The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica : A handbook containing…

which administration and legislation are chiefly directed, should be carefully examined. There the reader will find lists of articles dealing with schools and institutions; the defective classes; crime and alcohol; revenue and finance; ballot representation and suffrage; trusts, competition, co-operation and socialism; labour and immigration; legislation and the administration of justice; foreign relations and the expansion of the United States. [Sidenote: International Comparisons] The present chapter, in order that repetition may be avoided, deals only with the aspects of federal, state and municipal government which are most closely related to civil service organization. The article CIVIL SERVICE (Vol. 6, p. 412) devotes nearly as much space to the British as to the American service, and its information as to British organization, examinations, salaries and pensions will greatly interest those to whom the details needed for an international comparison have not been elsewhere accessible. Until 1855 all British appointments were by nomination; and although the service was quite free from the abominable system of secretly taxing salaries in order to support party funds, that was about all that can be said for it. There was hardly a pretense of selection for merit. Influential families and the relatives and personal friends of ministers of state and of ladies whom kings delighted to honor monopolized the appointments. Many posts were pure sinecures, and in many others the work was done by a substitute to whom the nominee paid less than half the salary or fees he received. Under George III the system was at its worst, and the discontent that was aroused in the American colonies by the maladministration of colonial affairs was “one of the efficient causes of the American revolution.” The reforms begun in 1855 had by 1870 been so successful that since then open competition has been the general rule; and where nomination is still required, as in the Foreign Office and the Education Department, searching examinations must be passed. Women are employed in the post-office, board of agriculture, customs, India office, department of agriculture, local government board and home office (factory inspectors, etc.). The age for compulsory retirement is 65, but the commissioners may prolong this five years in exceptional cases. Subjects of examinations, salaries and pensions are described in the article. Since 1859 there has been a superannuation pension of ¹⁰⁄₆₀ of the annual salary and emoluments to any one serving 10 years and less than 11, and an additional sixtieth for each year’s service more than ten. [Sidenote: Civil Service in the United States] In the same article there is an historical treatment of civil service in the United States and of its gradual reform and extension since 1883. This may well be supplemented by a study of the American party system of government and of the “spoils system” under which party loyalty and personal service to a party machine became the test of a candidate’s fitness for office. For this the student should refer to the section (Vol. 27, p. 646) on _Constitution and Government_, of the article UNITED STATES, written by James Bryce, author of _The American Commonwealth_ and formerly British ambassador to the United States; see p. 658–659, especially. There is also much information in the section _History_ of the same article, especially paragraphs 168, 169 (p. 697) on the beginnings of the spoils system in Jackson’s time, paragraph 333 (p. 722) on the beginnings of reform under Hayes, and paragraph 343 (p. 724) on Cleveland and civil service reform, etc.; and biographies of Andrew Jackson, W. L. Marcy and Martin Van Buren (for the spoils system) and of George William Curtis, E. L. Godkin, Carl Schurz, R. B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Information in regard to the civil service systems of states and cities may be found in separate state and city articles,—in addition to the material on state and city systems in the articles already mentioned. [Sidenote: “General Information” Papers] The wide-awake student who has read this far in this chapter and has referred to the articles mentioned in the Britannica, will now be saying to himself: “There is evidently much valuable information in the encyclopaedia about the history and status of civil service reform, and this seems as full and complete for the United States as for Great Britain. If other topics are as fully treated in the Britannica, it will be invaluable to me in preparation for general information papers for civil service examinations.” And he will be right. For instance, the government employe must know more about the government and its machinery and history than does the average “man in the street”,—and he can learn this from the Britannica. As has already been pointed out, the main treatment of the government of the United States in the Britannica is by James Bryce. This means that it is authoritative and that it is interesting and that in both these qualities it is far superior to the usual text book of “civics” or “civil government.” It occupies pp. 646–661 of volume 27, and is equivalent to about 50 pages of this Guide—so that it is more than a bare outline. And it is followed by a valuable bibliography of the subject to guide the student to the best books on any special topic which he may wish to pursue further. But this is far from being all the information in the Britannica on the subject. The contribution of Mr. Bryce is only a part of the article UNITED STATES. The entire article would take up nearly 400 pages if printed in the style of this Guide. It treats the physical geography, geology, climate, fauna and flora, population, industries and commerce, government, finance, army and history of the country—the equivalent of 225 pages of this Guide is devoted to _History_ alone. All parts of this article contain valuable information about the country; and this article is supplemented by hundreds of others:— (a) Articles on each of the states, arranged much as in the article UNITED STATES with sections on history and government serving as an authoritative summary of the salient facts, and making up a complete course on state “civics,” government and history; (b) Articles on cities and towns with similar treatment of the distinctive elements in the government of each, and of the main points in their history; (c) Separate articles on the important rivers, lakes, mountains and other topics in physical geography; (d) Separate articles on topics in American history and government: such as NULLIFICATION, STATE RIGHTS, FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS, ELECTORAL COMMISSION; and (e) Biographies of great Americans, famous in war, politics, administration, business, science, art, religion,—in short all fields of activity. In brief, whether for an examination on general information, on civics, on history, or on the special branch of the civil service to which the student wishes to be appointed, no book will give as valuable and complete information as the Britannica.