On the 19th of September 1900 the United States Philippine Commission passed an act "for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands." This act, in its general features, is based upon the national civil service law, but includes also a number of the stronger points to be found in the state and municipal law mentioned above. Among these are the power given the civil service board to administer oaths, summon witnesses, and require the production of official records; and the power to stop payment of salaries to persons illegally appointed. Promotions are determined by competitive examinations, and are made throughout the service, as there are no excepted positions. A just right of preference in local appointments is given to natives. The president of the Philippine commission in introducing this bill said: "The purpose of the United States government ... in these islands is to secure for the Filipino people as honest and as efficient a government as may be possible.... It is the hope of the commission to make it possible for one entering the lowest ranks to reach the highest, under a tenure based solely upon merit." Judging by past experience it is believed that this law is well adapted to accomplish the purpose above stated.
For fuller information upon the details of the present workings of the merit system in the Federal service, recourse should be had to the publications of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which are to be found in the public libraries in all the principal cities in the United States, or which may be had free of charge upon application to the commission. The _Manual of Examinations_, published semi-annually, gives full information as to the character of the examinations held by the commission, together with the schedule of dates and places for the holding of those examinations. The _Annual Reports_ of the commission contain full statistics of the results of its work, together with comprehensive statements as to the difficulties encountered in enforcing the law, and the means used to overcome them. In the _Fifteenth Report_, pp. 443-485, will be found a very valuable historical compilation from original sources, upon the "practice of the presidents in appointments and removals in the executive civil service, from 1789 to 1883." In the same report, pp. 511-517, is a somewhat comprehensive bibliography of "civil service" in periodical literature in the 19th century, brought down to the end of 1898. See also C.R. Fish, _The Civil Service and the Patronage_ (New York, 1905).