§ Mr. HIRSTasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in connection with the rule that temporary chemical assistants at the Government Laboratory must retire at the age of thirty, he is aware that only a very small percentage of these men have an opportunity of rising to the permanent staff in consequence of the fact that the only vacancies are caused by death; whether he is aware that no examinations for candidates for the permanent staff have been held during the last five years; and whether, in view of the qualifications of the men employed as temporary chemical assistants and the advisability of retaining the services of experienced men, he will have the Regulation in question reconsidered with a view to the adoption of some method of absorbing into the permanent staff a greater percentage of these trained men or, at any rate, of retaining their services in the Department?
§ Mr. BALDWINDuring the War examinations for men of military age were discontinued by the Civil Service Commissioners, and the two vacancies which occurred in the permanent posts were filled by selection. The vacancies which have occurred in the permanent staff of the Government Laboratory in recent years have been caused by retirement, not by death, and on each occasion before the2024W War every suitable man on the temporary staff, who applied, was nominated for examination for the post. There is nothing in the experience of the Department to justify the revision of the Regulation in question, which has been found to work well alike in the interests of the public service and of the assistants. The rule as to retirement at thirty is carefully explained to temporary assistants when they enter, and the fluctuations in the amount of work at the laboratory render it necessary to keep a certain proportion of the staff on a temporary footing.