a " UC-NRLF SB OOfl HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE E. H. COOPER THE GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT 1916 BY E. H. COOPER COPYRIGHT 1918 BY THE GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE This book starts with early life and shows, step by step, how individuals may, of their own initiative and with- out means, attain a good education, lucrative position and success. It may be that the reader has gone part of the way described herein and desires to complete the journey. If so, skip the first part of the book that deals with the problem up to your stage, begin where you are, and fol- low the story from there on. This story of a way to success, carefully read and followed, will surely lead you to the goal of your ambition. The first chapter or two may seem very commonplace and many are past those chapters in the experiences of life, but the chapters that follow carry the reader over places in the journey that many do not pass, and grow deeper in interest as the end approaches. The reader will have a better appreciation of the line of activity laid down in the following pages, with the knowledge that it is not theory but the story of actual accomplishment. It is not the desire of the author to fill this book with matter that the student could obtain elsewhere. The author believes he has something new to say. It is the purpose of this book to give sound, practical help that will be of real service and value to its readers; helps that will enable them to profit by the experience of others who have been successful. There are many ways to build a flying machine, and nearly every novice has his own peculiar way. Most of the flying machines built by novices will not fly. If you would be sure that your machine will fly, follow the design of a tested model that has proved success- ful. Experimenting is very costly business. 5 PREFACE It took Edison years to produce an electric light globe that would give light, and now, in modernly equipped factories, incandescent globes may be made in a few minutes with small waste of time and energy. It is as wasteful to be experimenting with success in life as it is for one to try to invent all over again the electric light or airplane. This outline of achievement is made flexible enough to fit the highest and most varied aspirations of any per- son. It provides the ladder on which to climb. The reader may set this ladder under any ambition that he or she may have and mount as surely to one goal as to another. The ambition that this book aims to foster most is that of pleasant and profitable employment, with a knowledge of those activities for which the individual student is most adapted. In the young reader's mind there sometimes comes the question, "Does education pay?" Permit me to quote from the well-known Success writer, Orison Swett Harden on this question. Does an Education Pay "Does it pay to learn to make life a glory instead of a grind? "Does it pay to open a little wider the door of a narrow life? "Does it pay to add power to the lens of the microscope or telescope? "Does it pay to push one's horizon further out in order to get a wider outlook, a clearer vision? "Does it pay to taste the exhilaration of feeling one's powers unfold? "Does it pay to know how to take the dry drudgery out of life? "Does it pay for a rosebud to open out its petals and fling out its beauty to the world? "Does it pay to fit oneself for a superior position? "Does it pay to get a glimpse of the joy of living? PREFACE "Does it pay to learn how to focus thought with power ; how to marshal one's mental forces effectively? "Does it pay to acquire power to get out of life high and noble pleasures which wealth cannot purchase? "Does it pay to make lifelong friendships with bright, ambitious young people, many of whom will occupy high places later on? "Does it pay to become familiar with all the lessons that history and science can teach as to how to make life healthy and successful? "Does it pay to change a bar of rough pig iron into hair springs for watches thus increasing its worth to more than fifty times the value of its weight in gold? "Does it pay to experience the joy of self-discovery, to open up whole continents of possibility in one's nature which otherwise might remain undiscovered? "Does it pay to have one's own mentality stirred by the passion for expansion, to feel the tonic of growth, the indescribable satisfaction which comes from the con- sciousness of perpetual enlargement? "Does it pay to have expert advice and training; to have high ideals held up to one in the most critical years of life?" / believe it all pays and this book has been prepared in order that the author might have a part in helping others to receive a larger share of the things that pay in this life. A hundred hindering trifles hang to the coat tail of every great undertaking. A hundred thwarting details threaten the fixity of every great purpose. A hundred wilting doubts and discouragements men- ace every great enthusiasm. Determine ; then spurn the irrelevant keep your eyes on your main chance. Big things are accomplished by undaunted effort in a .straight line toward a goal that is fixed in the mind. Directness is the main point to remember when you set yourself to a great task. You must have a high ideal 8 PREFACE and work to it. You will never do big things, how- ever, unless you first get a vision of big things. The work of accomplishing the task set forth in this book is worthy of the best powers possessed by men and women. It challenges one's best steel. "Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. "In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!" Be progressive in your thinking. Think forward all the time. Make up your mind that you are going to be successful. Think success, dream success, work for success and it will surely be yours. It is just as easy to form the habit of thinking big thoughts and doing big things as it is to fritter one's life away on the petty things of life. Once the president of a university saw two boys dredg- ing in tne mire of a small pond with tin cans. He said: "Boys, what are you doing?" "We are catching tad- poles," was the reply. "What are you going to do with the tadpoles?" the president asked. "Feed them to the minnows," the boys replied. The next question was, "What do you do with the minnows?" and they an- swered that they sold them to fishermen for bait and made about twenty-five dollars a year at this work. The president said, "Boys, won't you come with me and study in my university? I need a couple of boys like you and I will make it possible for you to earn all ex- penses through college, by working evenings." The boys replied that there would be no one to catch tadpoles for the minnows and that they would all die. They couldn't go. The president was insistent, however, and finally PREFACE 9 it was decided that one of the boys would stay to catch tadpoles for the minnows while the other followed the call of opportunity. Ten years have passed. The college president has died and John, who fed the minnows, but who left them for the call of opportunity, is his successor. John, now president of the college, has won a name for himself by revising the curriculum of this college better to serve the modern needs of students. His former partner is still dredging in the mire for tadpoles to feed the min- nows. Men, women, wake up to the opportunities that are waiting for you! You live in the richest land on the face of the globe, the land that offers the most liberty, the most freedom, the greatest opportunities and possi- bilities of any land. It is a land of freedom in which a man born under the most unfavorable circumstances may become the president of the nation, and in which a woman may rise from any position to a Frances E. Willard, a Jane Addams, a Harriet Beecher Stowe, or a Nancy Hanks Lincoln. In the author's travels he has known many deserving and ambitious young persons who have been striving diligently for worthy goals in the world, but many of these persons were like mariners without a compass they were wandering aimlessly through life. Some of them, after having attained success many years after- ward, look back and see how much lost motion there was in their early accomplishments. Many others look back and see how they might not have missed the goal of success if they had only known which step to take next. It is to these ambitious souls that this book is dedi- cated. If a few aspiring persons may be discovered with all their undeveloped possibilities, and if they may be shown the way of opportunity so that they may blossom into their best service to themselves and others, the purpose of this book will be accomplished and the hope of its author fulfilled. CONTENTS CHAPTER I HOW TO BEGIN Qualify for the School of Business How to Become a Stenographer or Bookkeeper Obtaining a Business Po- sition The Business Position What System Will Do Guide Posts to Business Success. CHAPTER II YOUR NEW POSITION AND ENVIRONMENT Leaving Home Why Leave Home To the National Capital The Departments at Washington. CHAPTER III HOW TO SECURE A CIVIL SERVICE POSITION In General Stenographer and Typewriter Book- keeper Typewriter Clerk. CHAPTER IV THE OPPORTUNITY THAT THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE OFFERS The Permanency of the Civil Service No Political Influence Needed Hours of Labor Government Work Different from Commercial Work A Woman's Oppor- tunities A Man's Opportunities Entrance to the Uni- versities. 11 CONTENTS CHAPTER V CHOOSING A VOCATION In General Accountancy Advertising Agriculture Architecture Artist Congressman Consular Serv- ice Dentistry Engineering: Civil, Electrical, Me- chanical Inventor Journalism L a w Manufacturing Musician The Ministry Patent Attorney Sales- manship Teaching. CHAPTER I HOW TO BEGIN Qualify for the School of Business by First Becoming a Bookkeeper or Stenographer Business offers the largest reward of any calling to those who can qualify as Captains of Industry. You will not learn how to become a Captain of Industry in a business school, but you must go there first in order to prepare to enter the real school business itself. To qualify as a bookkeeper or stenographer will be the stepping-stone to larger things, and it will, in itself, be of very great personal value to you all through life. When a man gets into business for himself his knowl- edge of bookkeeping enables him to interpret more cor- rectly the records of his business, and to make decisions pertaining to its management. Then if he be a stenog- rapher think of his pleasure in being able to take down some interesting sermon, speech or joke that he may want to remember. It is one of the keys to a good memory. People who write shorthand find a thousand uses for it, and after years of its use they would almost rather part with the alphabet of the English language than to part with their knowledge of shorthand. If a competent stenographer or bookkeeper should at any time fail in other pursuits, he can at once return to his old work and pay rent and living expenses until he can again get on his feet. As long as he is able to work it is not necessary for him to ask aid from others. He is independent, and it gives him a sense of security which prolongs his life and helps him to succeed in other lines of work. It is a stepping-stone in more ways than one. For example, if a man desires to succeed in his own 13 14 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE commercial business later in life, let him take a steno- graphic or bookkeeping position under a good man in a commercial house; if in law, with a judge or lawyer of highest standing, etc. Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, says: "The value of stenography to young people is that it is apt to place them in positions of confidence in direct contact with their employers, thus giving them an in- sight into the inner workings of a business which they would scarcely obtain in any other way." Mr. Bok started as a stenographer, and he ought to know whereof he speaks. President Wilson learned shorthand in his youth and uses it every day. The manuscript of most of his books was written in shorthand. This accomplishment has been the stepping-stone to success of thousands of prom- inent people. How to Become a Stenographer or Bookkeeper You can acquire shorthand and typewriting or book- keeping in six or seven months by attending evening classes in some good business school. No matter what your circumstances, if your present employment will not permit, you can get employment that will pay you enough to live on and to pay tuition in night business school. Do Not Try to Become Both a Bookkeeper and Stenographer You must concentrate. Focus your ability upon one point until you burn a hole in it. Genius is intensity and digression is as dangerous as stagnation. "He who fol- lows two hares catches neither." It is the single aim that wins. Only by concentration can you succeed. The school of deprivation is a wonderful training for after life. He who can give up in manhood the luxuries which most young fellows delight in possessing, can go HOW TO BEGIN 15 through the difficulties that are sure to come in a career which ends in success. In selecting a business school, choose one that has built up a reputation by years of service in the commu- nity. Do not spend money for a correspondence course unless it is impossible to obtain personal instruction. The books of the best correspondence schools are to be found in the Public Libraries. If you study stenography, choose a standard system of shorthand that has stood the test of years. There are several good systems to choose from. The author fa- vors the Gregg in preference to the Pitmanic systems which include Isaac Pitman, Benn Pitman, Graham, Mun- son, Longley, and Dement. The latter are modifications of the original Isaac Pitman and have geometrical signs as a basis. The Gregg system is based upon the natural strokes of the longhand alphabet and is taught in more than three-quarters of the cities and towns of the United States whose high schools teach shorthand and in many of our larger cities. Avoid the systems that claim to teach you in a few days or weeks. The English language is a big language with many words and expressions that are similar, and it takes months to learn any system of shorthand so that you can express all of its ramifica- tions. In the study of typewriting which you will learn along with your shorthand, by all means learn the touch system, sometimes called the piano method. The ease with which you can operate a machine by this method will ^ repay you a thousand times for any extra labor required to learn it. No matter what your occupation or circumstances, if you will be persistent, you can arrange your hours of work so that you can study and attend classes evenings. Some students who cannot arrange to attend evening classes, attend class every week day during half their noon hour, and have every evening for study. Those who attend evening classes three evenings a week have the other three evenings to study. Just at this point, some reader may say, "But where 16 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE does my time for social pleasure come in?" You will have to content yourself with what recreation and so- cial pleasure you can indulge in on Sundays. If you would be successful, you must pay the price of success, and if you are not willing to pay the price, then you may as well not start. The further along you go the easier this whole career will become. If you can summon enough courage to get a good start, you will be safe. There are thousands of students who are studying in evening schools and the school for the man or woman who works is becoming a stronger and stronger thread in the fabric of our economic life as the complexity of our civilization increases. It is many people's only way of advancement. One of the best ways to keep up your enthusiasm in the study of stenography is to subscribe to a shorthand paper, or in bookkeeping subscribe to System. This is the best magazine of business published. You can get enough out of any copy you pick up to pay for a year's subscription. Every student should keep his enthusiasm up to the welding point and the monthly or weekly paper is the best way for the student of business to do it. If studying stenography, ask your instructor to recom- mend a good shorthand paper. You must remember that in the learning of shorthand there are two important factors systematic develop- ment and cultivation of the mind, and skillful training of the hand, that the hand and the brain may be brought to work together harmoniously and smoothly. This can- not be accomplished by unmethodical and half-hearted efforts. If you attack the difficult problems with confi- dence and determination, half of their difficulty will dis- appear. You must put enthusiasm into your study and learn to rely upon yourself. Never give a second thought to what will be the outcome of your efforts. You will find that your reward will be gauged exactly by the de- gree of proficiency you attain, and that skill in any art comes only from infinite and determined practice. In your study of bookkeeping, stenography, or type- writing aim to be accurate before speedy. Accuracy in PRESIDENT WILSON SPEAKING FROM THE 1SOUTH STEPS OF THE TREASURY BUILDING The figure in the foreground is President Wilson's official shorthand reporter, Charles L. Swem HOW TO BEGIN 17 taking and transcribing notes is the thing you must ac- quire and in bookkeeping it is likewise indispensable. In giving dictation most men would prefer to repeat to you a sentence now and then rather than have you bring your work to them typewritten with many errors. In your transcribing be sure that you understand what you are writing, and see that it makes good sense. If there are grammatical errors correct them, using care not to change the sense in any way. Obtaining a Business Position When you have attained a fair degree of skill as a stenographer or bookkeeper you must change your daily occupation to that kind of work. The principal of the school you attend will be glad to recommend you for a position. The principals of reputable business schools are constantly receiving calls from business men for stenographers and bookkeepers, and they recommend those students who show the best qualifications by the work they do in the school. This securing of a position is a service which the reputable business schools perform gratis. The Business Position When you take your first business position, it will probably be at a low salary, and the most valuable thing you will get for your first few months' work will be ex- perience. Put in extra time on the job but don't drop the study of your shorthand or bookkeeping. Continue to study evenings. Study every angle of your employ- er's business as though you were being paid the salary of the president, and were expecting to take over his job soon. Pitch in ; don't watch the clock ; it won't get away. Take more interest in the business than the president himself. Above all things be thorough in your work. "Initiative, perseverance, courage, and all other attri- butes of business success are secondary to the attribute of thoroughness." JOHN HAYS HAMMOND. Use system in the routine of your daily work at the 18 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE office. System means simply the ability to get the thing done; to get it done thoroughly, and to get it done on time. No matter how lowly and unimportant the task, it can be made to provide a complete training course in system and organization, if its owner cares to make it so. What System Will Do for 'You "It will clear the mind of cobwebs and of brain ash. "It will increase effectiveness, lengthen life, and make it better worth living. "It will produce more work and of a better quality than is possible without it. "It will increase your efficiency because it will increase your self-confidence and self-respect. "It will simplify a mass of perplexing details and give you freedom for larger, creative work. "It will save the result of your labor so that you will not have to do things over and over again. "It will enable you to make better use of your experi- ence, and will save you from pitfalls and business dis- asters. "It will make you a man better balanced, better poised mentally, and more optimistic. "It will enable you to find anything you want imme- diately, instead of losing valuable time hunting for it. "It will make you a more agreeable man, because men- tal confusion fags the brain, increases nervousness, and tends to make one pessimistic. "It eliminates worry and that petty anxiety which comes from inability to clear the atmosphere about you of little, vexing, harassing details. "A good system shortens the road to the goal and relieves the mind of a thousand and one perplexities and anxieties, besides detail and drudgery through which the orderless man goes." ORISON SWETT MARDEN. Guide Posts to Business Success A few guide posts to success in an office which have been adopted by many large business organizations for HOW TO BEGIN 19 employees are given for the information of the reader to assist him in being a success at this stage of his journey. Rule i. We are all human and make mistakes. But a mistake may be made the keystone of system the foundation of success. The secret is simple: Don't make the same mistake twice. The misspelling of a customer's name an error in your form of address an unfulfilled promise ; these are valuable assets if they teach you exactness. Let your mistakes shape your system and your system will pre- vent such mistakes. When you discover a mistake sit down then and there and arrange to prevent its repeti- tion. Paint it on your walls; emblazon it on your door; frame it over your desk; think it to yourself; burn it into your brain this one essential to success: Don't make the same mistake twice. Rule 2. Don't let go of a single paper, letter, or a duty of any kind intrusted to your care for execution, until you have made a "tickler" memo of it, so that you can follow it up to the end and know what becomes of it. Rule j. Interview your "tickler" every morning. Make it the first "office assistant" you see and consult at every day's beginning. Then plan your day's work in accordance with what the "tickler" tells you to do on that day. Rule 4. After the "tickler" has been consulted and you have clearly fixed in your mind the important things that must be done to-day, the new papers coming over your desk next deserve attention. Rule 5. Whatever unfinished work you have left over at night should always be left in the upper right-hand drawer of your desk. This does not mean part of your unfinished work and the rest of it scattered through seventeen different pigeonholes. It means all of it; the first rule of system is to have one definite, unvarying place for each kind of work. If by any chance you can't get it all in the drawer, see that a memo is placed in the 20 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE drawer stating where the overflow can be found. Rule 6. Men who make and break promises are not always men who are intentionally dishonest. Sometimes they are simply good natured, and dislike to say "No" when asked to accomplish a given task. Yet there is no worker who causes more trouble for others, and more unhappiness for himself, than the man who continually makes loose agreements without first carefully calculat- ing their feasibility. To break this habit should be the foremost purpose of the system man. Let him resolve to make no promises that he can't reasonably fulfill on schedule time. * * * * The main reason why you want to be thorough and successful in your office work is because it is a part of the foundation of your career. This position must be only a stepping-stone to something better, but you cannot step to something better unless you have done this task well. The time will come when you will say to your employer that you are going to resign to accept a better position and you should ask him to give you a letter of recom- mendation concerning your services to him. Put this away carefully among your treasures. When you are about to leave your employer, do not shirk his work during the last week or last few days. Work harder than ever to leave everything in the best of shape for your successor. You should give your employer ten days' or two weeks* notice of your intention to resign, so that he may secure a successor. When you leave, leave with the best wishes of your employer. By this time the reader is beginning to wonder where this new and better position is coming from, and how he is to be so sure of getting it. That is all told to your complete satisfaction in the pages that follow. After you have held your present position about three or four months and have continued your speed practice, or study of bookkeeping evenings during that time, you will be ready to secure this better position previously referred to, and this is your second task described fully in the next chapter. CHAPTER II YOUR NEW POSITION AND ENVIRONMENT Leaving Home This new position is going to take you far away from home, among strangers, but it will offer many advan- tages. You will have the opportunity to form new friends and acquaintances. You may choose your own friends and if you wish to choose a better class of as- sociates than you have had at home, it will be your op- portunity to do so. This complete change of surroundings will open up a new world to you. You will have an opportunity to develop more than you ever did before. You will learn many things about this great world that you never knew before. It will change your trend of thought. You will learn to think in terms of bigger things. You will get a stock of brand-new ideas. If you have never trav- eled much, you have formed the habit of thinking in terms of the limited experiences of the community in which you have lived. You will become broader in your whole trend of thought and will realize that there are many ways of life that you never knew before. Many of the things that have been myths to you in the