(3) Control of procedure, equipment and general personnel matters of district offices.

(4) Co-ordination of travel in field with travel ordered by division chiefs. (5) Consideration of all changes in regulations affecting field services.

(6) Periodical inspection of field offices.

(8g) Personnel Office.-In co-operation with administrative heads general supervision over:

(a) Selection and placement of employees.

(b) Maintenance of personnel records.

(c) Transfers, promotions, and separations of the commission's personnel. (d) Efficiency ratings and organization studies.

(8h) Office of Accounts and Purchases.-(1) Maintenance of a system of accounts of appropriations, including cost and property records, covering the general business operations of the main and field offices.

(2) Preparation of estimates, statements, statistical reports, and auditing of expenditures incurred under the several appropriations.

(3) Purchase and procurement of printing, supplies, and equipment, including maintenance of stock for issue to the main and field offices.

(4) Supervision of building matters with respect to quarters occupied by the commission at Washington, D. C.

(5) Operation of duplicating machines, supervision of motor transport service, and maintenance of supply service for the main and field offices.

(81) Miscellaneous Sections.-The Library, Minute Section, and Disbursing Office perform functions common to such sections.

(8j) Field Organization.-Under the supervision and direction of the Civil Service Commission are the secretaries of the thirteen civil service districts. Reporting directly to the district secretaries are over 4,000 local boards of examiners. These local boards conduct examinations and carry on the commission's business in every part of the country.

(8k) Civil Service Districts.-The cities in which district headquarters are located and the territory comprised by respective civil service districts are as follows:

First District.-Customhouse Building, Boston, Mass.; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Second District.-Customhouse Building, New York, N. Y.; New York, and in New Jersey the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, and Union.

Third District.-Post Office Building, Philadelphia, Pa.; Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the counties in New Jersey not included in the second district.

Fourth District.-1723 F St., N. W., Washington, D. C.; Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.

Fifth District. Post Office Building, Atlanta, Ga.; South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Sixth District.-Post Office Building, Cincinnati, Ohio; Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Seventh District.-Post Office Building, Chicago, Ill.; Wisconsin, Michigan, and in Illinois the counties of Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, De Kalb, Du Page,

with sole reference to merit and fitness, unless objection shall be made and sustained by the commission, to one or more of the persons certified, for any of the reasons stated in rule V, section 4. For the second vacancy he shall make selection from not more than the highest three remaining, who have not been within his reach for three separate vacancies, or against whom objection has not been made and sustained in the manner indicated. The third and any additional vacancies shall be filled in like manner. More than one selection may be made from the three names next in order for appointment, or from two names if the register contains only two, subject to the requirements of section 2 of this rule as to the apportionment. An appointing officer who passes over a veteran eligible and selects a nonveteran with the same or lower rating shall place in the records of the department his reasons for so doing. Any eligible who has been within reach for three separate vacancies in his turn may be subsequently selected, subject to the approval of the commission, from the certificate on which his name last appeared, if the condition of the register has not so changed as to place him in other respects beyond reach of certification.16

(c) The person selected for appointment shall be duly notified by the appointing officer, and upon accepting and reporting for duty shall receive from such officer a certificate of appointment. The first six months under this appointment shall be a probationary period; but the commission and the department concerned may, by regulation, fix the probationary period at one year for any specified positions. If and when, after full and fair trial, during this period, the conduct or capacity of the probationer be not satisfactory to the appointing officer, the probationer shall be so notified in writing, with a full statement of reasons, and this notice shall terminate his service. His retention in the service beyond the probationary period confirms his absolute appointment.17

A probationer separated from the service without delinquency or misconduct. may be restored to the register of eligibles, in the discretion of the commission, for the remainder of his period of eligibility.

