Statement on the Executive Order on Extending the Classified Civil Service

I have signed today an Executive Order, to take effect July 1,1941, which brings into civil service more than one hundred thousand government positions which until today have been exempted.

The issuance of this Order is a significant milestone in civil service reform, both in the number and in the proportion of Federal positions to be filled in accordance with the Civil Service Act.

During my years in office, I have signed a number of Executive Orders extending the classified civil service. Three years ago I went as far as it was legally possible to go at that time by covering into civil service all positions not definitely excluded by statute and not policy-determining in character. I could not cover in numerous positions which had been exempted from civil service by specific Congressional enactments.

In the last year, however, two events of profound significance in terms of improvement in government have occurred. The Congress last November passed the Ramspeck Act, which removed numerous prohibitions against extending civil service to thousands of positions. It is under the authority of this Act that today's Order is issued. In February, "The President's Committee on Civil Service Improvement," which I appointed two years ago with Mr. Justice Reed as Chairman, made its final report to me. I have previously transmitted this report to Congress by special message. In substance this Executive Order accepts and, indeed, implements the recommendations of that Committee.

The Order includes the higher administrative, professional, and technical posts as well as the intermediate and lower grade positions, with the exception of a very few exemptions created by the Ramspeck Act itself. It is the fruition of the recommendation in 1937 of "The President's Committee on Administrative Management" that the merit system be extended "upward, outward and downward."

This Order will become generally effective on January l, 1942, at which time the positions will be brought within the competitive classified civil service. It provides that those positions becoming vacant between July 1, 1941, and January 1, 1942, will automatically be brought within the civil service when they become vacant and will thereafter be filled in accordance with civil service.

There are in each department and agency some positions of a policy-determining character which probably should be exempt from civil service requirements. The Civil Service Commission will immediately begin consultations with the several agencies to determine those very few positions.

The Committee on Civil Service Improvement has recommended two alternative plans for covering attorney positions into the service. After careful study of both plans, I have decided to put into effect, with certain minor modifications, the so-called "Plan A" which was recommended by a numerical majority of the Committee.

The increasing demands of Government make it essential that it should be able to command the highest quality of legal work. I have, therefore, decided to subject Government lawyers, like other professional men in the service of the Government, to the standards and the requirements of the merit system. We must shut out considerations of caprice or favoritism or worse in the selection of our law officers. It is important to enlist in the creation of this career system the utmost good will of the legal profession within and without the Government. "Plan A" commends itself to me as the most promising way to make effective the induction of the legal positions into our civil service system. The responsibility for working out the details for the future recruitment of Government lawyers will be primarily in the hands of a committee of lawyers, to be named by the President, whose professional standing and personal qualities will give assurance of complete disinterestedness. This committee will serve as an arm, as it were, of the Civil Service Commission in working out this aspect of civil service. The details of this procedure are set forth in the Order.

For the first time in the history of this Government the greatest possible opportunities are now open for the development of a broad merit system which will further encourage men and women of outstanding ability to enter the government under conditions which will offer them fair and equal opportunities to build satisfactory careers.

The requirements of today and those of the future are so great that the services of the best minds in the Nation must be secured if governmental affairs are to be conducted in the manner demanded by modern conditions and at the high level of ability which a democratic Government owes to the people of the United States.