past will become living realities. You will actually see many of the things you have been reading about all your life. Why Leave Home You may not like the idea of leaving home and of leaving friends, but this leave of absence is only to be for a few years you are only going away to college. When you have finished your college training, you can 21 22 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE return to your home with the broad view of life and the good preparation for its battles that a college educa- tion gives to one. If a man or woman is not willing to leave home to win success, the chances are that he or she will never be much of a success. The training necessary to success is not always to be found at home. There was a time in the history of our country when young people could work out their economic independ- ence at home and find their best opportunities on the land adjacent to their parents' farm. That is not true to-day. Even if a person wishes to follow that inde- pendent and healthy life of tilling the soil, if he is to be much of a success he must go away to some good agri- cultural college and study agriculture. If you would succeed you must make up your mind that you will fol- low opportunity wherever she leads. To the National Capital Opportunity is going to lead you to the National Cap- ital to take a position in the Federal civil service there. The close contact at Washington with the scenes of our national history will develop in you a keen jnterest in the national welfare which leads to a broader interest in current events and a larger outlook on the things of life. Many a congressman received his inspiration to run for the National Congress from his associations around the National Capital. Quite a number of the honor- able senators and representatives at Washington were at one time pages on the floor of either the House or Senate. You do not need any political influence whatever to secure a position as bookkeeper or stenographer in the United States government service at Washington at an initial salary of seventy-five dollars a month, and with good chances for advancement. You can secure the appointment to the position before you leave the one you hold so that there will be no YOUR NEW POSITION chance of being left out, or of any uncertainty about the change in any way. Before I go into the details of how to secure this po- sition I desire to give you a picture of a few of the advantages of this unique city and of what it means to you to live there for a few years. What Washington Really Is Washington is said by many persons of world-wide travel to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. "Excepting, perhaps, The Hague, the seat of the gov- ernment of the Dutch, Washington is the only capital in the world given up wholly to the purposes and activities of a capital. Washington was created as a capital, de- signed to be what it is. London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Petrograd, Constantinople, Stockholm, and Brussels are great commercial and manu- facturing centers. Mammon, with his motley retinue, is painfully in evidence. Washington alone is a capital, and nothing but a capital, a city where government is the principal business, where social and intellectual pursuits form the chief activity. "Other American cities were built for labor, but Wash- ington for play; others for business, Washington for beauty; others for the strenuous life, Washington for repose/' WALTER WELLMAN, in Success. Educational Advantages of the National Capital "It is a liberal education to live in Washington." Any city is a great university, but Washington is pre-emi- nently rich in educational influences. Here are vast piles of magnificent architecture; here are parks, foun- tains, and gardens; social advantages and public func- tions incident to the conduct of the government; inex- haustible riches in libraries, art treasures, museums, and scientific appliances. Here is the center of the scientific world, and with its established and proposed universi- ties, here will be the center of the educational world. The centering here of the several departments of the 24 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE Government enables one to become familiar with its many and varied activities. A broadening of the outlook upon life and an increased interest in its affairs can hardly fail to result from the years spent here. Mr. Andrew D. White, former president of Cornell University, in a recent address on Washington as an educational center, said : "Consider the great scientific enterprises and organi- zations centering here the Coast Survey, the Smithso- nian and Carnegie Institutions, the Departments of Ag- riculture and Interior, etc. "Think of the libraries here, with their vast collec- tions, the Library of Congress, those of the departments, the Carnegie Library, the Geographical Society Library, and the special libraries of various organizations. "Consider the museums, from the great National Mu- seum down, the laboratories in every scientific field. Then consider the men gathered and grouped about all these scientific and literary centers men of wide scien- tific reputation, pressing on in the highest field of re- search." No city in this country offers so rich and so varied educational advantages as the city of Washington. If, as claimed, Washington is the most beautiful city in existence and the capital of the greatest of nations, there is much in such claim to interest those desiring to pur- sue education. Such a city can but possess superior educating influences. Its relative beauty and importance make it a desirable place for one to spend a portion of his school days. The object lessons to be learned are many and of great value. Within easy reach of the city are some of the great battle fields of the late war, among them Manassas and Gettysburg; almost in sight are Mt. Vernon, of his- toric and sacred memories, Arlington, and Fort Myer; Old Point Comfort, Luray Caves, Annapolis and other places of national interest are within a few hours' ride on the train; and within the district lines are the Sol- diers' Home, Navy Yard, and other points of note and beauty. There are within and near the city the most YOUR NEW POSITION 25 beautiful scenery and the choicest historical associations. All these things serve to magnify the exceeding value of Washington as an educational center. As the seat of this Government, Washington pos- sesses other peculiar charms educationally. Here are culture and hospitality; here young men and young la- dies are ushered into the presence of great statesmen, jurists, and diplomats, and are permitted to view the different departments of Government at work Senate, House, Supreme Court, and the Executive Department so that they may become familiar with our na- tional policy and catch the spirit of the Government's best impulses. It is the deliberate conviction of the writer that a year spent in school in Washington is more valuable to anyone than two years spent in a similar school in any other city in the United States. The opportunities and facilities presented here for culture and for intellectual improvement along all lines are unequalled. There are multitudes of good schools all over the land, but there is only one National Capital with its incomparable lessons and benefits. The Library of Congress It would be impossible in a brief paragraph to convey any adequate idea of the magnitude and beauty of the new building which has recently been completed for the Library of Congress after an expenditure of ten years of labor and over six million dollars. It contains shelf room for four and a half million volumes, while the ar- chitecture, mosaics, statuary, frescoes and paintings rep- resent the highest excellence attained in American art, and will amply repay many days of careful study. The public may use its collections at will without any formal permission. The Capitol The Capitol building has cost to date thirteen million dollars, and is regarded as one of the most impressive and 26 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE noble structures in the world. On the eastern portico, one hundred and sixty feet long, the Presidential in- augural ceremonies take place. On the ceiling of the dome is painted an allegorical representation of the Apotheosis of Washington. The grounds around the Capitol contain fifty-five acres, beautifully laid out. Statuary Hall The old House of Representatives is now filled with statues contributed by different states. They are of chosen men, who have achieved deeds worthy to be re- membered. Here stands the Centennial safe, in which have been placed the records of our first century as a nation, and which will remain closed until 1976. The Treasury In the cash room there are closed vaults with a capacity of two hundred and fifteen million dollars in coin. The money-issuing and destruction departments are especially interesting. In the former the money is counted by experts who work so rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow them. That the Gov- ernment may keep the currency in good condition, old notes are exchanged for new ones and the old destroyed. One hundred thousand dollars from New York, alone, have been received in a single week to be thus exchanged. A century ago the Treasury De- partment occupied a building costing less than ten thou- sand dollars. It has now outgrown one that cost seven million dollars. This illustrates clearly the wonderful growth and resources of our land. The Departments at Washington There are ten principal departments of the Govern- ment at Washington: I. Department of State. 2. Treasury Department. YOUR NEW POSITION 27 3. War Department. 4. Navy Department. 5. Department of Justice. 6. Post-Office Department. 7. Department of the Interior. 8. Department of Agriculture. 9. Department of Commerce^ 10. Department of Labor. The secretaries of each of these departments make up the President's Cabinet. The Department of State includes the consular and diplomatic services and, in general, handles all matters involving this country's relations with other countries. The names of the Treasury, War, Post-Office, and Navy Departments, also the Departments of Agricul- ture, Commerce, and Labor, are fully descriptive of their respective spheres of activity. The Department of Justice is the Government's legal department, and is made up mostly of attorneys and assistant attorneys. The Department of Interior comprises: The General Land Office, the Patent Office, the Bureau of Pensions, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Education, the Geological Survey, the Reclamation Service, and the Bureau of Mines. In addition to the above departments there are the following divisions of governmental activity: Government Printing Office; Interstate Commerce Commission; Civil Service Commission; United States Geographical Board; General Supply Committee; Board of Indian Commissioners ; Board of Mediation and Con- ciliation; Commission of Industrial Relations; Smith- sonian Institution; Pan-American Union; International Waterways Commission; United States Botanical Gar- dens; National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; the Soldiers' Home; the Commission of Fine Arts; American Red Cross ; Columbia Institution for the Deaf ; Government Hospital for the Insane; Howard Univer- sity. 28 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE In the War and Navy Departments the officials in charge: except the secretaries, are commissioned officers of the army and navy instead of promoted bookkeep- ers, clerks and stenographers as in other departments. Some of these officers are inclined to give orders to the employees in their departments in much the same man- ner as they give orders to their subordinates in the army or navy. There is an opinion held by some of those young offi- cers, and even by some of the older officers, that any civilian is to be considered the same as a private in the army when that civilian happens to come under their su- pervision. Very few of these officers have any business training whatever. Their training and experience have fitted them for war, not industry. There is, then, the disadvantage in the Army and Navy Departments that there is not the opportunity for promotion that is offered in the other departments where the highest positions are filled from the ranks of civilian stenographers and clerks. In this connection if you decide that you do not want appointment in either the War or Navy Department, be sure to state this fact to the commission before you are offered appointment, for if you should be offered ap- pointment in either one of these departments and refuse to accept without reasons satisfactory to the commission, then your name would be dropped from the register of eligibles. The time to make your choice is before you are offered appointment. After appointment you can- not be transferred to any other department until you have served three years. While, as stated in Chapter III, it may seem that an unnecessary amount of red tape is required to get into the civil service, yet it is necessary to unwind just about as much of it to dismiss one from the service after he is once appointed. You are reasonably sure of your civil service posi- tion as long as you do your work satisfactorily. There are pending before Congress at this time several bills to pension all civil service employees who have become YOUR NEW POSITION 29 old in the service. It is believed that it is only a question of time until one of these bills will become law. There are civil service employees at Washington who have grown so old and decrepit in the service that they have to be wheeled to their offices in roller chairs, but they still hold their positions which many of them have had for over thirty-five years. Many of these old men still draw salaries of one thousand six hundred dollars a year and more. In some offices they are reduced in pay down to seventy- five or one hundred dollars a month, and allowed to remain at that salary. This condition of the service is what makes imperative the passing of some kind of pension and retirement law. For the good of the serv- ice, it would be cheaper to retire every one of these old employees at a salary of fifty dollars a month for the rest of their lives than to keep them in the service at seventy-five or one hundred dollars a month. Many of them are only in the way of the younger employees who, of course, must do the work of the departments. This condition is not to the disadvantage of the younger employees, but rather to their material advan- tage. After an employee gets old and is reduced in sal- ary, he is not eligible for promotion, and for every such employee the opportunities for those who are eligible for promotion are thereby increased. There are young employees who have been promoted in the service from an entrance salary of nine hundred dollars a year to one thousand eight hundred dollars a year in three years' time. Whenever Congress passes a bill to retire all the vet- eran civil service employees, which is quite apt to be in the near future, there will be many wholesale promo- tions for the younger clerks who are in the service at that time, for the reason that there will be a lot of em- ployees who are still very active and drawing big sal- aries but who have been in the service long enough to be retired under the provisions of the law. CHAPTER III HOW TO SECURE A CIVIL SERVICE POSITION In General This chapter is written from years of experience in the civil service and with all the best writings and courses on civil service before the author. I do not hesitate to say that with the instructions given in this book one can pass civil service examinations for the positions covered here, just as well as through any of the civil service correspondence courses offered by the vari- ous schools at from twenty-five to one hundred dollars. If you are a stenographer, or a bookkeeper, or an office clerk of fair ability, or if you have finished a course in some good business college, you can pass the -civil service examination with the preparation and outline of study given here. The Civil Service Commission holds examinations to fill various other positions requiring qualifications vary- ing from those of a learned scientist, to those of an un- skilled laborer. It would take a large volume to tell how to obtain each of the various positions offered by the United States Civil Service Commission. The positions treated in this chapter have been selected for the follow- ing reasons : First. There is a larger demand for persons to fill the positions of stenographer and typewriter, book- keeper, typewriter and clerk than for any other posi- tions filled by the Civil Service Commission and conse- quently appointments are received more quickly. Second. Most of the higher positions are filled by promotion from these classes. Third. The above-named positions may be secured through less time and effort than any other positions 30 THE CIVIL SERVICE 31 offered by the Commission paying anywhere near as high salary. Of the positions covered here, the stenographer and typewriter position offers, by far, the best advantages and the quickest and surest appointment. The demand for stenographers exceeds so far the supply every year that it sometimes happens that those who fail on ex- aminations are offered positions because all the lists of eligibles who passed have been exhausted. This excessive demand for stenographers is due large- ly to the fact that almost all the higher positions are filled by promotion from the ranks of stenographers and there must be others to fill their places. Thousands of men and women use the government service as a stepping- stone to obtain an education. As soon as they finish their schooling they resign to take up their profession or business in their home, and this makes many vacan- cies in the service. After the stenographer and typewriter examination, the next best opportunity is for the bookkeeper. There is a large 'demand for male bookkeepers in the various accounting and auditing offices of the Government. If you cannot qualify as a stenographer and type- writer or bookkeeper, there is the position of ^typewriter which does not require any knowledge of 'shorthand. Almost any person can become skilled enough on the typewriter in three months to pass this examination. The clerk examination does not require knowledge of either bookkeeping, shorthand or typewriting, but the chances for appointment are not so good as those of the bookkeeper, typist, or stenographer and typewriter. The following figures show the number of appoint- ments made during a recent period for the different classes of positions here considered: Stenographer and Typewriter 379 Bookkeeper 240 Typewriter 157 Clerk 90 Total . "866 32 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE With regard to salaries, on a sheet of personal ques- tions which you will be required to answer at time of examination, you will be asked: "What is the lowest salary you wnnlH ^-rppt?" In answer 16 this question, if a man, put down nine hundred dollars a year if you are taking the stenographer and typewriter examination or the bookkeeper's examination, and seven hundred and twenty dollars a year if you are taking the clerk or type- writer examination. If you are a woman, put down eight hundred and forty dollars a year if you are taking the stenographer and typewriter examination and seven hundred and twenty dollars a year if you are taking the typewriter or clerk examination. There is no demand for women bookkeepers in the government service. You will profit by following exactly the above recom- mendations about your demand for salary. If there should be open a position which you could fill and which paid a larger salary than you stated on your papers, you would be appointed at the higher salary, but in case there was a position open paying a salary less than what you asked then you would not be considered for it at all. You can easily get the salaries named and you would not increase your chances of appointment by lowering them, but would decrease your chances by raising them. The salaries named are the beginning salaries only and worth-while promotion is sure to follow if your work proves satisfactory. Many of the government em- ployees, both men and women, receive from two thousand to three thousand dollars a year after a few years of service. Persons wishing to take the United States civil ser- vice examination should write direct to the United States Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C, or to the secretary of the United States Civil Service Board of Examiners at Boston, Mass.; New York, N. Y. ; Phila- delphia, Pa. ; Atlanta, Ga. ; Cincinnati, Ohio ; Chicago, 111. ; St. Paul, Minn. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; New Orleans, La. ; Seattle, Wash. ; San Francisco, Cal. ; San Juan, P. R. ; Honolulu, Hawaii; Juneau, Alaska; or Balboa Heights, THE CIVIL SERVICE 33 Canal Zone, for application blanks, stating which exam- ination they desire to take. Ask them to send you neces- sary application blanks and also a copy of "Manual of Examinations." This book will explain all about the examinations, and is absolutely free to you for the asking. Requests made through third parties cause delay and entail unnecessary correspondence upon those parties and the Commission. Any available information may be secured by writing to the Commission or one of its dis- trict secretaries or other representatives. Attempts of applicants to secure unusual considera- tion or special action through the aid of prominent or presumably influential persons are useless and are dis- countenanced by the Commission, which under the civil service law and rules, must treat all applicants with absolute impartiality. Preparedness is the secret of success on any examina- tion. You stand entirely on the merits of what you can do on examination. The Commission specifically states that they want only the recommendations of your work and the certificates of good character which are a part of your application. When the head of any of the departments needs a stenographer, typist, bookkeeper, or clerk he sends to the Civil Service Commission a requisition stating the salary to be paid. The Commission sends back the names and examination papers of three persons who have passed the examination. These three names are the names of those making the highest grades. The depart- ment head selects one of the names and sends the other two back to the Commission. The other two are placed on the register until called for again. At this point, I desire to call special attention to the fact that the appointing official has your application for examination and all examination papers in hand, to- gether with those of two other candidates at the time you are selected. These papers make a good-sized pack- age of detail to go through and in many cases the ap- pointing officer, instead of reading all three of them care- fully, preparatory to selecting one, glances over them 84 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE casually, and picks the one having the neatest looking bunch of papers. If anything is read fully it is, in most cases, your application for examination. You have all the time you want to make that out, so be sure that it is as neat as you can make it. Also do not forget the above fact when working on examination papers. Avoid blots and ugly erasures. Being a southerner myself, it has been my experience that many young people from the South have a wrong impression of the position the negro occupies in the Federal civil service. When I was first appointed to Washington from a southern state, several of my friends told me that I would probably have to work for a negro there or work with one on terms of equality. There is no truth in this statement. I wish to state for the bene- fit of the young person from the South, whose prejudices are strongly against the negro, that he need not fear any obnoxious association with him at Washington. You will find Washington to be cosmopolitan in the person- nel of its citizens. People representing all the nations of the earth are assembled there and many of them are of dark skin. After you get the application for examination, fill it out carefully and as neatly as you can, and return it to the Commission immediately. Do not wait until a week or ten days prior to the examination, because these applications are frequently returned for correction of some minor detail, and if there is not plenty of time for it to get back to Washington again and then for a reply to come to the local examiner in your state, you will lose the opportunity to take the examination, and will have to wait for the next one to be held. In filling out the application you will find that there is seemingly a world of red tape in connection with it. It is a fact that many applicants grow weary of the long and tedious red tape and the thousand and one ques- tions to be answered and fail to send their applications in just because it takes so much time and trouble to get them properly filled out. Do not let this hinder you. THE CIVIL SERVICE 35 Read the application through carefully before you at- tempt to fill it out. Then fill it out in accordance with the instructions printed on it and have it signed by the notary and others required to sign. Be sure to put a ten-cent revenue stamp on the notary's acknowledgment or the application will be returned. When you have it completed send it to the Civil Service Commission at Washington, and if it is not properly filled out, it will be returned with a letter stating what corrections are necessary. You must answer every question asked if you do not want the application to be returned. Do not overlook a single one. When the application is finally completed you will be notified by a card from the Com- mission that you are admitted to the examination. The date and place will be mentioned on the card, and you should take this card to the examination room with you for admittance. The examinations are very much alike from time to time, in that they cover the same field of knowledge. A careful