(2) Certification for appointment in the departments or independent offices at Washington shall be so made as to maintain, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, the apportionment of appointments among the several states and territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population, but eligibles who have been granted military preference shall be certified without regard to apportionment: Provided, that appointments to the following positions shall not be so apportioned:

In all departments and offices: Apprentice, cabinetmaker, carpenter, electric lineman, electric wireman, engraver, gardener, helper (if approved by the commission), messenger boy, messenger girl, painter, plumber, skilled laborer (female), student, and telephone operator.

In the Government Printing Office, Mail Equipment Shops, local offices in the District of Columbia, field service of the military staff departments, and at Army headquarters: All positions.

16 13 Op. Atty. Gen. 516, Aug. 31, 1871; 20 Op. Atty. Gen. 64, April 8, 1891. 17 21 Op. Atty. Gen. 289, Jan. 9, 1896.

In the Bureau of Engraving and Printing: Plate printer and skilled helper. In the Office of the Auditor for the Post Office Department: Operative for the audit of accounts and vouchers of the Postal Service by means of laborsaving devices.18

(3) The commission may arrange the territory of the United States into appropriate districts for the purpose of certification to positions in parts of the service not subject to the apportionment, and certification to any such position may be confined to residents of the district in which such position is located.

Rule VIII. Temporary Appointment.—(1) Temporary appointment without examination and certification by the commission shall not be made to a competitive position in any case except when the public interest so requires, and then only upon the prior authorization of the commission; and any appointment so authorized shall continue only for such period as may be necessary to make appointment through certification of eligibles, and in no case without prior approval of the commission shall extend beyond 30 days from receipt by the appointing officer of the commission's certificate; and when a vacancy is to be filled by promotion or transfer for which the commission's certificate is not required and a temporary appointment is authorized by the commission under the provisions of this section pending the promotion or transfer, such temporary appointment shall in no case continue beyond the period of 30 days without prior approval of the commission.

(2) When there are no eligibles upon a register for any grade in which a vacancy exists and the public interest requires that it be filled before eligibles can be provided by the commission, then the commission may authorize temporary appointment without examination. Such appointment shall continue only for such period as may be necessary to make appointment through certification, and in no case without prior approval of the commission shall extend beyond 30 days from the receipt by the appointing officer of the commission's certification of eligibles.

(3) When there is at least one eligible and not more than two eligibles on a register for any grade in which a vacancy exists, the commission shall, upon requisition from the proper appointing officer, certify the name of the one eligible or the names of the two eligibles, which shall be considered by the appointing officer with a view to probational appointment; and if the appointing officer shall elect not to make probational appointment from such certificate of less than three names, then if temporary appointment is required it shall be made from such. certificate unless reasons satisfactory to the commission are given why such appointment should not be made. Such temporary appointment may continue until three eligibles are provided. If selection is not made from the certificate for either probational or temporary appointment under the provisions of this section, then temporary appointment, if required, may be made under the provisions of section 2 of this rule.

(4) When there is work of a temporary character, at the completion of which the services of an additional employee will not be required, a temporary appoint

18 20 Op. Atty. Gen. 274, Dec. 10, 1891; 27 Op. Atty. Gen. 546, Aug. 18, 1909; 28 Op. Atty. Gen. 78, Nov. 15, 1909; 28 Op. Atty. Gen. 348, June 17, 1910.

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ment may be made with the prior consent of the commission for a period not to exceed three months, and may with like consent of the commission be extended for a further period of three months. Such temporary appointment shall be made through certification from the commission's eligible registers unless the commission shall decide in any case that there are no available eligibles. Such temporary appointment shall not extend beyond six months unless there are no eligibles available for the additional period or under unusual circumstances which seem to the commission to justify an extension beyond six months; and in no case shall such temporary appointment extend beyond six months for any purpose other than to complete the job of work for which the person was originally employed. The commission may restrict certification for temporary appointment to such eligibles as by reason of residence or other conditions are immediately available. (5) The acceptance by an eligible of a temporary appointment shall not affect his standing on any register for permanent employment, and experience gained as a temporary appointee shall in no way vary the order of certification for permanent appointment. A temporary appointment may be made permanent when the temporary appointee is within reach for permanent appointment at the time of his temporary appointment or in case he is so within reach during his temporary service. In such case the probational appointment may date from the time when he became within reach for probational appointment. A person who has been temporarily employed under the provisions of one section of this rule. shall not for that reason be ineligible for employment under any other section. Any appointment under sections 1, 2, or 3 of this rule shall be promptly reported by letter to the commission, as made, with a statement of the action taken for making permanent appointment. The commission is authorized to inspect the records of any department or office to aid it in observing and enforcing the operation of the provisions of this rule and reporting thereon to the President.

