REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF APPOINTMENT DIVISION. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, APPOINTMENT DIVISION, Washington, September 1, 1910. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my annual report as Chief of the Appointment Division for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. INTRODUCTION. The affairs of the Appointment Division are up to date and in a satisfactory condition, although the past year has been the most trying period of its existence. The investigation into the efficiency of the personnel of the Department, and the resulting reorganization of the forces of the various bureaus, accomplished during the year, was an extraordinary task and one which is seldom attempted by any department of the Government. In addition, an unusual amount of work and responsibility were attached to the preparation of the material for the biennial Official Register, the preparatory and permanent work in connection with the Thirteenth Decennial Census, the compilation of elaborate statistics for the use of Congress and for other purposes, and the very material increase in the correspondence, recording, and filing incident to the items just mentioned. While this unusually large amount of extra work required that the regular force of the Division be augmented during certain periods of the year, the cost to the Government for the maintenance of personal service is now no greater than it was a year ago. Improved methods of handling the public business intrusted to the Division have been introduced wherever practicable, and this is especially true with respect to the recording and filing system and to the manner of issuing appointments, in which quite a radical change has been. made. The working force has reached a high standard of efficiency, and through the discipline maintained and the harmonious spirit which prevails among the employees they are able to work as a unit, thus adding to the efficiency of the Division as a whole. STATISTICS OF THE PERSONNEL. The accompanying table shows by bureaus the number of positions in the service of the Department on July 1, 1910, and the increase or decrease in each bureau as compared with July 1, 1909. The figures include the positions held by post-light keepers and seamen on the vessels in the Light-House Service, appointment to which is not made by the Secretary, but do not include those held by enlisted men on vessels in the Coast and Geodetic Survey nor those held by temporary employees of any kind paid from lump appropriations, except in the Light-House Service. a Does not include 2 temporary clerks. Does not include 2 temporary special agents. Employees engaged in work in the field for a part of each year with headquarters in Washington are treated as within the District of Columbia. 4 Does not include 1 temporary expert and 2 temporary clerks. Includes 1,485 post-light keepers and 1,246 members of crews of vessels. Does not include the following employees, appointed for all or a part of the Thirteenth Decennial Census period, who were on duty at the close of June 30, 1910: 328 supervisors, 990 special agents, 1,842 clerks, 23 subclerks, 313 temporary employees limited to sixty days; total, 3,496. Also approximately 69,000 enumerators, who have completed their work, are not shown. Does not include 5 members of the visiting committee and 1 temporary clerk. It will be observed that there is a net increase of 327 in the total number of positions as compared with July 1, 1909. The increase is due to the authorization of 71 (net) new statutory positions and 256 positions created under lump appropriations, as follows: On July 1, 1909, 40 employees of the Department of Justice were transferred to the Division of Naturalization in the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. This force has increased during the year by 15 positions, which increase is shown in the table of positions as a part of the increase in the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. The following presidential positions have been created during the year: Assistant Director of the Thirteenth Decennial Census. Salary, $5,000 per annum. (Act approved July 2, 1909.) Commissioner of immigration at the port of Seattle, Wash. Salary, $4,000 per annum. (Act of Aug. 18, 1894, 28 Stat., 391.) Commissioner of Light-Houses. Salary, $5,000 per annum. (Act approved June 17, 1910.) Deputy Commissioner of Light-Houses. Salary, $4,000 per annum. (Act approved June 17, 1910.) Chief constructing engineer, Bureau of Light-Houses. annum. Salary, $4,000 per Not yet filled. (Act approved June 17, 1910.) Superintendent of naval construction, Bureau of Light-Houses. Salary, $3,000 per annum. Not yet filled. (Act approved June 17, 1910.) The following table is a summary of the changes in the personnel of the Department during the fiscal year: Includes appointments under executive orders, reinstatements, transfers within the Department, and transfers to the Department from other departments or independent offices. Separations made by removal without prejudice or on charges, resignation, death, discontinuance of probationary appointees, by transfer within the Department, or by transfer from the Department to other departments or independent offices. Includes promotions, reductions, changes of appropriation, designation, name, or station, and cancellations of appointment certificates, etc. Includes temporary mechanics, skilled tradesmen, and laborers employed under the authority of Schedule A, Subdivision I, section 12, of the civil-service rules. Includes special agents and 2,453 appointments of clerks, etc., selected from the Thirteenth Census Register and under the fourth proviso of section 7 of the Thirteenth Census act. Supervisors of the census are not included. Includes hands employed in rodding, chaining, recording, heliotroping, etc., in the field parties of the Survey. Includes temporary field appointments under the Bureau. ▲ Includes a number of emergency appointments of guards, interpreters, stenographers, etc. PROMOTIONS. Promotion of employees in the government service constitutes one of the most difficult questions presented in the actual every-day administration of the civil-service rules, although practically there is but little restriction by the rules on this subject. There are certain prohibitions against promotion without examination to a grade for which the entrance tests are higher or essentially different, but for the |