasury, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey; in the War Department, the Major-General Commanding the Army, the Adjutant-General, the Inspector-General, the Judge-Advocate-General, the Quartermaster-General, the Commissary-General of Subsistence, the Surgeon-General, the Paymaster-General, the Chief of Engineers, the Chief of Ordnance, the Chief Signal Officer, the Chief of the Record and Pension Office, and the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds; and in the Department of the Interior, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Commissioner of Patents, the Commissioner of Education, the Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department, the Director of the Geological Survey, and the Commissioner of Pensions.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to each of the heads of bureaus appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate in the eight Executive Departments not enumerated in paragraph 4 of this rule, if authorized by law.
All persons appointed by the President without confirmation by the Senate.
Attorneys, assistant attorneys, and special assistant attorneys.

DEPARTMENTS OR OFFICES NOT IN EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to the Commissioner of Labor.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to the Secretary the Smithsonian Institution.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to each of the Interstate Commerce Commissioners.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT.
All shipping commissioners.
Not exceeding one cashier in each customs district, if authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Not exceeding one chief or principal deputy or assistant collector at each customs port; and not exceeding one principal deputy collector of customs at each subport or station.
Not exceeding one deputy naval officer at each customs port where a naval officer is authorized by law.
Not exceeding one deputy surveyor of customs at each customs port where a surveyor is authorized by law.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk, if authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury, to the collector of each customs district where the receipts for the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $500,000.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk, if authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury, to each of the appraisers at the ports of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, respectively.
Not exceeding one counsel before the Board of United States General Appraisers.
Not exceeding one paymaster in the New York customs district.
All positions in Alaska in the customs and internal-revenue services.
All deputy collectors of internal revenue who are borne on the rolls as such and the allowance for whose salaries is approved by the Secretary of the Treasury: Provided, That no position designated as a clerkship under a collector of internal revenue, appointment to which is made by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be discontinued for the purpose of substituting a deputy collectorship therefor, or for any purpose other than a bona fide reduction of force, and that before such reduction shall be made the reasons therefor shall be given in writing by the collector of the district and shall be approved by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Secretary of the Treasury.
Storekeepers and gaugers whose compensation does not exceed $3 per day when actually employed and whose aggregate compensation shall not exceed $500 per annum.
Officer in charge of the Bureau of Statistics.
Not exceeding one chief clerk in each mint or assay office, who is authorized by law to act for the superintendent or assayer in charge during his absence or disability.
One private secretary or confidential clerk to the superintendent, one cashier, one deposit weigh clerk, one assistant coiner, one assistant melter and refiner, and one assistant assayer in each mint or assay office.
Provided, That appointments to the positions named in this rule in clauses 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, and 23 shall be subject to an examination, to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, equivalent to the examination held by the Commission for positions of like grade. Such examinations shall be conducted by the Commission in accordance with its regulations: Provided, That examinations may be waived by the Secretary of the Treasury for appointments in the Alaska customs service and internal-revenue service in Alaska.

