ations
to be tested in any systematic manner or of securing for the public
service the advantages of competition upon any extensive plan, I
recommended in my annual message of December, 1877, the making of an
appropriation for the resumption of the work of the Commission.

In the meantime, however, competitive examinations, under many
embarrassments, have been conducted within limited spheres in
the Executive Departments in Washington and in a number of the
custom-houses and post-offices of the principal cities of the country,
with a view to further test their effects, and in every instance they
have been found to be as salutary as they are stated to have been
under the Administration of my predecessor. I think the economy,
purity, and efficiency of the public service would be greatly promoted
by their systematic introduction, wherever practicable, throughout the
entire civil service of the Government, together with ample provision
for their general supervision in order to secure consistency and
uniform justice.

Reports from the Secretary of the Interior, from the
Postmaster-General, from the postmaster in the city of New York, where
such examinations have been some time on trial, and also from the
collector of the port, the naval officer, and the surveyor in that
city, and from the postmasters and collectors in several of the other
large cities, show that the competitive system, where applied, has in
various ways contributed to improve the public service.

The reports show that the results have been salutary in a marked
degree, and that the general application of similar rules can not fail
to be of decided benefit to the service.

The reports of the Government officers, in the city of New York
especially, bear decided testimony to the utility of open competitive
examinations in their respective offices, showing that--

These examinations and the excellent qualifications of
those admitted to the service through them have had a marked
incidental effect upon the persons previously in the service,
and particularly upon those aspiring to promotion. There has
been on the part of these latter an increased interest in the
work and a desire to extend acquaintance with it beyond the
particular desk occupied, and thus the morale of the entire
force has been raised. * * * The examinations have been
attended by many citizens, who have had an opportunity to
thoroughly investigate the scope and character o