study of the test questions given herein is the best preparation that you can get for the examination. Take the whole bunch of test questions and answer all of them the same as if you were in examination, allow- ing yourself the same time on each subject as shown in schedules prepared for each examination. This is the best kind of preparation. Do not get nervous over the examination. Be calm and composed. By all means don't be impressed with any fear and nervousness of not passing. Fear is the most destructive emotion that the human being experi- ences. It will cut your efficiency in half if you do not banish it from you. Have faith and courage in its stead if you would succeed. If you will forget about whether you are going to pass, and put your whole mind on the work at hand, it is quite certain you will pass. Do not make the grievous mistake of studying late the night before examination. Finish your study two nights be- fore the examination and on the night before the exami- nation go to bed very early after some brisk exercise in the open air. Get up early on the day of the examina- 36 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE tion and take a brisk walk before breakfast, and do not try to do any studying on that day. If, perchance, you are not successful, that won't harm you. Make another application to the Commission for the next examination. "A person who has been notified of his failure to pass in an examination may, upon filing a new application, in due time, enter the next examination, when held." CIVIL SERVICE RULE. Your first failure will show you where you are weak and will put you in the right position to prepare to pass the next examination. Failure on one examination will not prejudice the Commission against you in any way on future examinations. The author failed in his first examination before the Civil Service Commission, but tried the very next one and passed. Since that time he has taken many civil service examinations for different kinds of positions and has never failed on any of them. Don't let a failure daunt your courage. So-called fail- ures are only successes in disguise to him who has the courage to push on. A failure is not always your fault. It may be due in a few cases to carelessness of examiners in grading pa- pers. The author once received a very low mark on a certain examination which was below the passing mark of seventy per cent. He was confident that he ought to have passed. Living in Washington at the time it was convenient to go to the office of the Commission and ask to see the examination papers in order to learn why they were rated so low. It developed that the entire papers on one subject had been lost by the Commission and that they didn't allow any credit whatever for that subject. It developed also that certain correct answers of some problems in accountancy were not graded at their full value. When the whole matter was properly adjusted, the average was eighty-five per cent instead of fifty per cent, and appointment was afterward offered to the po- sition sought. However, the author believes firmly that the Com- mission is strictly competent, impartial, fair, and honest THE CIVIL SERVICE 37 in all of its dealings with applicants for examinations, and that errors like the above do not happen often. I would recommend that you do not attempt to question their grading of your papers in any way unless you are very sure that a gross error has been made. If, however, you will follow carefully the instructions laid down in this book, you will not fail. The civil service examinations are not half as hard as most people think, but to be successful you must be prepared on the subjects of the examination. As mentioned previously, the sample questions given in this book, and also to be found in the ''Manual of Examinations," are the very best material for prepara- tion that you can find. If you can go to some reliable business college and study arithmetic, English, and speed practice, or book- keeping, that is the best thing to do in conjunction with the study of sample questions. In taking the examination selected, you will be al- lowed seven hours for the bookkeeper examination, six hours for the stenographer and typewriter examina- tion and five hours for the typewriter or clerk examina- tion. You will be required to stay in the examination room until you finish the examination, except that you may be excused for the toilet. When you finish you will not have to wait for others who are not yet finished. Examination papers are given to each person separately and as soon as you finish one set of papers you may turn it in and get the next set without having to wait for oth- ers to finish. Under the headings of each of the positions treated in this chapter, is given a schedule of subjects which shows the weight of each subject and the amount of time one should allow for it on the examination. This shows the problem in clear form so that the student knows where to put in most of his time in preparation, and in taking the examination. These tables have been the result of very careful study and analysis of the examination problem, with the end in view of showing the student exactly where to apply 38 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE his effort so that it will count the most points according to the Commission's way of rating papers. The author is certain that by carefully directing one's efforts in accordance with these tables, appointment will be the result. Take the ten minutes allowed in these schedules to eat a light luncheon at your desk about noontime. This much relaxation and rest is necessary, and will more than pay for itself in increased efficiency on the subjects that follow. It will refresh you and you will finish bet- ter than if you tried to work through the entire time without food or rest. In selecting the luncheon do not in- clude any highly concentrated foods or those hard to digest. Some bread and butter sandwiches and a bottle of milk make the best luncheon for this occasion. After you have finished the examination you will have to wait until the papers can be sent to Washington and graded before you will get your rating. The time re- quired for this varies from a couple of weeks to several months, but in most cases the papers are graded within a month of the date of the examinations. You will be notified by post card of your rating. If you have made a good grade, you will be offered a posi- tion soon. Persons living very far from Washington are usually appointed by telegraph. The Department se- lecting you, wires asking if you will accept a certain po- sition in a certain office at a certain salary. If your re- ply is favorable, you are immediately wired back to "re- port for duty at Washington as soon as practicable." This telegram is confirmed by letter mailed the same day, which you will receive later. The position is then yours beyond dispute or doubt and all you have to do is to resign your present position and go to Washington and report for duty. The instructions to "report for duty at Washington as soon as practicable," do not mean as soon as possible. When you receive the letter of appointment, reply to it an acceptance of the appointment which will be a con- firmation of your telegram of acceptance. In this letter you should state that you feel honor bound to give your THE CIVIL SERVICE 39 present employer notice before leaving him and that you will report for duty on a certain date, naming the date. Give your employer reasonable notice before you leave. It is the honorable thing to do, and moreover when you have finished at Washington, he may be the very man who will throw some professional practice your way or assist you in business. It will not be a trying task to fit yourself into your new work. You will find most of the people very willing to instruct a beginner in the service. They probably began in the same way. You will be given some light work at first and allowed plenty of time to familiarize yourself with it before you are expected to accomplish very much. The "Departmental Service" is the service at Wash- ington. If you are interested in the educational features mentioned in this book, be sure to state in your papers that you wish appointment in the Departmental Service. Otherwise you may be appointed to serve in Panama, the Philippines, or Alaska. You may wish to transfer to one of these places after you have finished your work at Washington. If you are short of funds for the trip when you receive your appointment, don't let that worry you, although it is much better if you can have a little money saved up. You have the papers to show of your secured position and the salary it pays. A government position once se- cured under the rules of the civil service is almost as sure a thing as a government bond. Any friend or busi- ness man who trusts your honesty will lend you the money to get to Washington, and when you get there if you will let it be known that you are working for the Government, any boarding-house keeper will trust you for your room and board until you can draw your pay. Employees at Washington are paid semi-monthly and none of the pay is ever held back. You are paid in full on each pay day. 40 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE Stenographer and Typewriter The typewriter examination and the shorthand exam- ination are considered as separate examinations. In order to become eligible as a stenographer and type- writer one must pass both examinations. These exami- nations are given to the applicant at the same time. The subjects of the examination and relative weight of subjects on scale of one hundred are: Stenographer Stenography dictation / 75 Copying from rough draft 10 Penmanship 5 Report writing 5 Arithmetic 5 Total 100 Typewriter Copying and spacing 20 Copying from rough draft 15 Copying from plain copy 10 Time on typewriter 30 Penmanship 10 Report writing 10 Arithmetic 5 Total loo The subjects of copying from rough draft, penman- ship, and report writing, will be required to be taken only once, at the same time and place with the examination for stenographer and typewriter. If a competitor passes both the stenographer exami- nation and the typewriter examination, the averages of the two examinations will be combined, with a weight of two for stenography and a weight of one for typewrit- ing, and with the average thus obtained, his name will Copyright, Detroit Photographic Co WASHINGTON MONUMENT STENOGRAPHER AND TYPEWRITER 41 be entered on the combined stenographer and typewriter register. In addition, his name may be considered for positions as typewriter alone, or stenographer alone, if the needs of the service so require. In order that the student may know the relative value of the subjects based on one hundred per cent, after they are combined with a weight of two for stenography and a weight of one for typewriting as mentioned above, the following table has been prepared: SCHEDULE FOR APPORTIONMENT OF TIME ON PREPARATION AND EXAMINATION FOR STENOGRAPHER AND TYPEWRITER Subject Value Time one should give to subject on examination Stenography dictation tjo % 2 hrs. 45 min. Copying from rough draft. . Luncheon iiffc 10 min. 10 min. Time on typewriting Penmanship 10% 61% See Note No. i See Note No 2 Copying and spacing 15 min. Report writing . 61% i hr 15 min Arithmetic 5 % i hr. 15 min. Copying from plain copy. . . 3i% 10 min. Totals 100 % 6 hours Note I. Graded from your speed on the three typewriting sub- jects. Note 2. Graded from report- writing paper. Spelling will be considered in grading typewriting papers. On your report-writing paper be very careful with its legibility, neatness, and general appearance and with its correctness and uniformity in the formation of words, letters and punctuation marks. Since your penmanship will be graded from this paper, it is important that the above mentioned features be carefully executed. 42 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE It will be noted that the element of time on the three typewriting subjects, namely, copying from rough draft, copying and spacing and copying from plain copy, is valued at ten per cent. Be sure to bear this in mind and do your typewriting as fast as possible without sac- rificing accuracy. It would, however, be better to sac- rifice speed for accuracy, if necessary. Time is not counted on transcription of your stenography dictation, so take pains to get this right. On the subject of copying and spacing where you are required to do much tabulation work, be sure that you are prepared for this tabulation. In business I find that many stenographers who have a good speed on straight typewriting do not know a thing about counting of spaces and arranging a tabulated statement so that it has symmetry of form and clear presentation of fact. Practice on your machine several times the treasury statement given in the sample questions. If you don't practice it, you will find that it will require more time to get it right than you can afford to give to it on exami- nation. Don't fool yourself about this tabulation. It will be noted from the preceding table that the sub- jects having the most weight on examination are short- hand and typewriting. The other subjects are compara- tively easy, except arithmetic. Nearly everyone de- ceives himself about his ability in handling ordinary problems in arithmetic, and for this reason more fail on arithmetic than on any other subject. However, since a perfect paper on arithmetic is worth only five per cent on this examination, a student may leave this subject out entirely and still make a good average grade pro- vided the average is good enough on the other subjects. You would be allowed to leave out the arithmetic if you cared to on examination. You would be handed a paper of questions on arithmetic which you could im- mediately turn in and ask for the papers on the next subject. As previously stated, time is limited to six hours for all subjects on this examination. The value of dividing one's time as outlined in a preceding schedule cannot be STENOGRAPHER AND TYPEWRITER 43 impressed too forcibly. If you have not finished one subject in the time properly allotted to it, lay it aside, or if required, turn it in and proceed with the next subject. This is vital to your success. Sample Questions and Tests with Their Solutions. First Subject Stenography Dictation The following is a sample of dictation which has been given: Our present system of transportation by rail is not keeping pace with our rapid increase of production and consumption. Most of the transportation is over rail, and we have utilized our rivers only in a meager way. This is essentially true of our interior waterways. Water traffic, to a large extent, is localized around the Great Lakes and splendid as are the results, still the benefits have failed to reach the great interior sources of production. Even this limited area of water trans- portation, however, demonstrates advantages and shows that waterways should be established and assured as a permanent part of the traffic system. Over the region of the central west lies a great freight-producing area. Under all-rail system of carrying freight the western producer fails to reach the mar- kets with a profit, and the consuming world is denied access to these interior fields of production. For several years the roads have failed to move the crops in season, and before long they will be able to move only a portion of the farm products to market. Leaders in railroad transportation recently esti- mated that the next ten years would require seventy-five thou- sand miles more of trackage construction to meet the require- ments of the normal growth of the country. It is quite unlikely that the necessary increase of railroad mileage and equipment will be made. Wisdom and experience point to a comprehensive program of interior waterway improvement. Encouragement of production is not rational if we neglect the natural facilities for distribution. The practical test in stenography consists of one ex- ercise of two hundred and fifty words similar to that above and containing no technical matter. The dictations are given to the entire class, in regular order, according to speed. A preliminary exercise is given at the rate of eighty words a minute, to familiarize the competitors with the examiner's manner of dictation. The regular exercise will then be dictated at different rates of speed, 44 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE as follows : Eighty words, one hundred words, one hun- dred twenty words, and one hundred forty words a minute. The matter dictated is different for each exer- cise. All competitors are expected to take the notes at both the preliminary and the regular eighty-word tests, one of which exercises they will be required to transcribe. In addition they will be permitted to take the notes of any or all of the remaining dictations at the higher rates of speed. At the conclusion of the dictations the competi- tors will be allowed ten minutes in which to select one of the eighty-word exercises and any one of the exer- cises at the higher rates of speed which they may wish to transcribe. The notes of all the tests not to be transcribed will be taken up by the examiner and will not be considered in the rating. The transcript of the notes may be made either with the typewriter or in longhand. Not to ex- ceed one hour will be allowed for making the transcrip- tions. Speed in making the transcript is not an element. Competitors who, in addition to one of the eighty-word dictations, transcribe one of the dictations at a higher rate will, in determining the ratings on the stenography test, be given the rating on the exercise in which they attain the higher percentage on speed and accuracy com- bined, and the other exercise will not be considered. Speed and accuracy are given equal weight in the rating, the ratings for speed for the different rates of dicta- tion being as follows : Eighty words a minute, seventy per cent in speed ; one hundred words a minute, eighty per cent in speed; one hundred twenty words a minute, ninety per cent in speed; one hundred forty words a minute, one hundred per cent in speed. The rating for accuracy is determined by the correctness of the tran- script. No special system of stenography is recommended. Any system or method of making notes, including the use of shorthand writing machines, is acceptable, pro- vided the notes are turned in to the examiner after being STENOGRAPHER AND TYPEWRITER 45 transcribed. Some of the departments, however, have expressed their unwillingness to employ stenographers who make notes by means of mechanical devices. Second Subject Copying and Spacing In the copying and spacing test the competitor is re- quired to make an exact copy of an exercise similar to that shown in reduced size below, reproducing it accurate- ly in every particular, and preserving all spaces between lines and between words, figures, and characters, and the relative positions of the lines on the sheet. The copy fur- nished to the competitor is a photo-lithograph of a sheet which has been typewritten and is so prepared that it may be reproduced on any style of typewriting machine. The rating is on accuracy only. The total time consumed will be rated as a separate subject. Statement made by tfttASURY DEPARTMENT of Customs Business , /.Q. Districts and ports. Fiscal year ended June 30, 1901 Tax. He- oeipts. value of exports. I Ex- penses* "^476 98,527 15,187 For- : DO- eign. : 'nestle. Saco $29 $53 14,744 151,997 198 420,234 84,448 1,257 478 29,880 : 14 5 750,100 ! 7,1S7 I 277 |430 2*, 654 107 |657 54,020 Brunswick 13,534 151,364 145 419 i 234 83,385 578 SSI HUffibOldt 163,682 3,07 18,354 6,537 1,489 2,319 Milwaukee 1,788 230 88 29,744 134 cape Vincent.. 29,749 13,946 156,590 14,890 163 32,316 14,901 13,672 Cleveland..*.. Gloucester. . . . Peabina. ...... : 747,560 : 5,135 1 71,023 1,757 1,000 1Q,308 388,825 404 64,567 The receipts for 1901 are $20,444,485.64 greater than for 1900, the next highest in our records, and of the increase $11,- 852,737.01, considerably more than one-half, is fron customs revenue. The net growth of expenditures for the year is 122,253,551.00. The surplus for the year is Kept at $77,717,984. 38, x x x which is only $1,809,075.80 less than in 1900. Thfe expendi- tures for 1890 were exceeded "by those of 1863, $718,754,276.18. 46 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE It is not practicable to give solutions to the first two subjects since they are tests of personal skill instead of knowledge. Third Subject Copying from Rough Draft In the exercise in copying from rough draft the com- petitor will be required to make a corrected copy of a rough-draft letter, such as appears below, paragraphing, punctuating, capitalizing, and spelling as in the copy, but writing in full all signs and abbreviated words. This exercise should be double spaced. Competitors who take the stenographer examination only may make the copy either in longhand or with the machine, while those who take the stenographer and typewriter examination or the typewriter examination will be required to make the copy on the machine. Speed in making the copy will be considered only in the cases of those who take the stenographer and typewriter or the typewriter examination. ocean-carrying aarineyiflJBNnli fieeeefc by A the In one yr we paid to foreign companies f 169,000,000 for freightage-, and t49.0QO.OOO > forCfarM n7foa8Benge'r7^ani insurance. In the *y eaote yr >he cowitry sent to for- eign lands ver4MO.OiXJ.OOOk more of good* than ff 1r _ %^JttA* Jt-^i- from^trteee SBUH*yte; and some^call this^tha balance of trade In our favor. * Y,>ae uiea of the regular steas* ship lines between Eur and* the U j. Jt^recelreiJ^a larger proportion of *h f lB?s>or\.t.4*4/ia the outlet for over /third of our ocmfreatlc exports^/ Bread-stuffs, provisions, cotton, and petrdleun form (gne-haJlf^about) of *he-,export, city ha* te 353 aljrater front, (of which JU\^t^ * *>~t**rv^ A-JLo-*. . Bay tefwe^d- for shipping., the pier* of Jersey City and t V\ * -* \ F Hobokeit, In M J,(practlcallyXar5)a.part ninety nl of pler^ A aay b^ ven^. largely extended, elgn novement of the port^ohich-- i. nery i*rg^t< The for- more Vhan three tlstas the tonnage cf^ltt nearest competitor, JioetonTyAbout fifty t J^.jtju , , - _ j^*^Vi ....&ryyNjU/.iJcL^d8tJL.jfefl x* ^yU^AvueJLo^iUA^J^ C--i2!8uJL^ i A^ ... .^^MfeJjctL/ JUIAHX^ ex 2^J^ _ _ Solution One of the best and most cheerful signs of American interest in matters other than the purely material, is the rapid increase of artistic commercial buildings. Hotels are more lavishly beautified than ordinary business buildings, but this is as it should be, since hotels are the only homes that many persons have. Business structures, however, are receiving more and more attention, being now decorated to an extent which seemed absurdly wasteful not long ago. 58 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE That a railway company should introduce decorative and ceramic art into its power-house, for example, cannot result in any immediate cash profit; yet that is what one railway company has done. Located in the heart of a dingy and deserted slum district, there is a great building of the finest white stone designed by one of the best architects which America can claim. It is simple, though neither plain nor severe ; dignified and beautiful, and cannot fail to have an uplifting and beneficent effect upon the neighborhood. Practice of Bookkeeping Debit and Credit A firm grasp of the principles of debit and credit is so fundamentally essential to any success in bookkeeping that the author has thought it well to precede any attempt at the solution of the problems with an explanation of the principles of debit and credit as applied in the art of double-entry bookkeeping. Upon the principles of debit and credit rest all the principles of double-entry. The system of double-entry bookkeeping, so far as can be traced, appeared in Venice and Genoa in the four- teenth century, and was known as the Method of Venice. More than a century later, in 1494, a monk, Luca Pacioli, published the first treatise upon double-entry bookkeep- ing. It remains unchanged in principle, and it has been changed in practice only to save labor and to meet the different conditions under which business is now trans- acted. The system of double-entry has become the standard of bookkeeping because by its use, the objects of book- keeping are accomplished with the least effort. Double-entry bookkeeping is based upon the theory of a natural law of compensation or balance. In nature there are many instances of a division of things into two parts, effecting a balance or equilibrium. For exam- ple, there are two poles, north and south; there is an east and west ; day and night ; male and female, etc. This natural law of balance or equilibrium supplies the fundamental principle of double-entry bookkeeping. Con- sidering the first object of bookkeeping, the statement of the ownership of values, it will be seen that the theory of balance or equilibrium, can be applied, for the total of BOOKKEEPER 59 such net values must equal the worth of the owner. Thus in the case of an individual possessing values to the extent of ten thousand dollars, the values and the worth of the owner constitute an equilibrium as follows: Values (re- Worth of owner sources) ...$ 10,000 (capftal account) . ..