WAR DEPARTMENT.
Not exceeding one clerk to each army paymaster in actual service.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.
Wardens, chaplains, and physicians in the United States penitentiaries or prisons.
Not to exceed one private secretary or confidential clerk to each United States district attorney.
Examiners.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.
The Assistant Attorney-General for the Post-Office Department.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to the Assistant Attorney-General.
Not exceeding one private secretary or confidential clerk to the postmaster, if authorized by the Postmaster-General, at each post-office where the receipts of the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $450,000.
Not exceeding one auditor at the post-office in New York City.
Not exceeding one finance clerk, if authorized by law and regularly and actually assigned to act as auditor, at each post-office where the receipts for the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $350,000.
Not exceeding one cashier or finance clerk at each first-class post-office.
Not exceeding one cashier and one finance clerk at each post-office where the receipts for the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $500,000.
Not exceeding one cashier and two finance clerks at each post-office where the receipts for the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $1,000,000.
Not exceeding one cashier and three finance clerks at each post-office where the receipts for the last preceding fiscal year amounted to as much as $2,000,000.
Not exceeding one clerk, who shall be a regular physician, at each first-class post-office, when authorized by the Postmaster-General, to examine applications for sick leave, and also to act as a general utility clerk.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
The superintendent of the Hot Springs Reservation.
One special land inspector.
Inspectors of coal mines in the Territories.
Special agents employed, as necessity for their employment may arise, for the purpose of protecting public lands.
The inspectors of surveyors-general and district land offices.
Superintendents of irrigation in the Indian Service.
Superintendents of logging in the Indian Service.
Five special Indian agents, as authorized by law.
Special agents for the allotment of land in severalty to the Indians, as the necessity for their employment may arise.
Special commissioners to negotiate with Indians, as the necessity for their employment may arise.
Engineers to make surveys of reservation boundary lines and surveys at Indian agencies, as the necessity for their employment may arise.
Examiners of Indian timber lands, as the necessity for their employment may arise.
One financial clerk at each Indian agency to act as agent during the absence or disability of the agent.
All positions in the Alaska school service.
Not exceeding five special pension examiners to investigate fraudulent and other pension claims of a criminal nature.
One clerk at each pension agency to act for the agent during his absence or disability.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Agents and experts who are temporarily appointed and employed in making investigations and furnishing information for the Department as provided by law or under the direction of the head of the Department, which agents and experts shall be borne on the rolls as such and be actually engaged in the duties for which they are appointed, and whose payment has been authorized by law.
One statistical agent in each State and Territory where authorized by law.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
The Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the United States National Museum.

Rule VII.

Rule VII, section 3, is hereby amended by inserting after the word "rebellion" the words "or the Spanish-American war," so that as amended the proviso will read:

Provided, That persons who served in the military or naval service of the United States in the late war of the rebellion or the Spanish-American war and were honorably discharged therefrom, and persons who have been separated from such positions above mentioned through no delinquency or misconduct, shall be placed at the head of the proper register in the order of their fulfillment of said requirements.

Section 4 of Rule VII ix hereby amended by inserting the following as the first proviso thereof:

Provided, That this term may be extended, in the discretion of the Commission, for a period of one year from the date of the expiration of the first year's eligibility upon such conditions as the Commission may prescribe, so that as amended the section will read as follows:

The term of eligibility shall be one year from the date on which the name of the eligible is entered on the register: Provided, That this term may be extended, in the discretion of the Commission, for a further period of one year from the date of the expiration of the first year's eligibility, upon such conditions as the Commission may prescribe: And provided further, That in case a person whose name is upon any register shall be mustered into the military or naval service of the United States at a time when the United States may be engaged in war, the period of eligibility of such person shall, under such conditions as the Civil Service Commission may prescribe, be considered as suspended during the time such eligible may be serving in the Army or Navy of the United States.

Rule VIII.

Rule VIII, section 5, is hereby amended to read as follows:

Certifications for appointment of persons for service in, or for direct detail from, any department or office in Washington, D. C., shall be so made as to maintain, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, the apportionment of such appointments among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population: Provided, That appointments to the following-named positions shall not be so apportioned, viz: Those of printer's assistant, skilled helper, and operative in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; those of plate printer and engraver; those in the post quartermaster's office, the pension agency, and other local offices in the District of Columbia; those of page, messenger boy, apprentice, and student, and those named in the next succeeding section of this rule, appointments to which shall be apportioned as therein provided: And provided further, That a person who has been or may be separated from a classified position by reason of a necessary reduction of force, or by reason of an appointment to a position not in the classified service, may be reinstated under the provisions of Rule IX without filing new evidence of citizenship, and said appointment shall be charged to the apportionment of the State in which citizenship was claimed before said separation, unless a new citizenship is claimed, in which case the citizenship shall be proved in the manner required for original appointment.

Rule VIII is hereby further amended by inserting after section 5 the following as section 6, in lieu of the existing provision on the subject, and by renumbering accordingly the section now number 6 and succeeding sections:

Certifications for appointments to clerical positions and to positions in any of the recognized trades in the Government Printing Office shall be so made as to maintain, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, the apportionment of such appointments among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population according to the number of employees provided by law for that office who are affected by the provisions of this section.