Rule IX. Reinstatement.—(1) A person separated without delinquency or misconduct from a competitive position or from a position which he entered by transfer or promotion from a competitive position or to accept another appointment in the executive civil service may be reinstated upon certificate of the commission subject to the following limitations:

(a) Unless otherwise provided hereinafter a person may be reinstated only to the department or independent government establishment from which separated and upon requisition made within one year from the date of his separation. When the commission and the appointing officer are in agreement that the public interest requires such unusual action, the commission may allow reinstatement in any part of the classified service, and it may also authorize waiver of the one-year limit herein prescribed under the following time limitations: Two years where service has been two years but less than three years; three years where service has been three years but less than four years; four years where service has been four years but less than five years; and five years where service has been five years or more.

(b) A person honorably released from the active military or naval service of the United States after service in the Civil War, or the War with Spain, or the War with Germany, or his widow, or an army nurse of any of said wars may be

reinstated within five years from the date of separation. When the commission and the appointing officer are in agreement that the public interest requires such action reinstatement may be made without time limit.

(c) A former classified employee retired upon annuity under the Act of May 22, 1920, by reason of total disability, who is eligible for reinstatement in his former department or office by reason of recovery and termination of annuity, shall also be eligible for reinstatement to an appropriate position in any part of the service, subject to the conditions and limitations of the civil service rules.

(d) No person in any of the foregoing groups may be reinstated to a position requiring an examination different from that required in the position from which he was separated without passing an appropriate examination.1 19

Rule X. Transfer.-Transfers shall be governed as follows:

(1) No transfer shall be made to a competitive position above the lowest class in any grade unless the appointing officer shall certify that the position cannot be adequately filled by promotion; but the commission may, with the approval of the head of any department, adopt regulations applicable to the service in or under such department, declaring what class shall be regarded as the lowest in any grade.

(2) No person appointed without competitive examination to a position classified at the time of such appointment, and no person serving in an unclassified position or in a position named in Schedule A or Schedule B, not appointed by competitive examination, or by transfer or promotion from a competitive position, shall be transferred to a competitive position, except as hereinafter provided in this rule and in Schedule A.

(3) Any person may be retransferred to a position in which he was formerly employed or to any position to which transfer could be made therefrom if since his transfer he has served continuously and satisfactorily under any of the following conditions:

(1) In the executive or judicial civil service of the United States or of its insular possessions.

(2) In the legislative service if he entered the classified service upon competitive examination and the legislative service by transfer therefrom.

(3) In the service of a state, county, municipality, or foreign government in a position in which he has acquired valuable training and experience.

Such retransfer may be made without compliance with clauses (b), (c), (d), and (e) of section 8 of this rule.

(4) Any person who has served for at least two years in the office of the President of the United States may be transferred to a competitive classified position upon such tests of fitness as the commission may deem proper.

(5) In the apportioned service transfers within the same department or office may be made without certificate of the commission, subject to the rules and regulations regarding promotion, unless different tests are prescribed for original entrance to the position to which transfer is proposed.

19 24 Op. Atty. Gen. 103, Aug. 27, 1902; 19 Op. Atty. Gen. 416, Oct. 26, 1889; 25 Op. Atty. Gen. 618, June 13, 1906.