$10,000 Most bookkeeping schools teach a lot of rules about debit and credit, and many times the application of these rules causes the student much confusion and anguish. You cannot apply the principles of double-entry by a set of rules unless you first understand the principles. To start with we debit resources, more properly called assets, and credit liabilities. The principle would work out just the same as if we did the reverse, but because of many years of usage the practice has become estab- lished to debit assets and credit liabilities, instead of debit liabilities and credit assets. Now with this much clear, suppose we reduce an asset, as when we pay out cash. An asset reduced has the same effect as a liability created so we credit reduction of assets. Now a reduction of a liability has the same effect as the creation of an asset so we debit the reduc- tion of a liability, as when we pay accounts payable with cash, we debit accounts payable and credit cash. We credit capital because it is the excess of assets over liabilities, and the excess of the assets being on the debit side, we must credit capital in order to produce an equilibrium. A profit or gain is an increase of capital, so we credit profit or gain. An expense, cost, or loss is a decrease of profit or capital, and is just the opposite of profit or capital, so we debit an expense, cost, or a loss. A reduction of capital is just the opposite of an in- crease of capital. Capital and all increases of capital are credited, therefore a reduction of capital is debited. There may be a transfer entry on either side. You should go through the above reasoning of why things are debited and credited until you know it by 60 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE heart. When you have done this you will never have any more trouble or doubts about debit and credit. You will not have to remember any rules. You have mas- tered the principles and you can answer questions about debit and credit as fast as they can be given you. A tabulation of the above follows which will assist the student in getting it firmly fixed in mind. A debit entry on an account may show: I. An asset. 2. Reduction of a liability. 3. Expense, cost or loss. 4. Reduction of capital. A credit entry on an account may show: I. A liability. 2. A reduction of an asset. 3. Capital. 4. Profit or gain. (Either side may show a transfer.) From the above you can reason out that an account with a debit balance is either an asset, an expense, or a combination of the two, or a withdrawal. You can also reason out that an account with a credit balance is either CL liability, capital, or profit. First Exercise The first exercise is given a weight of 2, and the sec- ond exercise a weight of I. On the blanks furnished make the necessary double- entry journal entries for the transactions found in the memoranda below. Keep the bank account separate from the cash account. Make no day-book entries. March i, 1905, Thomas Morris opened new books with the following resources : Cash in Citizens' Bank, $7,800 ; cash in safe, $2,687.50; merchandise, $4,768; real estate, $9,750 ; an account against William Rose, $2,360 ; a note, given by James Wilson for $1,287.50, due in six months without interest, accounted at its present worth, $1,250. His liabilities were an account due John West, $2,976; BOOKKEEPER 61 a note for $900 due Arthur Moore, accrued interest to date, $27.50 ; an acceptance at fifteen days for $840, dated February 15, 1905, drawn upon him by Abraham Nay lor in favjr of Joseph Kemp. March 2. Bought of Jones Bros., merchandise, $5,400. Gave in payment a note at six months, interest, $90, included in face of note ; face of note, $3,090. Balance on account. March 6. Sold to Samuel Aikens merchandise, $2,600. Received in payment the acceptance mentioned in liabili- ties, $840, and a draft on Chase Chemical Bank for bal- ance (not deposited). _ March 13. Morris sold to John Kelso a half interest in the business for $13,000 in cash. (Account the differ- ence between this valuation of the business and the valua- tion as shown by the opening entry as good will.) March 18. Sent Jones Bros, a draft at ten days' sight drawn by us upon William Rose in favor of Jones Bros. Face of draft, $600. March 25. Bought of James Wilson, merchandise, $2,400. Gave in payment his note mentioned in resources. Face of note, $1,287.50; present worth, $1,254.87. Bal- ance on account. March 27. Sold Jarvis & Ox, merchandise, $3,600. Received in payment a sight exchange for $800 on New York accepted at ^ per cent premium, and their note at twenty days for balance. March 29. Paid by check on Citizens' Bank the note due Arthur Moore mentioned in liabilities. Face of note, $900; accrued interest to date, $31.70. March 30. Discounted at the Citizens' Bank our note at six months, and received credit for proceeds. Face of note $800, discount $24. 62 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE SOLUTION JOURNAL MARCH i, 1905 Thomas Morris opened new books this day as sole trader with Assets and Liabilities as under: Citizens' Bank (Cash) 7,800 2,687 4,768 9,750 2,360 1,250 90 5,400 840 1,760 2,128 00 50 00 oo 00 00 oo 00 oo 00 oo 2,976 900 27 840 23,872 3,090 2,400 2,600 2,128 oo oo 50 oo 00 00 oo 00 oo Cash (in safe) Merchandise Real Estate William Rose Bills Receivable (Js. Wilson) To John West 11 Bills Payable (A. Moore) 44 Accrued Interest " Bills Payable (J. Kemp) " Thomas Morris Capital Account. . . Interest Merchandise To Bills Payable 14 Jonps Bros for Mdse. bot. from Jones Bros. Bills Payable (J. Kemp) Cash To Merchandise for Merchandise sold. Good will To Thomas Morris Capital Acct. for Good will Account set up on books prior to admitting John Kelso as partner with one-half interest.. BOOKKEEPER JOURNAL MARCH, 1905 13,000 600 2,400 2,799 i 800 900 4 27 776 24 00 00 00 oo 00 oo 00 20 50 00 oo 13,000 600 1,250 4 1,145 3,600 931 800 00 00 00 87 13 00 70 00 13 To John Kelso for one-half interest in business sold for cash by Thomas Morris. Cash being paid in hand to Thomas Morris by John Kelso this day. TO Jones Bros To William Rose for draft upon William Rose sent to Jones Bros. Z 5 Merchandise To Bills Receivable (Jas. Wilson) " Interest 11 James Wilson for Mdse. bot. of Jas. Wilson. 27 Bills Receivable (Jarvis & Co., 20 ds.) Exchange Cash To Merchandise for Mdse. sold Jarvis & Co. 29 Bills Payable (A. Moore) Interest Accrued Interest To Citizens' Bank (Cash) for payment of note to A. Moore and interest. Citizens' Bank (Cash) Discount To Bills Payable for note discounted at ban!:. 64 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE Explanation March i, Entry. In the opening entry all assets are debited and all liabilities credited and Thomas Morris, the proprietor, is credited on his capital account for the excess of assets over liabilities which is his net capital investment. Always debit assets when received and credit them when disposed of. Credit liabilities when in- curred and debit them when they are extinguished. The capital account is credited with the capital investment and this brings the books into balance. In entering a long journal entry like the first one always add up the debits and credits to be sure that they balance. When you are finished with one page of journal entries, they should always be totaled to see that all the debits on that page balance with the total of the credits on that page. Never carry part of a journal entry from one page to another. March 2^ Entry. Interest is debited because it is an expense incurred. All expenses are debited when they are incurred. Merchandise is debited because it is an asset received. Bills Payable is credited because it is a liability mcurred and the liability to Jones Bros, is cred- ited for the same reason. March 6, Entry. Bills Payable is debited because it is a liability extinguished. This liability was credited when it was incurred. Now that it is extinguished, it is debited and that account, so far as this particular note is concerned, balances. Cash is debited because it is an asset received. All bank drafts, checks, and sight drafts are considered as cash in bookkeeping. A check is a sight draft on a bank. Some checks are printed in draft form with the name of the bank addressed to in the lower left-hand corner. Other checks have the name of the bank, upon which they are drawn, across the top. March 13, Entries. After a business has been estab- lished and has regular customers, then, as a going con- cern, with a reputation and proved success, it is worth BOOKKEEPER 65 more than its excess of assets over liabilities. This addi- tional value of a business is represented on the books by an asset account called Good Will. This is an asset ac- count, though it represents an intangible asset. Now before Mr. Morris is willing to sell out one-half of his business, based on the book value, he wants to take record of this good will item first so that the new partner may pay for his half of the good will when ha comes in. The amount of the good will is usually a matter to be agreed upon between the partners. The $13,000 does not enter the cash or bank account of the company because this amount passes personally from Mr. Kelso to Mr. Morris. If, however, the cash had been paid into the business, as is sometimes the case, the total capital would have been increased to $39,000 of which Thomas Morris would have owned $26,000 or two-thirds and John Kelso $13,000 or one-third. March 18, Entry. Jones Bros, is debited because by sending them a note the partnership is reducing its liabil- ity. William Rose is credited because he is being drawn upon for money and his liability to us which is our asset is being reduced. March 25, Entry. Merchandise is debited because it is an asset received. Bills Receivable is credited because it is an asset reduced. Interest is credited because it is a profit earning. All earnings are credited. They are just the opposite from expenses which are debited as incurred. The amount of this credit measures part of the merchandise on the other side. Since capital is credited in the first place all increases in capital which result from interest and from trading, etc., must be credited. When the books are closed all these credits are transferred to profit and loss where they are offset by the expenses and the net gain or loss is transferred to capital account. James Wilson is credited because the company has incurred a liability to him. March 27, Entry. Bills Receivable is debited because it is an asset received. Exchange is debited because it is an expense incurred. Cash is debited because it is an asset received. New York Exchange is considered 66 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE the same as cash. Merchandise is credited because it is an asset reduced. March 29, Entry. Bills Payable is debited because it is a liability reduced. Interest is debited because it is an expense incurred. Accrued Interest is debited because it is a liability reduced. Citizens' Bank is credited be- cause it is an asset reduced. March 30, Entry. Citizens' Bank is debited because it is an asset (cash) increased. Discount is debited be- cause it is an expense incurred. Bills Payable is credited because it is a liability incurred. Second Exercise From the data given below make out a balance sheet which shall include a trial balance, the inventory, and statement of losses and gains, proprietors' accounts, and resources and liabilities. On March I, 1905, Charles Martin had on hand as per inventory merchandise, $5,400; real estate, $7,600; un- used office stationery, $20.75. The balance of the cash account, as shown by the ledger was $3,640, and the balance of the bills payable account was $2,365. The footings of the other ledger accounts were as follows : Debit footings: Charles Martin (proprietor), $970; Merchandise, $12,800; Real Estate, $8,000; Traders' Bank, $4,780.25; Bills Receivable, $4,620; Expense, $90.25; Interest and Discount, $148.60; Joshua Miller, $2,897.50. Credit footings: Charles Martin (proprietor), $6,797.85; Merchandise, $7,800; Real Estate, $120; Traders' Bank, $3,600; Bills Receivable, $3,640.75; In- terest and Discount, $197.80; Joshua Miller, $ (amount to be supplied by the competitor). The following statement is the kind the Commission wants you to prepare in answer to this question. So give them what they want if you would succeed. The first pair of columns is your trial balance. In making up this trial balance the author has put down the net balance of the respective accounts instead of putting BOOKKEEPER 67 down the debit and credit footings of each account where given. Either way would be mathematically correct, and would give the same results. It must be borne in mind, however, that all bookkeeping statements are prepared for the purpose of conveying information to someone, usually the manager of the business, and the statements should always be in the most readable and convenient form. It should never be necessary for the reader to perform any mental calculations in order to arrive at any of the facts intended to be conveyed. If the debit and credit footings were put down the reader would have to make a mental calculation to see what the net balance was. The last amount in the trial balance is not given. The competitor must fill this amount in and it must be an amount that will put the trial balance in balance. SOLUTION ACCOUNTS TRIAL BALANCE LOSSES AND GAINS RESOURCES AMI LIABILITIES Debit Credit Losses Gains Resour- ces Liabil ities Charles Martin, Prop. Merchandise 5,000 7,880 1,180 979 90 3,640 00 00 25 25 25 00 5,827 49 2,365 10,527 85 20 00 70 280 69 oo 50 400 49 oo 20 5.400 7,600 1,180 979 30 3,640 00 00 25 25 75 00 2,365 10,527 Real Estate Traders' Bank Bills Receivable Interest and Discount Cash Bills Payable Joshua Miller TOTALS 18.769 75 18,769 75 349 99 50 70 449 20 20 85 70 18,820 2S 12,892 5.927 Net Gain Charles Martin, Prop. Credit Balance Net Gain as above New Balance 449 20 449 5,827 99 18,820 25 =. 18,820 The amounts shown in italic figures should be in red to denote inventories. 68 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE Before you start to determine the amount of this last account, you should first check carefully over the other amounts which you have put down, to be sure that they are all correct for if you have left out one or made any error in entering one, then your last amount will be incorrect and the whole outcome as to profit or loss may be radically changed thereby. Do not attempt to make the rulings for this or any other statement with ink. It takes too much time and a hard pencil will do just as well. After the rulings are made, the writing should be in ink. After you have completed trial balance, then proceed to enter the inventories in the "Resources" column with red ink. Since the merchandise account is charged with only $5,000 on the ledger and since the inventory shows $5,400, the business has gained $400 on merchandise and that is entered in the "Gains" column. Since the Real Estate account is charged with $7,880 and the inventory shows on hand only $7,600, the business has lost $280 on Real Estate. Expense is charged with $90.25 but the inventory shows on hand some office supplies worth $20.75. The balance represents a loss of $69.50 and is entered in the "Loss" column. Interest and Discount being on the credit side shows a gain and is entered in the "Gains" column. When the "Losses and Gains" columns are totaled up it is found that the gains exceed the losses by $99.70 and this is the net gain. If the "Losses" column were the largest the difference would be a loss and would be entered in the "Gains" column to bring the two columns to balance. We will now extend the "Resources and Liabilities" columns. We already have the inventories in the "Re- sources" column and they are the new balances of these accounts. The other Resources shown in the Trial Bal- ance are extended in the "Resources" column and the liabilities extended in the "Liabilities" column. It will be noted that every item of the Trial Balance, except the proprietor's account has been extended either TYPEWRITER 69 in the "Losses and Gains" columns or the "Resources and Liabilities" columns. Every item of Trial Balance is always a loss, a gain, a resource, or a liability, except the proprietor's account. It measures the difference between the resources and liabilities and represents the owner- ship of the business. The net gain is added to the proprietor's account at the bottom of the statement, and it is then extended in the "Liabilities" column to balance. This leaves the whole statement in balance. If all three pairs of columns do not balance, you have made a mistake in the work. Your trial balance should always be in balance before you proceed further with the work. Typewriter The typewriter examination offers an opportunity for those students to enter the service, who are not very speedy in shorthand. You can speed up on your typewriting which can be acquired sooner and easier than shorthand. You can pass the examination for typewriter and after you get appointed you can then continue your shorthand and, when competent, take the next examination for stenog- rapher right in Washington or wherever you happen to be employed. The time allowed for this examination is five hours. The following table shows the subjects of the exam- ination and their relative value on a scale of one hun- dred. It has been prepared to show the student just how much time should be allowed to each subject on examin- ation. It will be of great assistance also in directing one's effort in preparing for the examination. It will be noted that thirty-five minutes have been allowed for the first three subjects in the table. Consider- ing their importance based on their relative value, one would be justified in spending more time on these but for the fact that speed on these subjects is valued at thirty per cent of the examination as "Time on 70 HOW TO PREPARE FOR ! IVIL SERVICE Typewriting," and in order to make one hundred on speed one must complete the three tests in thirty minutes. The candidate should, therefore, execute them with all the speed possible. SCHEDULE FOR APPORTIONMENT OF TIME ON PREPARATION AND EXAMINATION FOR TYPEWRITER Subject Value Time one should give to subject on examination Copying and spacing 20% 15 minutes Copying from rough draft . . Copying from plain copy . . . L/uncheon 15% 10% 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes Time on typewriting 30% See Note No i Penmanship 10% See Note No 2 Report writing 10% 2 hours Arithmetic r% 2 hrs. 15 minutes Totals . . . I OO% c hours Note I. Graded from your speed on the three typewriting sub- jects. Note 2. Graded from your work on report writing. Time consumed will be rated according to the follow- ing scale : If the competitor consumes only thirty min- utes on the three typewriting subjects, he will be credited with one hundred. When the time consumed is more than thirty minutes and not more than fifty minutes, one will be deducted from one hundred for every minute con- sumed more than thirty minutes. When the time con- sumed is more than fifty minutes and not more than fifty-eight minutes, two will be deducted from eighty for every minute consumed more that fifty minutes. When the time consumed is more than fifty-eight minutes and not more than sixty-seven minutes, three will be de- ducted from sixty-four for every minute consumed more than fifty-eight minutes. When the time consumed is more than sixty-seven minutes and not more than seventy CLERK 71 minutes, four will be deducted from thirty-seven for each minute consumed more than sixty-seven minutes. When the time consumed is more than seventy minutes, no credit will be given for time, and it will be impossible for the competitor to make an eligible average percentage on the typewriting subjects. No time is considered on the subjects of report writing and arithmetic. You can, therefore, spend all the balance of your five hours on these subjects. Your penmanship will be graded from the writing on the report-writing paper, so be very careful with this subject. No particular style of penmanship is preferred but aim to make it neat and legible. Since the arithmetic is only worth five per cent of the examination, you should not let these problems detract from your best efforts on the other subjects. If you made a perfect grade on all the other subjects, you would have an average of ninety-five per cent without trying the arithmetic at all. You are graded on your general average and complete failure in a minor subject would not debar you. Spelling will be considered in grading typewriting papers. The subject of typewriting is fully covered under the heading of stenographer and typewriter. The solutions to all the subjects of the examination are given under that heading and the student interested in the typewriter examination should read carefully all that is printed under the heading of "Stenographer and Typewriter" in this chapter. Clerk Through this examination a person without business training or experience may get into the civil service. Almost any person of high school education can pass this examination. Some who have not a high school training manage to pass it. Eligibles resulting from this examination will be certi- fied for appointment in the departments and independ- ent offices at Washington, D. C, only. Persons who 72 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE desire appointment to clerical positions in offices outside of Washington, D. C, should apply for information and application blanks to the secretary of the civil service district in whose territory they desire employment. Competitors who fail to attain a rating of at least seventy per cent in arithmetic or sixty-five per cent in report writing will not be eligible for appointment and the remaining subjects of the examination will not be considered. Time allowed for this examination is five hours. SCHEDULE FOR APPORTIONMENT OF TIME ON PREPARATION AND EXAMINATION FOR CLERK Subject Value Time one should give to subject on examination Spelling 10% 30 minutes Arithmetic 2C% 2 hours Penmanship ic% See Note Luncheon 10 minutes Report writing.. . ... 25% i hour Copying and correcting manuscript 15% 40 minutes Geography and Civil Gov- ernment of the United States 10% 40 minutes Totals 100% 5 hours Note. Graded on report-writing paper.. The following questions and tests, which have been used, indicate the general character of the subjects of this examination. As far as possible, the answers and solutions are given with each subject. Arithmetic As stated previously, the candidate must make a rating of at least seventy per cent on arithmetic in order to pass this examination. It is desired to impress the student for the clerk's examination with the importance of studying arithmetic CLERK 73 very assiduously. More candidates fail on arithmetic than on any other subject. This subject is very impor- tant. It is the principal subject of this examination, and is worth twenty-five per cent though it is a minor subject and worth only five per cent on other examinations. Many persons deceive themselves about their ability to handle simple problems in arithmetic with speed. The arithmetic as well as other subjects, is practically the same each time in that it covers the same field of topics. If you will study carefully these sample questions and the subjects which they involve, there will be little diffi- culty in passing the examination. The arithmetic examination is the same as that given for stenographer and typewriter. Pull solutions to all problems will be found in the division of this chapter dealing with the stenographer and typewriter examina- tion. Penmanship The rating on penmanship will be determined by legi- bility, rapidity, neatness, and general appearance, and by correctness and uniformity in the formation of words, letters, and punctuation marks in the exercise of the fourth subject report writing. No particular style of penmanship is preferred. Report Writing In this exercise the competitor is given a loose state- ment of facts, four hundred to five hundred words in length, which he is to summarize and arrange into a logical and complete report in the form of a letter of not more than two hundred words. This exercise is designed to test the competitor's knowledge of simple English composition and his general intelligence. In rating the report, its errors of form and address, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, syntax, and style, and the arrangement, conciseness, and complete- ness of the report are considered. Do not forget that you must make sixty-five per cent on this subject and that it is second in importance only to the arithmetic. 74 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE Copying and Correcting Manuscript This examination is the same as the one given for bookkeeping (see page 56 for sample of this examination with solution). Geography and Civil Government of the United States Do not add to an answer anything that is not required by the question; for example, do not name four states when asked to name three. An unnecessary addition to an answer receives no credit if correct, and is charged as an error if incorrect. If you desire to correct an answer, draw a pen through the part to be rejected and write the part correctly. I. Name states as follows: Two which border Florida on the north ; two which border Colorado on the north ; two which border New York on the east; two which border Wisconsin on the west ; one which borders Oregon on the north ; one which borders New Hampshire on the east. 2. Name: The largest two rivers which border on Kentucky; the largest two lakes which border on Michigan; the largest two sounds on the coast of North Carolina; the two bodies of water which the Niagara River connects; a river which borders on Nevada; the river on which Omaha is situated. 3. In what state is each of the following-named prominent cities located? Asheville, Trinidad, Amsterdam, Findlay, Lynchburg, Sedalia, Walla Walla, Keene, Macon, Superior. 4. (a) How are justices of the Supreme Court appointed? (b) How many amendments have been added to the Constitution of the United States? 5. (a) Name two ways in which a bill may become a law without the president's signature, (b) Name the following officials: Speaker of the National House of Representatives ; Chief Justice of the United States; Secretary of State. Answers I. Georgia and Alabama; Nebraska and Wyoming; Massachusetts and Connecticut ; Minnesota and Iowa ; Washington; Maine. CLERK 75 2. The Mississippi and the Ohio ; Lake Superior and Lake Michigan ; Pamlico Sound and Albemarle Sound ; Lake Erie and Lake Ontario; Colorado River; Mis- souri River. 3. Asheville, North Carolina; Trinidad, Colorado; Amsterdam, New York ; Findlay, Ohio ; Lynchburg, Vir- ginia; Sedalia, Missouri; Walla Walla, Washington; Keene, New Hampshire; Macon, Georgia; Superior, Wisconsin. 