Rule VIII is further amended by adding a new section at the end, to be numbered —, as follows:

—. All persons serving under temporary appointments at the date of the approval of this section may be permanently appointed, in the discretion of the proper appointing officer; and the special rule approved January 20, 1899, relative to temporary appointments in the Navy Department is hereby rescinded.

Rule IX.

Rule IX is hereby amended by adding a third proviso and by amending the second proviso, so that it will read as follows:

And provided further, That, subject to the other conditions of these rules, any person who has served in the military or naval service of the United States in the late war of the rebellion or in the Spanish-American war and was honorably discharged therefrom, or the widow of any such person, or an army nurse of either of said wars, and any person who has been separated from the service by reason of a reduction of force specifically required by law, may be reinstated without regard to the length of time he or she has been separated from the service: And provided further, That any person dismissed from the service upon charges of delinquency or misconduct may be reinstated, subject to the other conditions of these rules, without regard to the one-year time limit of this rule, upon the certificate of the proper appointing officer that he has thoroughly investigated the case and that the charges upon which the dismissal was based were not true.

Rule X.

Rule X, section 2, is hereby amended by striking out the words "or if in said position there is not required, in the judgment of the Commission, the performance of the same class of work, or the practice of the same mechanical trade performed or practiced in the position from which transfer is proposed," and inserting in place of the words so stricken out the following: "but the provisions in relation to apportionment shall be waived upon the certificate of the appointing officer that the transfer is required in the interests of good administration;" so that as amended the clause will read:

A person who has received absolute appointment may be transferred, without examination, from any department, office, or branch of the service, upon requisition and consent of the proper officers and the certificate of the Commission: Provided, That no transfer shall be made of a person to a position within the same department or office and the same branch of the service, or to a position in another department, office, or branch of the service, if from original entrance to such position said person is barred by the age limitations prescribed therefor, or by the provisions regulating apportionment; but the provisions in relation to apportionment shall be waived upon the certificate of the appointing officer that the transfer is required in the interests of good administration: And provided further, That transfer shall not be made without examination, provided by the Commission, to a position for original entrance to which, in the judgment of the Commission, there is required by these rules an examination involving essential tests different from or higher than those involved in the examination required for original entrance to the position from which transfer is proposed; but a person employed in any grade shall not because of such employment be barred from the open competitive examination provided for original entrance to any other grade.

The civil-service rules are further amended by adding an additional rule to be designated as Rule XIII.

Rule XIII.

The officers and employees in all branches of the classified service of the United States, for the purposes of these rules, shall be arranged in the following classes unless otherwise provided by law:

Class A.—All persons receiving an annual salary of less than $720, or a compensation at the rate of less than $720 per annum.

Class B.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $720 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $720 or more, but less than $840 per annum.

Class C.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $840 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $840 or more, but less than $900 per annum.

Class D.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $900 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $900 or more, but less than $1,000 per annum.

Class E.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,000 or more, but less than $1,200 per annum.

Class 1.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,200 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,200 or more, but less than $1,400 per annum.

Class 2.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,400 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,400 or more, but less than $1,600 per annum.

Class 3.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,600 or more, or a competition at the rate of $1,600 or more, but less than $1,800 per annum.

Class 4.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,800 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,800 or more, but less than $2,000 per annum.

Class 5.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,000 or more, but less than $'2,500 per annum.

Class 6.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,500 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,500 or more per annum.

Provided, That this classification shall not include persons appointed to an office by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, nor persons employed as mere laborers or workmen; but all positions whose occupants are designated as laborer or workmen and who were prior to May 6, 1896, and on June 10, 1896, regularly assigned to work of the same grade as that performed by classified employees shall be included within this classification. Hereafter no person who is appointed as a laborer or workmen without examination under the civil-service rules shall be assigned to work of the same grade as that performed by classified employees.

The foregoing pages constitute the amendments to United States civil-service rules which change or modify the following rules:

Rule II, section 8; Rule III, section 8, clauses (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), (p), and (q); Rule IV, section 3, clause (c); Rule VI, No. 1 to No. 60, both inclusive; Rule VII, sections 3 and 4; Rule VIII, sections 5 and 6, and a new section at the end; Rule IX; Rule X, section 2; and Rule XIII, now as a rule, but which existed before as an order under date of June 10, 1896.