Chapter 65

3. Of the three names certified to the general superintendent one shall be selected and designated for appointment, and more than one may be if there be more than one vacancy existing at the time.

4. Each person designated for appointment shall be notified, and upon reporting to the proper officer shall be appointed for a probational period of six months, at the end of which period, if his conduct and capacity be satisfactory, he shall be absolutely appointed; but if his conduct and capacity be not satisfactory he shall be so notified, and such notice shall be his discharge from the service.

5. The general superintendent, with the approval of the Postmaster-General, shall prescribe regulations under which each probationer shall be observed and tested and a record kept of his conduct and capacity, and such record shall determine his fitness for the service and whether he shall be dropped during or at the end of probation or be absolutely appointed.

6. There may be certified and appointed in each State and Territory, in the manner provided for in this rule, such number of substitute clerks, not exceeding the ratio of one substitute to twenty regular clerks, in such State or Territory as the Post-master-General may authorize, and any vacancies occurring in class 1 in any State or Territory in which substitutes have been appointed shall be filled by the appointment thereto of those substitutes in the order of their appointment as substitutes without further certification. The time during which any substitute is actually employed in the service shall be counted as a part of his probation.

RAILWAY MAIL RULE V.

1. Transfers may be made as follows:

(_a_) From the classified railway mail service to any classified post-office, and from any classified post-office to the classified railway mail service, upon requisition of the Postmaster-General.

(_b_) From the classified railway mail service to the Post-Office Department, and from the Post-Office Department to the classified railway mail service, upon requisition of the Postmaster-General.

2. No person shall be transferred as herein authorized until the Commission shall have certified to the Postmaster-General that the person whom it is proposed to transfer has passed an examination to test fitness for the place to which he is to be transferred, and that such person has been at least six months next preceding the date of the certificate in the classified railway mail service or in the classified service of the post-office or Department from which the transfer is to be made: _Provided_, That no employee shall be transferred to any grade which he could not enter by original appointment by reason of any age limitation prescribed by the civil-service rules.

RAILWAY MAIL RULE VI.

1. Upon requisition of the Postmaster-General the Commission shall certify for reinstatement in a grade or class no higher than that in which he was formerly employed any person who within one year next preceding the date of the requisition has, through no delinquency or misconduct, been separated from the classified railway mail service.

RAILWAY MAIL RULE VII.

1. The general superintendent of the railway mail service shall report to the Commission--

(_a_) Every probational (whether substitute or regular) and every absolute appointment in the railway mail service in each State or Territory; every appointment under any exception to examination authorized by Railway Mail Rule II, clause 5; every reappointment under Railway Mail Rule VI, and every appointment of a substitute to a regular place.

(_b_) Every refusal to make an absolute appointment and the reason therefor, and every refusal or neglect to accept an appointment in the classified railway mail service.

(_c_) Every transfer into the classified railway mail service.

(_d_) Every separation from the classified railway mail service and the cause of such separation.

(_e_) Every promotion or degradation in the classified railway mail service, if such promotion or degradation be from one class to another class.

(_f_) Once in every six months, namely, on the 30th of June and the 31st of December of each year, the whole number of employees in each railway mail division, arranged by States and classes, showing the number of substitutes and the number of regular employees in each class in each State or Territory.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 4, 1889_.

The above rules are hereby approved, to take effect March 15, 1889: _Provided_, That such rules shall become operative and take effect in any State or Territory as soon as an eligible register for such State or Territory shall be prepared, if it shall be prior to the date above fixed.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, _Washington, D.C., February 8, 1889_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: The Commission recommends that Special Departmental Rule No. 1 be amended by adding to the exceptions from examination therein declared the following:

"11. In the Department of Justice: Assistant attorneys.

"12. In the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Experiment Stations: Private secretary to the Director."

Very respectfully,

CHAS LYMAN, _United States Civil Service Commissioner._

Approved, February 11, 1889.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, _Washington, D.C., February 9, 1889_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: This Commission has the honor to recommend that the order of the President fixing the places to which appointments may be made upon noncompetitive examination under General Rule III, section 2, clause (_f_), may be amended by including among such places the following:

"In the Post-Office Department: Captain of the watch."

This recommendation is based upon the letter of the Postmaster-General dated December 19, 1888, in which he says:

"I would request that places in the Post-Office Department subject to noncompetitive examination be increased by including the position of captain of the watch, as the duties of the position are of such a nature that the head of the Department should be permitted to recommend for examination such person as would possess such other qualifications in addition to the merely clerical ones as would commend him to the head of the Department to fill satisfactorily such position."

Very respectfully,

CHAS LYMAN, _United States Civil Service Commissioner._

Approved, February 11, 1889.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, _Washington, D.C., February 9, 1889_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: This Commission has the honor to recommend that the order heretofore approved by you authorizing noncompetitive examination under General Rule III, section 2, clause (_e_), to test fitness for certain designated places in the classified departmental service, may be amended by the revocation of so much of the order above referred to as provides for the appointment upon noncompetitive examination of "inspector of electric lights" in the office of the Secretary in the Treasury Department.

Very respectfully,

CHAS. LYMAN, _United States Civil Service Commissioner_.

Approved, February 11, 1889.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1889_.

Whereas by an act of Congress entitled "An act to enable the President to protect the interests of the United States in Panama," approved February 25, 1889, it was enacted as follows:

That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $250,000 to enable the President to protect the interests of the United States and to provide for the security of persons and property of citizens of the United States at the Isthmus of Panama in such manner as he may deem expedient.

And whereas satisfactory information has been received by me that a number of citizens of the United States have been thrown out of employment and left destitute in the Republic of Colombia by the stoppage of work on the Panama Canal:

_It is therefore ordered_, That so much as is necessary of the fund appropriated by the said act be expended, under the direction and control of the Secretary of State, in furnishing transportation to the United States to any citizen or citizens of the United States who may be found destitute within the National Department of Panama, in the Republic of Colombia.

GROVER CLEVELAND.