4. (a) Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, (b) Seventeen amendments. 5. (a) First, by veto of the president and a subse- quent affirmative vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress. Second, when a bill is sent to the president for signature and he fails to sign or veto it within ten days while the Congress is in session, then such bill becomes law without the president's signature, (b) Speaker of the National House of Representatives, Champ Clark; Chief Justice of the United States, Ed- ward Douglas White ; Secretary of State of the United States, Robert H. Lansing. In preparing this subject you should first secure a modern geography of the United States, a primer dealing with the civil government of the United States and a copy of the latest Congressional Directory. The first two books may be purchased at almost any book store handling textbooks. The third one may be obtained by writing a postal card to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. State that you want a copy of the latest Congres- sional Directory and ask the price. You will receive price and full instructions as to how to remit. The public printer is authorized to sell public documents at cost and the price may vary from time to time. The quickest, easiest, and the most thorough method of learning the geography is by learning to draw a com- plete map of the United States from memory putting in all the principal rivers, lakes, harbors, sounds and cities. This may seem rather difficult at first but it can be 76 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE accomplished in a few weeks with persistent effort. First draw the New England states. There are only six of them and they can be mastered in a short time. When you can draw these states correctly, then take up the Middle Atlantic states. They are seven in num- ber and when considered separately are not hard to learn to draw. After these two groups have been mastered separately, then draw them together, and then in like manner add to your map in the order named, the Southern states, the Eastern Central states, the Western Central states, the Northern Pacific states, and the Southern Pacific states. As you are learning this map you should study the relative longitude and latitude of the various states. The states included in the several groups mentioned will be found in your geography. If your geography should follow a classification somewhat different to the one out- lined above, then follow the classification of your text- book. The way the states are grouped is not important but the principle of learning them by groups, and gradually adding each group to your map until you can draw them all together is very important. You should get practically all you need in the way of civil government out of the textbook on that subject, by reading it through carefully and answering the ques- tions at the end of each chapter. With regard to the present incumbents of public offices, you will get all of that and a lot of other information about civil government out of the Congressional Direc- tory. Your general knowledge gained from the daily news- papers ought to enable you to answer most of the ques- tions about the persons holding certain national offices. With the proper study as outlined above this examina- tion will be easy to you. It takes only a very short time to write the answers if you know them well. CHAPTER IV THE OPPORTUNITY THAT THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE OFFERS The Permanency of the Civil Service The Federal Civil Service is a thing of permanency as shown by the following table of its growth, which covers nine administrations of different political faiths: Year Employees 1883 13,789 1885 15,573 1889 29,650 1893 42,741 1897 87,108 1901 108,067 1905 i7 I 8o7 1909 234,940 1913 282,597 That the civil service principle has the support of public opinion is shown by the facts that it has been accepted and proclaimed in all recent national party plat- forms ; that nine states have adopted it for their execu- tive services, and that it is incorporated in the charters of two hundred and fifty cities. Appointing officers unite in its support as the most important factor in the efficient performance of public business. Thirty years ago decried as an impossible ideal, an impractical theory, and put in operation in only a tentative way, the system stands to-day firmly established on a basis of actual accomplishment. During the year ended June 30, 1913, 35,154 persons were appointed, transferred, or promoted, upon examina- 77 78 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE tion to positions in the competitive classified service of the Federal Government, and 2,672 persons were trans- ferred, promoted, or reinstated without further examina- tion. Including appointments to the Philippine service, to positions of mere unskilled labor, and also temporary appointments, 38,713 appointments were made as the result of competition. There were approximately two thousand persons ap- pointed to the Departmental Service at Washington dur- ing 1914. This is at the rate of over six persons a day. Think of these good positions that are being handed out every day ! You might just as well be one of the persons receiving one of them. No Political Influence Needed You need absolutely no political influence or "pull." The only thing you need to obtain one of the positions for you is preparation for the examination. The civil service law requires that, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, appoint- ments to positions in the departments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several states and terri- tories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. People living in the states far distant from Washing- ton are not so well informed of the good positions open to them as those who live nearer. This accounts for the fact that those living near have used up their quota and those living at a distance are entitled to preference in appointment. Hours of Labor Practically all of the government positions at Wash- ington require only seven hours of labor each day. The hours are from 9 A. M. to 4:30 P. M. with one-half hour for luncheon. During summer months all depart- ments close at i P. M. on Saturdays. All employees are allowed thirty days' annual vacation with full pay. This OPPORTUNITIES 79 leave is counted as thirty working days, and by excluding all the Sundays, Saturday afternoons, and holidays that may be counted while one is off duty, the actual vacation amounts to about five weeks with full pay. In most of the departments this vacation may be taken in any number of short periods of a day, half day, or a few days that one may desire. This makes possible many short trips in summer to New York, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Annapolis, No'rfolk, etc. Some students take part of their vacation time to study for examinations at the close of school. It also makes possible the frequent short rests from work that many women need for their best health and happiness without the loss of pay. The government service is ideal employment for women, in many ways. It is in cultured and refined sur- roundings; it is light and pays them much better than business. Many of the women in the government serv- ice receive one hundred dollars a month and some hold positions which pay salaries as high as two thousand five hundred dollars a year. In addition to the above all employees are allowed full pay for sickness to the extent of thirty days each year. Government Work Different from Commercial Work Employment in the government service is vastly dif- ferent from the employment offered by business insti- tutions organized for profit. The hard struggle for suc- cess in the business world where competition crushes the inefficient, forces most employers to crowd into the day's work of each employee as much work as that employee can possibly handle efficiently. There are very few easy jobs in the commercial world. A person must deliver a service equal or greater in commercial value than the price he collects; and that commercial value is deter- mined by the lowest price that the same service could be bought elsewhere. Business is unsympathetic and heartless. It buys what it wants from him who can supply the demand at the 80 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE lowest possible price. If a male stenographer gets fifteen dollars a week for work that a woman can and will do just as well for ten dollars a week, she gets the job. In the federal service, there is not the striving for profits which drives men and women to long hard days of labor, and consequently the employees take their time. A Woman s Opportunities To women the Federal Civil Service affords excellent opportunities for the proper development and expression of their social life. There are many well-known young women's colleges at Washington, and a very large per cent of those who attend these colleges go there because of the unsurpassed social and educational advantages that come to every woman of taste and culture who lives in the National Capital for any length of time. It should be a part of the education of every woman to be charming and graceful in her manner, and in Wash- ington the woman engaged in government service will have opportunity to correct and improve her personality from observation and study. Since personality is one of the strongest forces in the world, surely its perfect development should engage the most earnest attention of every woman. By making use of the opportunities at Washington she may acquire practice in easy and graceful hospitality. Women in the government service may, upon request from the congressmen representing their districts at home, and without obligating themselves in any way, have their names placed on the lists of those invited to receptions and other social functions at the White House, where they may meet the great men of our own and other nations. They may visit Congress and have a prac- tical demonstration of how our laws are made. Many noted individuals of the United States come to Washington, and the opportunity to meet many of them offers itself from time to time. Washington being the capital of the nation, there is much of national interest going on there all the time. When you read the weekly magazines you may see pic- OPPORTUNITIES 81 tures and stories of great events that you may have al- ready seen r with your own eyes. This develops in you a keener interest in what is going on everywhere, than you ever had before. You begin to read more and take a deeper interest in the affairs of life. And before you know it, you are a person well posted on all the current events of the day, and well in- formed about the national characters whose names you see so often in current periodicals. To live in an environment that makes easy the expres- sion of a woman's best self ; to work amid cheerful sur- roundings and associations of refinement ; to have placed before one the best things of life ; to learn to love good books; to appreciate the best in music and art, and to understand some of the mysteries of the world in which we live, are possibilities which throw themselves in the path of the woman in the government service at Wash- ington. There are many women, young and old, who came to Washington perfect strangers to take their positions, and who have no relatives near. A young woman is abso- lutely safe in going to Washington alone to accept civil service employment. She will meet most cordial peo- ple at the office where she works and some of the ladies of the office will be glad to direct her to a suitable place to board. The Y. W. C. A. maintains a large register of approved boarding and rooming houses of varying prices. In many small towns and some large ones, a woman who comes to town alone is looked upon with more or less suspicion as to her moral character, but in Wash- ington, there is not a single trace of any such feelings towards women who come there alone to work for the Government. The women in the government service at Washington are accorded highest respect. A happy marriage is the birthright and rightful des- tiny of every woman and a little more conscious con- sideration on her part of her opportunities to meet the right kind of companion would result in more happiness in the world. 82 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE The opportunities open to women at Washington in- clude wide range of acquaintance with young men of high ideals and bright futures. The various departments of the Government attract many men from the universi- ties, and the young man who is ambitious and has ability to go through college while in the government service, is the type of fellow that achieves success in time. There are hundreds of such men in Washington. They come from every state in the Union and use the government service as a stepping-stone to their high ambitions. Many women have the ability in addition to being good wives and mothers to help admirably in the solution of the problems which reach outside of the home and touch the state and the nation. The woman who would make her personality felt be- yond her home and city into the wide realm of her state and perhaps her nation, must have preparation for the work. Many women make the study of law a part of their preparation for the larger life. Quite a number of the congressmen's wives study law in order more in- telligently to help their husbands in the problems of legislation. To the woman who is ambitious to have a share with men in the matters of government or in the professions, Washington offers the best opportunity for study and preparation along almost any line in which she may be interested. Washington College of Law emphasizes the impor- tance of women, as well as men, having a legal training to help them in economic advancement. George Wash- ington University also has among its students young women, many of whom are "government employees. The writer has tried to touch upon most of the life of interest to women, so that they may have an idea what Washington is like before they decide to go there. A Mans Opportunities In most of the departments at Washington the stenog- raphers, bookkeepers, etc., are referred to as clerks. OPPORTUNITIES 83 "When you are offered appointment as stenographer, the official designation of the position will probably be "clerk." The easy life of most government clerks at Washing- ton will ruin any man for an active, successful business or professional career if he does not have any other in- terests outside of his office work. Right here is the young man's opportunity to study his chosen profession or career, whatever it may be. There are many fine schools, colleges, and universities all around Washington that cater to the government em- ployee, who has the opportunity to earn and learn at the same time. Among the more prominent institutions of learning are: George Washington University. Washington School of Accountancy. Georgetown University. National University Law School. All of the above institutions are high grade institu- tions of learning whose diplomas are recognized by the best schools, colleges and universities the country over. George Washington University The George Washington University is a non-sectarian institution, and comprises a College of Arts, a College of Engineering, Teachers' College, Law School, Medical School, Dental School, College of Pharmacy, and College of Veterinary Medicine. The attendance during the ses- sion 1914-15 was one thousand seven hundred ninety. A student who had attended college in Tennessee writes : "Some years ago, at the end of my sophomore year, I was compelled on account of lack of funds to leave college, and shortly thereafter to take up the sup- port of certain members of the family who had become dependent on me. The purpose of continuing and com- pleting my college course always persisted, but I could never get far enough ahead financially to support myself and those dependent on me during the time necessary to accomplish this, Several years after I left college I 84 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE learned of George Washington University and its after- noon classes, and sought and obtained employment in the government service solely for the purpose of taking ad- vantage of these classes." Another from New York writes: "I came to Wash- ington simply because the universities there are the only institutions, so far as I know, that are holding out the chance of obtaining a higher education to the man who is unable to give up his employment, also the office hours in the government service lend themselves admirably to this purpose." These two speak for many. The possibility of using government, employment merely as a stepping-stone to an education may not ap- pear to a government official as altogether advantageous to the service. A service, however, run by the people and for the people may be appropriately used in the edu- cation of the people, and no service, public or private, can rightfully expect to hold in its lower grades em- ployees of ability to better themselves elsewhere. A student from Arkansas who writes, "I entered George Washington University because it maintained the only professional school of higher standards which it was practicable for me, being employed, to attend," expresses the attitude of the average student in government em- ploy toward continuance in the employ. "My primary purpose in studying is to insure my fu- ture by preparing for a higher grade of work. Whether I shall remain in Washington is as yet an open question, depending upon opportunities which may offer them- selves after I have completed my course in the Law School. If I see a satisfactory opening, I shall remain in the government service; if, however, possibilities in legal work in my home state, or in any other section, offering better advantages, appear more promising, I shall not hesitate to leave Washington." This attitude is reasonable, and unless the Government should adopt the inconceivable policy of refusing to take into the lower grades employees of promise and of avowed ambition, it must stand prepared for a constant release of those whom it cannot promote. OPPORTUNITIES 85 The thorough preparation, earnestness, and maturity of the students of the University make one of its chief at- tractions. In 1914-15 of the candidates for degrees six- ty-one per cent were college trained and one hundred fifteen of them were college graduates. The training and maturity of the students enables the instruction to be put on a high plane. The quality of the students and thoroughness of the work are proved by the success of the graduates of the Law School in the bar examinations of the District of Columbia. On the average only about fifty-five per cent of all candidates pass, while over nine- ty-five per cent of the George Washington graduates are successful. The Law School of the George Washington Univer- sity was established in 1865, and is the oldest in the city of Washington. Its course of instruction for the degree of Bachelor of Laws, originally requiring two years, was increased in 1898 to three years. A year of graduate work was added in 1877 leading to the degree of Master of Laws. The curriculum has since been increased by a course of study leading to the degree of Master of Patent Law. The Law School was one of the group of law schools which in 1900 organized the Association of American Law Schools and it has remained a member of the Asso- ciation since that time. This Association includes forty- six of the most progressive law schools of the country and is committed to the policy of advancement in legal education. As this school maintains the standards of the Association, work certified by it is given a maximum of credit by other law schools of the country. This enables students who are unable to complete their studies in Washington, to continue them at other institutions with a minimum loss of time and work. The University permits the first year of law work to be counted as the fourth year of college work for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, thus enabling students to obtain both the academic and professional degrees in six years. 86 HOW TO PREPARE* FOR CIVIL SERVICE The Washington School of Accountancy The Washington School of Accountancy ranks with the best institutions of its kind in the country. It is a branch of the Pace Institute of Accountancy of New York City, and is under direct supervision of the Pace Brothers, founders of the Pace Schools. Its location in the Y, M. C. A. building is very convenient for men in the government service and its classes are made up mostly of government men. The author is personally acquainted with most of the instructors in the school and can well say that there is no room on the teaching staff of this school of profes- sional training for any man of mediocre ability. Its entire faculty is composed of men of marked ability in their respective lines, who understand well the art of teaching. The courses offered include instruction in Theory of Accounts, Practical Accounting, Auditing, Law, Applied Economics, Organization, Finance and Cost Accounting. The student who completes the three years' course of- fered by this school is well prepared to pass the C. P. A. examination of any state or to advance rapidly in the field of business where he may be employed. For more about the profession of Accountancy and what it offers in the way of rewards, see Chapter V. There is no fixed requirement as to preliminary educa- tion for admission to the Accountancy courses. An at- tempt is made, however, to limit the work to those whose general education is sufficient to assure ultimate success in the work. Georgetown University The Georgetown University is a sectarian institution under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church. Its classes are admirably adapted to the government em- ployee and its Law School ranks with the best in the city of Washington. Much of what has been said about the George Washington Law School, and the National OPPORTUNITIES 87 University Law School, could be said about the George- town Law School. The Georgetown University build- ings are not quite so handy to government employees as are those of George Washington University and for that reason the government employees do not patronize this university quite as much as they do George Washington. This does not apply to the Law Schools, however, since they are all down town and one is about as handy as the other. Law School of the National University The National University has its largest classes in the teaching of the legal profession. I quote from the cat- alogue a few paragraphs which give a good idea of the work being done by this law school. 'This institution, first incorporated in 1869 and after- wards chartered by special act of Congress, is the second oldest in this section of the country. "The Law School, organized by Mr. Justice Arthur McArthur, is about to enter upon its forty-fifth year of unbroken activity. There have been nine chancellors of the University, five of them presidents of the United States, to wit: Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Ar- thur and Cleveland. The diplomas awarded during their terms of office bear their signature, and in most instances were personally conferred upon the recipients of the degrees. "The faculty has had the distinction of including among its membership many lawyers and judges of national rep- utation, and the graduates, now nearly three thousand (3,000) in number, are to be found in every state and territory of the United States, our colonial possessions and in many foreign countries. "The classes are limited to a size compatible with in- dividual instruction by members of the faculty. There is an average of one instructor to each twelve students, and the work of instruction is entirely in the hands of mem- bers of the faculty, no quiz masters or other secondary agents of instruction being employed. 