Items of Interest September 19, 1903 Issue

Items of Interest

Recent amendments to the United States civil service rules are very comprehensive. Regarding the extent of classification the rules say: "The classified service shall include all officers and employees in the executive civil service of the United States, heretofore or hereafter appointed or employed, in positions now existing or here after to be created, of whatever function or designation, whether compensated by a fixed salary or otherwise, except persons employed merely as laborers, and persons whose appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate."

In order to remove the laborers as much as possible from the influence of politics it has been proposed to register them and by ascertaining the moral and physical status of the applicants and the nature of their previous experience secure an increase in the efficiency of the working forces by appointing those best qualified.

The Britannic of the White Star line is to be broken up. She was launched in 1874 and was the first to cross the Atlantic in less than eight days. She still has her original engines and boilers, has made the passage more than five hundred times without missing a day from either accident or breakdown, has traveled over 1,800,000 miles, enough to encircle the globe over seventy times, has carried without accident over two hundred thousand passengers, and has remained continuously at work except for two or three weeks for annual repairs.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Though One Rose from the Dead