88 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE "There are no athletics or other undergraduate di- versions connected with the institution to attract the im- mature or interfere with the serious work of professional education. More than ninety per cent of the students are in civil service employment of the Government of the United States, the administration departments of which provide employment for thousands of ambitious young men drawn from all sections of the country. These, at their own expense and upon their own respon- sibility, employ their free hours in securing a thorough and practical training such as, upon return to their re- spective states, enables them to take up the practice of law as a means of livelihood and advancement. "The corps of instructors is composed almost exclu- sively of judges and practicing lawyers, who are enabled to approach their work from the practical standpoint of the law as administered in Courts of Justice, rather than as a merely theoretical and abstract science. "The design of the law school has always been that of a purely technical school ; a lawyer's law school, in which the student could be thoroughly prepared for successful competition in the practice of a technical profession. To the accomplishment of this end within the restricted period of three years' law school work, and with a student body composed for the most part of men employed during the day in the various branches of the government ser- vice, two conditions were deemed requisite. "First, the concentration of the student's hours of study upon those branches of the vast body of the law, a thorough knowledge of which is essential to the suc- cessful practitioner, and, therefore, as a corollary, the rigid exclusion of all non-essentials, or less essential branches the acquisition of which may safely be post- poned to the period succeeding admission to the bar. "Second, the faculty, whose labors supplement those of the text writer in teaching the student how to practice law, is composed almost exclusively of men who are themselves engaged daily and hourly in the successful practice of their profession. "The Bachelor's Degree is awarded upon the result of OPPORTUNITIES 89 the examinations, and without reference to whether the period of antecedent attendance at the lectures has been three years or two. This arrangement commends itself particularly to those gentlemen who are in the civil em- ployment of the Government." It will be noted from the descriptive matter given above about the different universities and schools that the law departments seem to be the most prominent departments. They are. The law schools of Washington graduate about one thousand lawyers every year who scatter to the four corners of the United States to practice their profession, and quite often some of them come back to Washington in a few years as Congressmen to the Na- tional Congress. The writer knew one bright young student there who went to the state of Washington to practice law soon after he graduated. In two years from the time he fin- ished school and left Washington, D. C, as a government stenographer, he came back as a member of Congress from the state of Washington. It is quite natural that so many of the young men at Washington study law in preference to the other profes- sions. They are thrown in contact with the most suc- cessful lawyers in the United States in the personnel of Congress, the Supreme Court, and other courts, the De- partment of Justice and many other departments of the Government, where successful lawyers are the chief ex- ecutives of the departments. In this connection and for the benefit of the young man or young woman who may not be interested in law, there are many other schools teaching almost any study that one could be interested in, and offering just as liberal terms to the government employee as do the schools of law. Entrance to the Universities Many people who are deeply interested in all the op- portunities that have been mentioned in this chapter are, 90 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE perhaps, thinking that because they do not possess a high school diploma, they could not get into any of these universities or schools at Washington. This is not true. Many of the universities state in their catalogues that one must be a high school graduate or its equivalent in order to be admitted, but they do not always rigidly adhere to this rule. If you are in the government service as a result of civil service examination, they consider in many cases your ability to pass civil service examination, and hold civil service employment as equal to a high school edu- cation. Even where they insist on certain credits for ad- mission you can make them up during odd times after you have entered the university. CHAPTER V CHOOSING A VOCATION In General To persons employed in civil service at Washington comes exceptional opportunity to use spare time for the study of any of the vocations mentioned in the following part of this chapter and also for many other fields of en- deavor not mentioned. Law and accountancy perhaps hold the most pre-eminent place of those mentioned. The situation is that you have a permanent position at a good salary and lots of spare time on your hands. There are a thousand ways in which you can spend this spare time for your pleasure, profit or development. Some of the government employees go into business there and hold their positions at the same time. In dealing with the vocations mentioned here, an at- tempt is made to state in very condensed form some of the advantages and rewards of each vocation with a few hints as to how to get into that work. The business of choosing a vocation is a very impor- tant one, and yet most people do not choose at all, they just follow the work that they, by chance, happen to fall into through circumstances or environment. It is stated by those who have made a life study of vocational guidance that seventy-five per cent of the people of the United States are misfits in their vocations. They are round pegs in square holes, and square pegs in round holes. A young man ought to give much thought to the se- lection of the vocation that is to be his life's work. Most of our lives are spent at our work, and if the work is pleasant and of the kind that we enjoy doing, then our 91 92 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE lives will be pleasant and full of interest. Everyone should love his work. If you cannot learn to love your work then it is not the work that you ought to engage in. There is some kind of work that you take pleasure in doing, and that work which is most interesting and pleasant to you is the work you ought to follow. Sometimes one makes a mistake in selecting. In such a case it is best to change, if the person has not gone too far on life's journey. It is a very hard thing for a person to get out of one line of endeavor in which all his study and experience has been, and get started into some other work that is more or less new to him. It is im- possible for some people to do it. This impresses more indelibly the importance of giving this subject careful study at an early time in life. Look over the vocations mentioned and if you find yourself interested in any one of them, go to the library and get more literature on that particular one. There are volumes on each one of the subjects mentioned which the province of this book does not include. This chapter is intended only as a ''bunch" of suggestions for your thought. If you are particularly interested in any field of work not mentioned or suggested here, go to the li- brary and get full light on what is required to enter that vocation and what rewards it holds forth. When you have selected your work, then begin to study it with all the courage and determination you possess. Make up your mind that you are going to be a leader in your work, and by putting your best energies into it, you can surely succeed. Accountancy No profession offers a more attractive future to the young man who would enter business, than does that of the accountant. The professional accountant has the distinction of being a professional man and a business man at the same time. The field is not half covered and the demand for trained men far exceeds the supply. In Great Britain there are over eight thousand chart- ered and incorporated accountants. In this country there CHOOSING A VOCATION 93 are about fifteen hundred C. P. A/s. Taking the popula- tion of the two countries as a comparison, there is work in the United States for ten to fifteen times as many certified public accountants as there are now. This cry- ing need spells Opportunity for you who are seriously ambitious. If you are a bookkeeper and want to rise above your environment, study higher accounting. As a bookkeeper, you may be able to add a column of figures in record time, or keep a set of books month after month without error. That is mere mechanical skill. It will not bring large rewards. Knowing how to devise labor-saving bookkeeping sys- tems, how to decide involved accounting propositions, how to outline adequate cost systems, how to suggest valuable checks against waste, how to deal with banks, how to handle men, how to organize and finance busi- ness enterprises; such ability brings advancement. No amount of experience or mechanical skill will enable you to acquire this ability. You must learn it by systematic study under competent instructors. Accountancy is the latest professional field of activity to yield to the insistent demand for scientific training pre- liminary to practice. Law, medicine and engineering have in turn developed professional training as a prep- aration for public and private service. A hundred years ago the medical student read his course with the prac- titioner ; fifty years ago the law student pursued his work under a preceptor; thirty years ago the practically trained engineer laughed at the theoretical graduate of the technical school. To-day the student enters the medical school, the law school, or the engineering school, as a matter of course. Technical training for the professions is the established method because it affords a better and surer preparation. A certified public accountant, according to the require- ments of the law of New York and other states, is ex- pected to have a knowledge of the underlying principles of the laws that govern business relations and the prac- tical application of such laws. He must also have a 94 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE thorough knowledge of the principles of modern account- ing and their scientific application to the keeping and stating of accounts in all lines of business enterprise and wherever settlements involving money~ are to be made. H-e is expected to be able to solve the most abstruse and difficult problems that arise in any branch of accounting, and as an auditor, he is expected to have a broad, general knowledge of business, with the intuition of the detective as well as the skill of the accountant. The Certified Public Accountant Law of New York secured to the profession of accountancy in 1896 official recognition, and similar laws have since been enacted in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illi- nois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Wash- ington, and Texas. C. P. A. legislation is now pending in other states and in the District of Columbia. With certain preliminary education and experience as required by the state laws, and the equipment in theory and practice suggested above, the accountant offers his services to the public in the installation of accounts and systems, in the making of appraisals, audits, and reports, and in such other phases of business organization and science as his training and experience may justify. The Financial Rewards The legitimate interest that the prospective student may have in the financial rewards which the profession actually offers to-day, and the difficulty of obtaining re- liable information, warrant the presentation of the facts, although the persona^ element enters so largely into the matter of compensation that the subject is approached with hesitancy. The larger firms employ two classes of accountants, seniors and juniors. The seniors are qualified by train- ing and experience to take charge of audits, the installa- tion of systems, etc. The juniors are assistants to the seniors, and largely perform the adding, checking, and similar clerical work. CHOOSING A VOCATION 95 A student who has satisfactorily completed the courses offered by the best schools of accountancy, is competent to act as junior, and will usually command a compensa- tion of from one thousand to twelve hundred dollars a year, and, in some cases, as high as eighteen hundred dol- lars a year. A junior receives advancement as his capac- ity increases, until, at about eighteen hundred or two thousand dollars a year, he becomes a senior. In exceptional cases the promotion from junior to senior is earned within a year, although it often requires a longer time, depending upon the natural ability, in- dustry, training and opportunities of the accountant. As a senior he may earn eighteen hundred, two thousand, three thousand dollars or more, per annum, according to his ability. In addition to salaries, both seniors and juniors are allowed liberal compensation for overtime work and expense money in keeping with their profes- sional standing when traveling and engaged in out-of- town work. In independent practice, the usual charge is from ten dollars to twenty dollars a day for the work of ju- niors, and at least twenty-five dollars a day for the work of seniors, with such additional charge as the nature of the work and the standing of the accountant responsible therefor may justify. While exact figures as to private incomes are not avail- able for publication, it is safe to say that many young accountants have practices that bring them comfortable incomes, and there are older and more experienced ac- countants whose incomes, through their personal fees and the profit secured by the employment of other ac- countants, compare favorably with the incomes received by the leading members of the older professions. From the foregoing it will be seen that, differing from the young lawyer and the young physician, the young accountant is assured of a livelihood from the start. Furthermore, there is practically no limit, except ability, upon the amount of income possible. Aside from the opportunities afforded in the practice of his profession, the accountant is in an exceptional po- 96 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE sition to secure offers of lucrative private employment, inasmuch as he is the highest type of business man and establishes the most confidential and intimate business relations with members of firms and corporation officers. It is not unusual for an accountant to abandon his pro- fessional career to accept such private employment, and many instances can be pointed out in which the initial compensation varied from five thousand to ten thou- sand dollars per annum, and in the field of corporate ac- counting service, annual incomes ranging from twenty thousand to thirty-five thousand dollars can be cited. Here are a few Chicago certified public accountants whom I can just now call to mind and who have, as a result of their knowledge of accounting, secured very fine positions : Wm. M. Reay, C. P. A., Comptroller, International Harvester Co. ; Frank M. Boughey, C. P. A., Secretary, Fairbanks, Morse & Co. ; A. E. Anderson, C. P. A., Auditor, Schlitz Brewing Co. ; H. G. Phillips, C. F. A., Vice-President, American Bottle Co. ; Arthur Bentley, C. P. A., First Vice-President, Miehle Press Co. ; Her- man J. Dirks, C. P. A., Auditor, Brunswick-Balke-Col- lander Co. None of these men are holding positions at less than five thousand dollars a year and some are earning be- tween ten thousand dollars and fifteen thousand dollars. Turning from the purely financial side, it is gratifying to know that the accountant may reasonably expect honor and dignity equal to that enjoyed by the members of the older professions. No profession calls for the more fre- quent exercise of honesty and integrity. None offers an opportunity for greater responsibility than that assumed by the accountant who determines the course of his cli- ent, and of investors generally, and upon whose word often depends the transfer of a railroad property, or upon whose report the policyholders of a life insurance company rely as to the integrity of the assets which safe- guard the futures of their dependent ones. Let me not be misunderstood. It is not intended to convey the impression that lucrative positions are stand- CHOOSING A VOCATION 97 ing open to men of inferior capacity either as account- ants, bookkeepers or office managers. It is recognized that the acquisition of a working knowledge of account- ancy and its practice as a profession involve a serious and extended program of study. There is involved, further, an actual demonstration of capacity to apply what one knows in the solution of in- tricate business problems. With emphasis, however, it may be said that in spite of the difficulties of preparation and practice, the profession of accountancy offers an in- viting field to one who is willing to pursue with diligence his professional studies and his later practice. Advertising Advertising is a word of very wide meaning. As a profession its meaning is growing so fast that even the latest dictionaries and encyclopedias are out of date in their definitions of this word. Advertising as a force in business has many different meanings. It is an omnibus word that conveys different people to different places. Perhaps no prophecy as to the future of advertising would be excessive. Already more than a billion dol- lars is spent each year for advertising. Think of it ! It is hard for most people to conceive the meaning of a billion dollars. We can think a million. Then we can think a hundred million. That's about the population of the United States. When it comes to ten hundred mil- lion, or a billion, it sets our imaginations going to con- ceive what it means. There are single companies which spend three million dollars a year for this wonderful business force called advertising, and there are advertising men who have incomes of over fifty thousand dollars a year from this business. Salaries of eighteen hundred and two thousand dollars a year are common for good advertising men. The advertising agency, perhaps, pays its owner larger profits than any other line of advertising work. The 98 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE agencies give a service to their clients which consists in part of selecting the best mediums to use, writing cop- ies, checking the insertions of copies, studying products with a view of discovering their possible undeveloped markets and keeping records of the pulling values of different kinds of advertising. The agency does not charge the client for these and other services except for art work, printing, electros, etc. The money in the agency is made in the form of com- missions from the publishers on all business of clients which they place. This commission ranges from ten to twenty-five per cent. To get an idea of the money in this business for the successful ones handling the advertising of the large corporations, let us take a full page advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post. A full page advertisement in this publication costs ten thousand dollars an issue. The agency's commission of ten per cent amounts to one thousand dollars. This is not an average case, however, because the Saturday^ Eve- ning Post is, perhaps, the highest priced medium in the United States, due to its large circulation and the average advertiser does not use a whole page. There are hun- dreds of them using only four or five inches of a single column. It takes a lot of experience in the advertising business before one can operate an agency, but there are many other places where a man can earn a good salary while he is acquiring the necessary experience. There are the advertising solicitors for the newspapers and the magazines. There are hundreds of men em- ployed by the owners of the agencies. There are the men who are employed by the business houses as ad- vertising managers. There are numerous different kinds of positions in the advertising game. It employs many who specialize in one particular line, as for instance, street car advertisements, newspaper advertisements, art work for all advertisements, advertising results, records, etc. Advertising and selling are very closely related. They CHOOSING A VOCATION 99 arc, in their last analysis, the same, and the science and art of both rest upon the same great principles. Ad- vertising is condensed salesmanship, and is usually printed. Its whole sphere of activity is directed toward influencing the human mind. Therefore, success in ad- vertising requires a careful study of the charming sub- jects, psychology and human nature not in their the- oretical aspects, but in the practical and commercial phases. The successful advertising man needs a wide knowl- edge of the laws of economics, especially as they affect distribution of goods or service. The student who is interested in advertising and selling should read Printers' Ink. This magazine is devoted to an analysis of successful and unsuccessful advertising and selling campaigns of the day. To the person interested in advertising and selling, I would say first become a college graduate if you can, although this is not essential. In selecting your course take all the psychology, English, logic, political economy and sociology that you can get. Take also some business administration and accounting, and such work as may be obtained on the subjects of salesmanship and advertising. The colleges and universities up to the present time, have offered very little in the way of practical training for the biggest profession in life namely business in all of its broadest aspects. But they are rapidly coming to see the error of their ways in not preparing for this work which so many enter sooner or later; and the modern university is now offering courses in applied business psychology, advertising, salesmanship, accounting, com- mercial law, finance and applied economics. In the George Washington University and in the Y. M. C. A. Institute at Washington, you will be able to get plenty of the subjects suited to the work on advertising. I know of no career where brains alone, energy, hon- esty, truthfulness, and no capital or friends to help one, offer a more successful business from a pecuniary stand- point. To those who have an interest in human nature 100 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE there is a pleasure of occupation in advertising that makes the business very desirable also. In "The Business of Advertising," by E. E. Calkins, the tenth chapter deals with "Advertising as a Profes- sion," and the following is quoted from that work: "There is a growing demand for a man with a plan a man who can see in advance the form the advertising should take ; who has a definite idea as to the sort of copy and design that should be used and the proportion of each ; the tone of the copy, whether it should be explana- tory, hortative or seductive; whether the design should tell a story or merely decorate a page ; whether it should be a black page or two black pages or a colored insert; whether it should be printed on a street car card or on a magazine page; how many advertisements there should be; what the order and sequence of them; whether the advertisements should all be given a certain style so as to be recognizable as belonging to the same brotherhood, or all different in form as in idea. Each one of these things is a detail but the man who makes the plan sees them all in the correct relation as a comprehensive whole. "The man who prepares the plan may or may not draw the designs, may or may not write the copy, may or may not select the mediums, may or may not supervise the typesetting, engraving, electrotyping and mechanical re- production of the advertising, and still be an advertising man. Again the advertising may or may not be placed in magazines, in newspapers, in street cars, upon bill boards, or in the form of printed things. An advertising man is one who can take a given product, study its sell- ing possibilities and prepare a method of selling which will bring purchasers for the commodity either into the stores or direct by mail. "Advertising must be learned by doing, but for that matter so must the management of a store or the conduct of a manufacturing plant. Advertising has so much of the practical and so little of the theoretical in it that an advertising man cannot be made in any school. He can CHOOSING A VOCATION 101 only get his foundation there. But this is true of all the other professions as well. "A man who expects to be a successful advertising man should be a good salesman. He should be able to go behind the counter or on the road or from house to house and sell goods ; and by selling goods I do not mean take orders. "After learning the selling of goods, the next step is to understand the management of sales. Manufactur- ing houses are more and more combining their sales and advertising departments. The advertising man should know something about the condition of business, the dis- tribution of goods through the different channels of trade, the relation of manufacturers to commission men, to wholesalers, to jobbers, to drummers, to retailer and consumer." Since advertising is condensed salesmanship see also article on salesmanship in this chapter. Agriculture Agriculture is the largest single industry in the United States. The farm in its numerical and financial strength is to-day the greatest power in the whole civilized world. Here is the story of how you can start in business as a farmer at a salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year from the Department of Agriculture at Washington. After obtaining appointment at Washington as clerk, stenographer or bookkeeper, as outlined in this book, begin in one of the good universities there to prepare yourself to pass the examination for scientific assist- ant, Department of Agriculture. You can qualify to pass these examinations in the same length of time you could learn a profession, and it offers a larger salary to start and a bigger future than any of the professions. "These positions offer many attractive features. Ex- cellent opportunities are offered for scientific research in the laboratories of the Department of Agriculture. Fur- thermore, practically all of these positions require more or less investigational work in the field outside of Wash- ington, which enables one to obtain a broad and compre- log HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE hensive view of one's special subject of investigation as related to the entire country. When traveling in the field away from their official or temporary headquarters, the expenses of the investigators are paid." CIVIL SERV- ICE MANUAL. In addition to the above there are filled from the ex- aminations for scientific assistant other positions, the duties of which are to take up residence in agricultural sections, and, representing the Department of Agricul- ture at that place, teach the farmers there how to farm. The men holding these positions receive salaries of sixteen hundred dollars and eighteen hundred dollars a year, and are usually paid half of their salary by the Federal Government and half of it by the farmers of the community in which they work, but they are em- ployed and assigned to their posts of duty by the De- partment of Agriculture at Washington. The farmer is not recognized as he should be because he seeks neither notoriety nor prominence, but quietly does his work allowing others to play at society and to receive its shallow reward. The farmer, like the lawyer, should be proud of his profession, sufficiently apprecia- tive of it to give it the full measure of his self-respect. Because he does not do so, he has lost both the social and business prominence which really belong to his call- ing. Farming to-day is a very different thing from what it was a few years ago. To-day men are producing from one acre what they formerly required ten acres to pro- duce. Years ago a man with only half sense and no training whatever, could be a successful farmer accord- ing to the low standard of success then existing. To-day the successful farmer must be a man who knows well the science of agriculture. He ought to be college trained in the science of successful farming and must have a good working knowledge of business if he is to be successful. Farming is no longer luck and guess work. It has been reduced to an exact science and there is no calling that is more honorable and dignified. It CHOOSING A VOCATION 103 calls for men of business ability and technical training and with lots of energy and offers as much excitement and real pleasure of accomplishment as does any other calling. The trouble with farming in the past has been that too many farmers instead of working their farms allow their farms to work them. The farm is their master instead of their being master of the farm. The principles of business and the laws of progressive economy are being applied to the farm more to-day than ever before and consequently the farmer is becoming more well-to-do financially than ever before. The ten- dency ten years ago was unmistakably away from the farm but not so to-day. To-day farms are equipped with many conveniences of the city, and even enjoy some advantages which are not found in the city. The farmers are more independent than any class of people in existence. They live the most ideal life of health and happiness close to nature. They are not affected half as much by the troubles of labor and capital, of strikes, financial depression, high cost of living and a thousand other things as are the people who live in cities. Every normal sane man wants to have a home and family some day and the farm offers the most ideal place to raise his children. From farmer's children have sprung the majority of our great men both of business and of the professions. The city clerk or city business man, working in a big office building and housed in a flat does not have one- half as much opportunity to progress in the truest sense of the word as does the farmer on a fairly fertile farm working as his own master on his own property. On your examination papers you may specify, if you like, that you will accept appointment only in the Agri- cultural Department. This will give you the best oppor- tunity in the land to become a successful up-to-date busi- ness farmer. 104 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE The Architect The practice of architecture resolves itself into the proper handling of any problem in building. The ideal architect is a poet, a dreamer of dreams, a builder of air castles, with the technical ability to repro- duce those visions in lasting material. He is able to see his building completed; he sees the plan, the arrange- ment of part to part, the suitability of purpose, the sim- plicity of cause and effect. He sees the component parts of materials, he paints the walls in colors, he carves the caps of columns, he models cornices, he stains the glass in the windows. He rejects, adopts, invents and brings forth a unit, a whole, a harmony. It is his right, given in the same degree, to no other artist, to show what he has discovered of beauty in the forms of nature. The entire earth is before him, its animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms abound in forms of surpassing loveliness. The architect is a professionalist ; the practice of his calling demands the full exercise of the intellect, at some sacrifice of business capacity. The architect is a creator of originality. He is not a mere plan drawer, and a specification writer. The architect possesses something which is not a part of the man of business a sense of harmony, an artistic mental attainment, a creative ability yet he must have some of the qualities of the successful business man if he would succeed. The architect, like the doctor and lawyer, is in many cases not self-supporting at the start. However, by start- ing first as a draftsman he may earn a living wage and branch into architecture gradually as experience is ac- quired, and in this way be self-supporting all the time. Good, first-class architects, who are thoroughly compe- tent to plan and superintend the erection of nearly every class of building, earn on an average from five to ten thousand dollars a year, and from that figure they go higher and lower. There are probably a dozen Amer- ican architects who receive upwards of fifty thou- CHOOSING A VOCATION 105 sand dollars a year, and twenty-five who earn as much as twenty thousand dollars a year. It is generally conceded that the architectural school does not and cannot produce the practicing architect; that the business must be learned through a certain ex- perience. This experience the student acquires during the period when he is a draftsman. Since the drafts- man is the only step between the school and the architect, the student should be a draftsman at the time he leaves the school. It is the province of the draftsman to assist the archi- tect in the assembling of his construction, to work out his minor details, to put himself in the place of the ar- chitect and carry out generalities. Washington offers several good schools for the study of drafting and also opportunity for the further study of architecture. The most beautiful architecture in the United States is to be found there and some of Amer- ica's greatest architects have built palaces in that city. The Artist The artist cannot be made. All the education in the world cannot make an artist; and any attempt to pro- duce an artist out of one who does not possess artistic ability and temperament is a waste of time and money. Artistic ability may be developed, and sometimes or- dinary talent in this direction may be elevated to a stage beyond its original self, but there must be some talent, some real material talent, in the first place. It has been said that no one ever earned his living by the production of true art. I think that statement goes to show that in the work of the artist he is compelled to cater more or less to the untrained and inartistic mind if he would earn a living. Under our present system of living, it is absolutely necessary for people to have at least a moderate amount of money to provide food, shelter, clothing and a rea- sonable amount of recreation, and unless a man has in- dependent means, he ought not to try to follow any 106 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE work that does not pay sufficient cash returns to provide a comfortable living for himself and his family. The things that men contribute to society in these days must have a commercial value if he is to collect in re- turn a living for what he contributes. The commercial artist is the one who is best paid. In the majority of cases, the artist's second grade of work, or rather the work which does not represent his truest feelings, is his principal support. Designers of wall paper, of carpets, of tapestries, of fabrics, of the various kinds of dress goods, may be con- sidered artists, for none of them succeed unless they possess the true artistic temperament. The field of advertising which is growing broader every day, has opened new opportunities to the artist. Many of our leading artists offer their services to ad- vertisers. A goodly number of our highly artistic de- signs appear in the advertising columns of magazines and newspapers and are produced by artists who do this class of work for the advertising agencies. Most lithographers and engraving establishments em- ploy artists. A large lithographic establishment occa- sionally pays as much as five thousand dollars a year to an artist. Cartoonists connected with the large daily newspapers are well paid. The government service offers plenty of opportunity for one who would be an artist. The schools of art in Washington are the Arts and Crafts School, and Cor- coran School of Art. These are both excellent schools. The Corcoran Art Gallery is one of Washington's most beautiful buildings. Mr. Clifford K. Berryman, for many years cartoonist for the Washington Post, and at present cartoonist for the Washington Star, started as a government employee. He was first a draftsman in the Patent Office and con- tinued to hold that position after he began work for, the newspapers. CHOOSING A VOCATION 107 Congressman If your ambition is to become a member of the Na- tional Congress, then study some profession or business that will enable you to establish for yourself in your home community a reputation and a good income. Since a congressman to the National Congress is one who is chosen by more than a hundred thousand people to rep- resent them there, his accession to that place is, the- oretically at least, by the will of other people more than his own. But at the same time the most of those elected are those who go out after the place and go after it strong. The man who is successful in politics must learn to make many friends wherever he goes and to re- member people's faces and their names. The government employee has a fine opportunity to study the actual workings of Congress and if he makes the best of his opportunities he can put himself in an advantageous position to run for Congress when he re- turns to his home. It is no small honor to have a share in making the laws for the greatest nation on earth. The opportunities for big service to one's country are considerations which ought to be the motive of the man ambitious to serve in our National Congress. The salary is only seventy-five hundred dollars a year, and allowance of fifteen hun- dred dollars a year for stenographer. "The Price of Place," by Samuel G. Blythe, gives an excellent and vivid picture of the life of congressmen. It is a very interesting book and the man who is ambi- tious to run for Congress will find a great deal of per- tinent information in it. Consular Service The consular service of the United States offers a most attractive life to the type of person who would represent the business interests of this country in other countries. Many people confuse the consular and dip- lomatic services. They are entirely separate. The for- mer represents this country's business interests, the latter 108 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE represents us in matters of diplomacy with other nations. Positions in the consular service of the United States are filled by promotion of those already in the service and by examination much the same as other civil serv- ice positions. The Secretary of State, the Director of the Consular Service, the Chief of the Consular Bureau and the Chief Examiner of the Civil Service Commission constitute a board of examiners for admission to the consular service. The examinations are both oral and written. The object of the oral examinations is to determine the can- didate's business ability, alertness, genera) information and natural fitness for the service. The written exam- inations include at least one modern language other than English, which may be French, German, or Spanish ; the natural industrial and commercial resources and the com- merce of the United States, especially with reference to possibilities of increasing and extending the foreign trade of the United States ; political economy and the elements of international, commercial and maritime law. It also includes American history, government, and institutions ; political and commercial geography; arithmetic (as used in commercial statistics, tariff calculations, exchange, accounts, etc.) ; the modern history of Europe since 1850, Latin America and the Far East, with particular atten- tion to political, commercial and economic tendencies. In the written examination, composition, grammar, punc- tuation, spelling and writing will be given attention. Candidates must make an average mark of at least eighty per cent to pass on the examinations. Examina- tions are held once a^year in Washington only. All ap- pointments and promotions in the service are upon a merit basis. Consuls start in the service in class nine at a salary of two thousand dollars a year. The pro- motions into the higher grades are at steadily increasing salaries. Class two pays six thousand dollars a year and class one eight thousand dollars. From consul comes promotion to consul general. Class one of con- sul generals includes only the cities of London and Paris, and the salaries are twelve thousand dollars a year. CHOOSING A VOCATION 109 To the young man in the government service at Wash- ington and especially the one who happens to be in the State Department, comes an excellent opportunity to get into the consular service, and since this service is now on a merit basis a man may make it his life's work with- out fear of being thrown out at the first change of the political complexion of the administration. Dentistry Dentistry is a good profession to follow. The require- ments for a good dentist include ability to become a skilled mechanic as well as a doctor. It is closely related to the medical profession. The practice of this profes- sion is practically all done in the dentist's office and does not require the same amount of night calls that the med- ical doctors are subject to. The practices of successful dentists bring them incomes of from three thousand to five thousand dollars a year and some of them make more. It is pleasant, clean work. At Washington there are two excellent schools of den- tistry, namely, the George Washington University Den- tal School, and the National University Dental Depart- ment. After one has finished the dental school, he may prac- tice in Washington and hold his government position at the same time. There are quite a number of profes- sional men in Washington who do this. They include lawyers, accountants, engineers, ministers and doctors. Doctors who have their office hours after and before government hours are referred to in Washington as ''Sun-down Doctors/' Engineering Civil, Electrical, Mechanical The George Washington University College of En- gineering offers excellent courses of study in that de- partment, and as previously stated, the classes of this university throughout are adapted to the needs of the government employee. The Federal Government pays good salaries to engi- neers in various departments of the Government such as 110 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE the Reclamation Service, the Alaskan railroad work, the Panama Canal, and other departments. One having com- pleted an engineering course in the university could ob- tain transfer into an engineering position without leav- ing the service. After gaining some experience in en- gineering, one would be in position to accept commercial employment if it were more attractive than the gov- ernment employment. The civil engineer's profession is overcrowded at the present time, and the work of the mechanical and also the electrical engineer offers a more prosperous future. To the student interested in a technical training along engineering lines, I want to mention one rare opportu- nity at Washington that is of special interest to him. In the patent office there are a large number of posi- tions with the official titles of Examiner of Patents, and Assistant Examiner of Patents. The examiners are promoted from assistant examiners, and the assist- ant examiners are appointed from competitive examina- tions held two or three times a year. The assistant ex- aminers are paid entrance salaries of fifteen hundred dollars a year and are rapidly promoted as high as four thousand dollars a year. These positions are among the most attractive in the government service because they lead to very high sal- aried positions in the commercial world. Many of our big corporations owe their dominant positions in the world of business to their control of patents and patent rights. The obtaining and the practical protection of patents is such an important and yet such a difficult thing that the big corporation interests want men who have had actual experience in the Patent Office at Washington, and who know all the inner workings of the business from the inside, to handle their patent departments. The result is that they are constantly coming to Washington with very attractive offers to the patent examiners and assistant patent examiners. As these men leave the Patent Office for larger sal- aries, they make promotions for those who remain. CHOOSING A VOCATION 111 The student who will go to Washington and study engineering for three years, can qualify to pass the ex- amination for assistant patent examiner and start upon the attractive future mentioned above. The demand for examiners far exceeds the supply and the reason is that most of those who take the examina- tion do not live in Washington, and are not posted on how to prepare for it. By moulding your technical course to fit the requirements of that examination, you can be prepared to pass it successfully in three years and this you would accomplish while holding another position in the government service. The examination of the various applications for pat- ents filed in the United States Patent Office is a work that is intensely interesting and pleasant for the tech- nical graduate. Inventor The work mentioned in a preceding paragraph is ideal preparation for the inventor. He couldn't find better anywhere in the United States. It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and for that reason many of the inventions come from people in the various walks of life who, through their circumstances or environment, see the need for the things they invent. At the same time there are those who make a profession of inventing new things. One of the disadvantages of this work is the uncer- tainty that is frequently met in experimenting for years before producing the thing sought, and there is no as- surance of its being produced until it is finished. Many of the larger industrial corporations employ men on salary who give their whole time to the invention of new things to manufacture and the improvement of those being manufactured. If you have in mind an invention that you have long wanted to work out, Washington will afford you the ideal surroundings and the time to perfect your idea; and it will then be convenient and easy to have it pat- HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE ented. Success with one patent may lead to another. The road is bright for him who cares to follow it. Journalism Newspaper work is distinct from that of literature. The newspaper editor or reporter is a writer of matter presumably of the life of a day or a week. The liter- ary man often gains a reputation from the writings be- tween two covers, but the reporter is reckoned by his daily work. Newspaper work, like yeast, is good only during the state of ferment, and the best of it may dry as quickly as the ink that prints it. There is not a more honorable profession or business than that of journalism. The newspaper is the mirror of its city or town, and its editors and reporters are truly representatives of the people, and most invariably of a grade higher than their constituents. At the top of their profession are the editors-in-chief. Their theoretical power is absolute. Practically, how- ever, they take orders from the owners of the papers. Next comes the managing editors and then the editorial writers. Many of the large papers now have editors-at-large, each a specialist in some one department. These writers usually do their work at home and are paid by the piece. There are special editorial writers who give only a part of their time to newspapers. There are telegraph editors who handle telegraphic copy, and music and dramatic editors. The dramatic or musical editor is one of large importance. The ordinary editorial writer is not fitted for this position. It takes one of the keenest judgment and of a broad mind to properly criticize, weigh, and appreciate a play or other performance. Journalism is a growing profession. There is a de- mand for the daily paper. The profession is not over- crowded with good men. It is a work that brings forth a man's best energy. He feels that his paper is of vital CHOOSING A VOCATION 113 force in the community. He is dealing with the live is- sues of the day. He is part of an enterprise that has power and influence in the land. What are the compensations? First, if he is a good newspaper man, he enjoys his work ; he likes the excite- ment of his labor. He is able at the very beginning to obtain a compensation sufficient to meet his immediate wants. The law, medicine and the ministry would re- quire years of preparation without compensation. The average salary of newspaper editors is fully equal to that of the average lawyer. Occasionally newspaper work leads one to the field of literature and the writing of books. It is often, too, the preparation for success in politics and many success- ful business men, bank presidents and others notable in various important walks of life obtained their training as newspaper men. One good way to try out newspaper work is to begin as a space writer. You will be paid from four to fif- teen dollars a column for what is printed. You can begin this work during your spare time and would not have to give up other employment until the new work proved entirely successful for you. There is nothing happier and surer than the life of a country editor. If he is a decent fellow, he is highly respected. Miany newspapers in the towns of moderate size are very profitable and their owners are, in some cases, the wealthiest men in their communities. To the person in the Federal service at Washington who is interested in journalism, a fine opportunity is available. You will have the advantage of a liberal knowledge of things and people, and also that of a good university to obtain a broad book education. What is going on at the National Capital is always of interest, and you have the finest kind of opportunity to write editorials for your home paper while you are there. In this way you can keep your name before the folks at home, and in case you decide to practice some other profession or enter business back home later, your HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE editorials in the home paper will have added much to your prestige in the community. Law Without a doubt, Washington offers the best oppor- tunities and surroundings for the study of the legal pro- fession of any city in the United States. The law schools at Washington have the advantage of being able to have on their faculties lawyers of national reputation and achievement those highly successful law- yers who go to Washington in the service of their na- tion's business. Almost everyone knows what the work of the lawyer is. Practices which bring in incomes of five thousand dollars a year are not uncommon and a good many lawyers have incomes of twenty-five thousand dollars and more. Almost any lawyer of ability earns a good liv- ing at his profession. But it is hard to get clients at first unless the young lawyer go into an already estab- lished firm. Abraham Lincoln has been quoted as saying that he always had the utmost sympathy for the young lawyer. For the first year after he hung up his shingle, he sat in his office praying for clients to come and then when a few did come, he sat in his office nights praying to the Lord to tell him how to satisfy those that came. Law is a dignified and honorable profession and holds forth such wide possibilities that a very large number of the sons of the rich and financially independent choose this profession. The result is that there are a lot of young fellows who are graduates of the best law schools, and who are otherwise equipped to be good lawyers, and who are not dependent on their earnings for a liveli- hood. These men are about the country willing to work in law offices a year or two for the experience. A noted example of this is Francis Bowes Sayre, one of the President's sons-in-law. At the time he married Miss Wilson he was working in the office of District Attor- ney Whitman of New York without salary because hej CHOOSING A VOCATION 115 wanted the experience. His people had money and he could afford to do it. This kind of competition makes hard the way of the young lawyer who must earn a living from the start. However, the government stenographer is well equipped to overcome this obstacle; when he finishes law school at Washington, he can go out in the states somewhere and get employment at a living wage as a stenographer and law clerk in some good law office and in time his opportunity will come to have a paying practice of his own or to get into the office as an attorney, when he began his training as stenographer and clerk. Much more about law and the advantages of studying it in Washington will be found in Chapter IV under "A Man's Opportunities." Manufacturer The successful manufacturer is one of the kings of the business world. There are many side roads that lead to failure along the road that leads to successful manu- facturing. Successful manufacturing involves much more than the ability to produce large quantities of goods, be the goods ever so meritorious. First the manufacturer must have a legal right to make and sell the proposed article. Many of the com- mon articles now being manufactured are protected by patents and to manufacture them one must buy the rights from the owners of the patents. Many of these rights are not for sale. The article must be something that can be sold at a profit and before the production of goods is commenced a definite plan of marketing that is reasonably sure to sell the goods should be worked out. Many a manu- facturing plant has been unsuccessful all because it was not linked with the proper sales organization to find a profitable market for the goods produced. Almost all the things that are needed to supply man's needs and desires are being manufactured by organiza- 116 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE tions that are organized, experienced and able to sell cheaper than a new organization just feeling its way. Moreover these organizations control trade and trade is hard to get for the business concern just entering the field. The most successful manufacturing concerns are those that have grown from very small beginnings and have done their own financing as they went along. It is very dangerous business to put much money into the equip- ment .for manufacturing any article until its sales possi- bilities have been tested and until the sales force to be relied upon for its marketing has been tried out. It is as difficult to find a good article to manufacture as it is to get together an organization to produce and sell it. The successful manufacturer is more than an ordinary business man. The business man knows buying and selling. The manufacturer must know buying, selling and must also have a knowledge of production. He must have abilities for organization and management not required of the man who only buys and sells. The most successful manufacturers have among their other qualifications the ability to handle men. This is absolutely essential for the full success of any manufac- turing organization. You may think that you can't wedge your way into this field against such odds and against so many men of large capital and long experience, but you can. The writer has been closely associated of recent years with one who, four years ago, started a manufacturing busi- ness with very little capital, and made it grow in four years into a million-dollar corporation employing a large number of people, and selling its product all over the United States and Canada. This is rather a phenomenal achievement, but it has been duplicated many times in our United States, and is going to be duplicated many more times in the future. There are as many good chances ahead to make fortunes in the manufacturing business as there are behind. New inventions and the rapid changes in our civilization and CHOOSING A VOCATION 117 mode of living keep bringing forth the necessity and consequent demand for new commodities of trade. The man who would be a successful manufacturer should study the drift of the changes that are taking place in the world of commerce, science and invention, also other changes of life or conditions that will make a reasonably permanent need for some new commodity. The invention of the automobile brought forth the rubber tire business and this business has become so large recently that there is room in the field right now for other tire manufacturers to start up and operate at a profit, but those who through foresight or circumstances got into the business ten years ago, have already made many millions out of it and established trade names that will make them many more millions, until someone in- vents a substitute for rubber tires. Very few manufacturers start out deliberately in early life to be manufacturers. They are usually successful business men and start into manufacturing when an op- portunity presents itself, although some manufacturers actually create, of their own volition, the demand for their goods. A manufacturing enterprise founded on an artificial demand which is created from within the manufacturing organization must stand fortified to con- tinue to stimulate that artificial demand at a constantly increasing cost, or change product if it would maintain its position in the markets. For the man in the Federal service at Washington who would become a manufacturer, let him study a course of business training offered by some good school of ac- countancy and business administration, preferably the Washington School of Accountancy at this time. He should take all the study in economics that he can get. After finishing school, let him obtain employment in a manufacturing company, and study its organization, management, selling force and purchasing department, also its production processes and the general policies of the company. His training in the accountancy school will have been mostly along lines of accounting and finance, and he will 118 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE be inclined to see the business only from that angle at first but he should supplement his knowledge with study on marketing, credits, advertising, also production, until he is well rounded in the qualities that make up a chief executive for such an organization. After a few years of such experience and close study he may find an opportunity to acquire interest in that company or may be prepared to start manufacturing some article on his own responsibility. Musician A few paragraphs quoted from the writings of Mr. Frank H. Damrosch, musical director, give an excellent insight into the life of the musician. "One of the first considerations in choosing a vocation is whether it will offer a decent living, and from this point of view, given aptitude, a good personality and character, and honesty of purpose, any profession will provide a comfortable income. "Music is no exception in this respect and we may as well dismiss this part of the question from further dis- cussion. While the musician rarely acquires wealth, he can usually, given the presence of the qualities enumer- ated above, earn a good living. "The question then remains, if music is not likely to offer great pecuniary inducements, what would make it worth while to devote one's life to it? "The answer lies partly in the heart of each individ- ual. If the heart says : I must follow music because it is my life, nothing more need be said. But even the heart does not speak so confidently, and when plain rea- son seeks for ground upon which to build a decision, we will find that music is an art which appeals to the intel- lectual faculties, and therefore tends to improve the mind ; that it is an expression of the beautiful in sound, and is therefore uplifting to the spirit ; that it makes for gentleness, nobility and spirituality, and therefore brings one in contact with the best men and women in the com- munity. CHOOSING A VOCATION 119 "I speak not, of course, of the trade musicians, the people who look upon music only as a plumber or a bricklayer does upon his job, which is to bring him so much in wages. That class is largely represented and has its uses; it can often make a fairly good living, but it does not represent the true musician. "The true musician is much in demand and there is much work for him to do. There is a large field, pay- ing in every sense of the word, open to him. Who, then, shall enter the field and labor in it? Anyone who is 'fond of music'? By no means. The whole world is or ought to be fond of music ; but only a few are called and still fewer are chosen. A real musical talent should not only be a reason for becoming a musician but should impose an obligation to do so. "When nature provides a talent, it is a capital which she intends shall bear interest, and woe to him who goes contrary to her mandate. "If a person shows talent, he should first of all get a thorough academic education, for a musician must be a true and cultured gentleman. Simultaneously, he must acquire an all-round musical education, technical, the- oretical, aesthetical, and historical. Thus equipped he may go forth, sure of success in so far as a congenial, honorable, and sufficiently remunerative calling can give it. "Under the conditions outlined above, I can consci- entiously recommend young people to enter the profes- sion of music. It means hard work and what many call drudgery ; but the true musician is so interested in every detail of the work, its development and its results, that he feels not the drudgery and his work is a pleasure. "Best of all, he feels that when he has succeeded, he has brought beauty into people's lives and happiness into their hearts. He is the friend of thousands whom he does not know, but who speak his name with admiration and gratitude. While he is never adequately compen- sated for what he gives, for the true musician gives his heart's blood, yet his work is its own reward. "America needs composers, conductors, singers, in- 120 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE strumentalists, such as pianists, performers on stringed instruments, wind instruments for high class symphony orchestras, organists, etc., church musicians, directors, teachers, etc." In Washington the opportunities to study music are good. There is the Georgetown College of Music, the Washington College of Music, and the Wilson Greene School of Music. These schools offer excellent oppor- tunities to the man or woman interested in music. The Ministry There is an exceptionally good opportunity open at Washington to the young man who would prepare for the ministry. The most successful ministers to-day are men who have had lots of experience with life in other walks than that of the minister. The minister as such is at a disadvantage in seeing the real life of people because he almost always se-es them in their Sunday ap- pearance. The government service gives a young man a great deal of that contact with life and understand- ing of business that many ministers lack. He is getting a contact with business at the same time he is studying theology All tuition is free 'in George Washington University to those who are studying for the ministry. The theological student living in Washington will have all the opportunities he wants to practice preaching in the smaller churches in and around Washington and oc- casionally to occupy the pulpit in one of the larger churches. The theological school does not and cannot make a minister. The man must in the first place be naturally adapted to the ministry. He must be a leader of men, a skillful teacher, and should have experienced the im- portant phases of life, that he may know life, know men, and know things, not in their exceptions, but in their averages. Without this everyday, all-round ex- perience, he may become a great and learned teacher of the technicalities of theology, but he will never actually CHOOSING A VOCATION accomplish much in the way of teaching men how to live Christlike lives. Thousands of people have been turned against the churches for the rest of their lives by the foolish and impractical preaching of woefully incompetent preach- ers. This sort of preacher, because he is educated more or less in books and because he is more book-learned than experienced, makes a theory of life from the guess- work of theology, and thus equipped, he attempts to reach the people. In his ignorance of the real and the preponderance of his theology, he misrepresents both God and man. No person has a right to enter the ministry unless he has an absorbing love of humanity. To this must be added ability and adaptability, and the necessary educa- tion preparation; and by all means a practical experi- ence in real life. The ministry does not pay much in the way of finan- cial returns. The minister, in most cases, does not stay at one church very long. The cost of moving about, of the books and self-education which he must keep up all the time, the charity that he is obliged to contribute to and the costly necessity of keeping up social life, all drain his purse. If a man has ambitions of wealth and a love for gold, he had better not try to follow the ministry. On the other hand if he is the type of man for the ministry, it is a noble work, the field for service is unlimited, and he can earn a good living. If the minister has very much ability, he can add to his income through the lec- ture platform, through his writings, or in other ways. Patent Attorney The successful patent attorney is usually one who has finished the study of the legal profession, in general, and then specialized in patent work. Many of the shrewdest and most successful patent attorneys got their training in the patent office at Washington. You can specify on your examination papers, if you like, that you 122 HOW t6 PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE wish appointment only in the patent office. The spe- cial advantages that Washington offers for the study of law have been mentioned under the heading of "Law" in this chapter. There is only one United States Patent Office and that patent office is by far the best place to learn patent law. As an employee of the patent office you would be thrown into contact with the ablest patent attorneys the country over, and your chances to associate yourself with some successful firm as partner would be excellent. America is the melting pot for all nations. This amal- gamation of people here has produced more brilliant thinkers and more inventors than any other nation in the world. There have been more than a million pat- ents issued to the American people since the establish- ment of the United States Patent Office. The work of the patent attorney is well paid for and in addition it offers many chances to acquire an interest in valuable patents in exchange for services, for there are many inventors of valuable inventions who haven't the money for patents and will give an interest to the attorney who secures the patent for them. The civil service offers a most attractive opportunity to the man who would become a patent attorney. Salesmanship The man In any walk of life, who at any time seeks to influence his fellow men, is or should be a sales- man. The laborer, the politician, the teacher, the social worker, the lawyer, the minister, every one of these is day by day applying, or failing to apply, the same great principles. The things sold have a thousand forms. The teacher sells education; the lawyer sells conviction to the jury; the social worker sells higher ideals of liv- ing; the minister sells religious and moral truth. The least and the greatest of us are selling ourselves, our opinions, our friendship. To sell means to secure in someone else the mental acceptance of your viewpoint. There is no man living who does not need to sell. Rather is it, in a sense, the primary function and our most CHOOSING A VOCATION pressing duty. The sooner we learn to do it consciously, and wisely, and compellingly, the greater will be our achievement and our happiness. There are wonderful opportunities ahead for men of real sales ability* Every issue of smoke from every factory says, "We are making goods to be sold." Every boat and railroad engine says, "We are hauling goods to be sold." In every publication thousands are call- ing, "We have goods to be sold." New inventions are daily proclaiming, "Improved goods to be sold." As a matter of fact and this is a point to remember there is hardly a commodity on the market which might not be distributed more extensively than it is to-day. Every hour sees a new product launched in the world ; a new food, a new tool or implement, a new supply of materials from natural sources forest, mine or plain hitherto untapped; and these commodities, too, can be sold in quantities limited only by the salesmanship force that is put behind them. Make no mistake about it there is plenty of oppor- tunity for trained salesmen. The life of influencing fa- vorably the minds of others to the point where they will buy your goods is a most fascinating one. The sales- man has goods to sell, but primarily he is not dealing with his goods, he is dealing with the minds of men. When you fully understand and can successfully apply the scientific principles of changing other people's minds to think as you do, this business called salesmanship has a wonderful fascination and a big future for you. In selling you are constantly sowing your thoughts and* ideas in the minds of other people and reaping back a harvest. There is no sport or pleasure known to human life which is so full of thrilling experiences as that of playing upon the minds of human beings, by exercising your positive powers of reason and suggestion to make them think with you to the point of action. It is this same fascination that keeps the actor and actress upon the stage ; and it enters to a certain extent many other fields of endeavor. HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE The minds of men are infinite in their variety of de- sire, emotions, motives and ways of thinking. For this reason the business of salesmanship has an unending variety in it which lends lifelong enchantment to the work. An article by Hugh Chalmers on salesmanship covers this field admirably and is so full of the enthusiasm of successful salesmanship that I quote from it as fol- lows: "In a broad way, everyone is a salesman and every- one is practicing, or failing to practice, as the case may be, the principles of salesmanship, and these principles are simply the principles of influencing favorably and not unfairly the human mind. "It is a salesman's business to change minds, to over- come prejudices, to break down bad customs, soften stub- bornness, and let the light of reason into dark places. What is more to be desired than the ability to influence the minds of men and to change them for the mutual good of the buyer and seller? Emerson said: 'He is great who can alter my state of mind/ He may have been thinking of salesmen when he said it. "And isn't life in general pretty much a matter of making other people feel as you do about something or other? About yourself primarily? How great and prosperous we should all be if only we could bring the world to feel about us as we feel about ourselves! "Salesmanship is a science and it is also an art. There is a certain fund of knowledge, relating to the profes- sion of salesmanship, and a certain lot of principles by which the salesman consciously or unconsciously works, that together amount to a science. By the art of sales- manship I mean the actual practice of selling goods the actual calling on customers, the displaying of samples, the presentation of selling arguments, the taking of orders the application in business life of the knowledge com- prising the science. Between the science of salesman- ship and the art of selling there is much the same dif- ference as between studying law in a university and practicing it in a court. CHOOSING A VOCATION 123 "A great many men who understand the principles of scientific salesmanship are not successful salesmen. They come short in the application in the practice. There are a great many people who can see in their minds beau- tiful pictures, and who understand pretty well the prin- ciples on which rests the painters' art, who can never paint good pictures. For art is doing as opposed to knowing. It is the acme of man's accomplishment in any line of activity, whether it be selling goods or paint- ing pictures. "I think salesmanship is as scientific as law, and in some respects the work of a salesman closely resembles the work of a lawyer trying a case. When a case comes to trial we find the lawyer first making a preliminary general statement. He outlines all that he expects to do for his client. He announces that he intends to prove his client innocent on a half dozen counts, any one of which would be sufficient, and he enumerates them in ur^Ier. "In the second stage of the trial we find him bringing in the evidence to support and prove the general state- ments made in his opening address. In the closing ad- dress we find him recapitulating all of the statements, arguments, and evidence which he has previously intro- duced into the trial, and closing it all with an appeal as strong and as tactful as he can utter to the emotions of the jury and the judge; an appeal that will bring about a final decision favorable to his client. "Now look at the salesman as he approaches his prospective customer. He makes a statement telling his customer in general terms what he has to offer. He akes certain broad claims for his article. He says it ill save the customer both time and money, that it will do the work of two men, that it is the best thing of its kind made, and that the price is amazingly low consid- ering the value. Then he goes on to submit evidence proving his statement, and finally he sums it all up, going over each of his arguments, pointing out again quickly and eloquently the advantages of his article, and trying with a final skillful appeal to bring about a decision in 126 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE the mind of his customer. Thus we have the three steps in any sale the approach, the demonstration, and the closing argument. "But salesmanship is something more than a science or an art it is a principle a principle of human rela- tionship. It is the principle of the influence of one per- son on another. It is a fundamental principle, and it is universal in its working. "If I were asked to define salesmanship, I should say that it is simply making the other fellow feel as you do about what you have to sell. That is about all there is to it. You go into a man's office with something to sell. You feel that this man ought to possess, through purchase from you, this thing that you have to sell. But the man you have called to see, who sits with an air of cool defiance behind the breastwork of his desk, is in a directly opposite state of mind. He feels that he ought not to possess, through purchase from you, the thing you have to sell. Now the only possible way you can make the sale is to make that man's mind come around into agreement with your mind. It is not even a case where you can meet your opponent halfway; you can- not make even a small compromise and still make a sale. You have got to sell him completely or you don't sell him at all ; you must pull him full one hundred and eighty degrees around the circle. When you have made him feel, just as sincerely as you yourself feel, that he should buy what you have to sell, then he will buy. "The art of salesmanship is sanctified by difficulties. It is difficulty that makes all art sacred. Anybody can do the easy things ; it takes good men to accomplish the difficult. Proficiency in the art of salesmanship is as admirable as proficiency in law, or medicine, or engineer- ing. Some day, if it does not now, the world at large will recognize the fact. "There is no work in the world better for the man who is doing it than salesmanship, because it calls for the application of knowledge to specific cases. We evolve through contact. It is polishing surfaces that makes the diamond marketable. CHOOSING A VOCATION "Have you ever stopped to think how much good sales- men do in individual cases? A salesman is a man with the courage of his convictions; he is one who will not take 'No' for an answer. How many men are there who owe their success to some salesman's refusal to take 'No' for an answer? "Whatever you really need you pay for, whether you ever buy or not. The man who needs an adding ma- chine pays for it many times over by the time and mis- takes it would save. The merchant who needs adver- tising pays for it many times over in the trade that passes by his door; the salesman who doesn't believe in advertising pays for his wrong opinion in the 'almost sales' that advertising would have helped him close ; the family of the man who didn't believe in life insurance pays the premiums in suffering after he is gone. "And this brings us to where we can see that in every good sale the salesman renders a service to the buyer which is not compensated for by the price of the article sold. It is a realization of this service which is not cov- ered in the purchase price that must ever afford to sales- men a great pleasure in their work. There is many a man sitting back to-day complacent over his success, and entirely satisfied that he did it all himself, who owes that same success entirely to the fact that a good sales- man couldn't hear him one time when he said 'No' and stayed and made him say 'Yes/ "To be a good salesman is to be something very much worth while, for salesmen serve. And those who serve most, prosper most they win, even when they seem to lose." Teaching For the government employee at Washington who is interested in teaching, there is the George Washington University Teachers' College, and also the J. Ormond Wilson Normal School. The school of to-day is a greater factor in the devel- opment of the young than is the present home. The child's first view of real life is in the schoolroom. At 128 HOW TO PREPARE FOR CIVIL SERVICE school he begins to realize what there is in the world, what has been and what probably will be. In the home there is rarely opportunity for the child to see what liv- ing really means. It is the teacher who introduces the child to life. In the school the child first realizes what he is and what his relations to others are. Teaching can be attractive to one capable of success in some other occupation, only when he has a message for young people. To such there is no other field in which his life can be so completely given to the unfolding and developing of the mind and character as in teaching. Teaching is a noble, uplifting, glorious life for the one who accepts it as a mission to young people. The profession of educator or teacher is filled with the noblest class of men and women, those of the high- est aspirations, seekers for the truest success and pos- sessors of genuine high character, with the unselfish and loving spirit of the missionary, for what cause is greater or nobler than that of forming character? The teacher is honored but he does not receive half the honor, respect or remuneration that he deserves. The profession should be recognized more than it is. It should be publicly lifted to a higher plane. I would magnify the teacher's pension. I would place him upon a pedestal as high as any other erected to human en- deavor. No money worshipper wants to teach and it is a very good thing that he does not for such a person would not be sufficiently broad-minded or able to instruct properly the young or anybody else. From a financial point of view, teaching can hardly be considered as a remunerative profession. Compara- tively few teachers earn more than a living; a lesser number obtain a competency ; and none of them, unless they are owners of institutions ever become rich from the harvest of their planting. TO you who have faith, ambition, en- ergy, determination, and grit to dare and to do, the way has been shown. Your success depends upon your action. 129 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. l6 Dec'49CS l7Dec51lt LD OEC 11962 "* LD 1955 CP LD 21-100m-9,'481B399sl6)476 YB 66341 50207 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY