field, have had for their sole object the performance of a maximum amount of work with a minimum number of employees. The number of permanent appointments in the classified service during the year, including those effected by transfer and reinstatement, was 37 less than in the preceding year. The temporary appointments were 22 less. During the same period the promotions, amounting to 172, were also less by 29. All promotions were to the next higher grade, with but one exception, that of an official assigned to a newly established station where the responsibilities of his position were much greater than at the station formerly held. The number of voluntary resignations in the classified service during the year was 70, or 17 more than in the previous year. Of this number 31 were in the grade of messenger and messenger boy, and 15 were recently appointed assistant observers. The loss in the messenger service is naturally to be looked for as the boys advance toward manhood. The inability to hold all of the new assistant observers is doubtless due to the small salary paid them during the first year or two of their service. At the present rate of wages young men of their attainments are able to command, the temptation to engage in employment giving more lucrative immediate returns. than those offered in the lower grades of the Government service, has often proved irresistible. Of the 69 probationary appointments made, only 2 failed to complete successfully the 6 months' probationary period. There were 9 forced resignations from the classified service, for various causes, during the year, while the removals for reasons reflecting upon the character of the employees were 3. Of the 14 reductions during the year, 6 were brought about through causes reflecting in no manner upon those reduced, while 8 suffered a decrease in salary for failure to measure up to the standards of efficiency and conduct required by the bureau. In the unclassified service there were 5 permanent and 2 temporary appointments, as compared with 5 permanent and no temporary appointments in the preceding year. The absence record for the service as a whole showed a fraction of a day more sick leave and a fraction of a day less annual leave for each employee than in the preceding year. There were 4 deaths in the commissioned force during the year, as compared with 8 for the year before. Among these was Mr. Jesse H. Robinson, chief of the Telegraph Division at the central office of the Weather Bureau, in whose death on May 1, 1911, the bureau sustained the loss of a valued official. Mr. Robinson entered the service. on March 6, 1872, and was appointed chief operator in 1891, and chief of the Telegraph Division in 1902. 172 Promotions (all promotions except 1 were to the next higher grade or by certification for advancement from subclerical positions)............... Reductions: Causes To grant assignment to preferred station... To grant assignment to preferred work................ As an offset to the bureau for allowance of quarters, fuel, and light. Necessitated by change of duties... Unsatisfactory administrative work.. Unsatisfactory services.... Neglect of duty... Unsatisfactory conduct and neglect of duty. Transferred to the Division of Publications, Department of Agriculture.... 2 Removals: Causes Transfer of certain printing work from the Weather Bureau to the Gov- Continued illness.. Dropped from the rolls at termination of probationary period because of unsatisfactory services..... Average number of days per employee during calendar year 1910. 7 1 1 1 12 2 32 1 1 2 2 5 STATISTICS OF THE SERVICE. The following tables show the numerical strength of the bureau, and the highest, lowest, and average salaries paid in the commissioned grades: Numerical strength of the Weather Bureau, June 30, 1911. Total paid employees.. Persons serving without compensation (except through the distribution of Cooperative observers and correspondents (omitting 412 paid ob servers enumerated elsewhere) 4,847 1 This total embraces all paid persons connected with the bureau on June 30, 1911, except 14 commissioned employees, absent on that date and who had been granted leaves of absence or furloughs without pay for one month or more. One employee devotes a portion of his time at one of the map stations at the United States Capitol. In Washington, D. C.-Continued. Heat, light, and power plant (under direction of the chief clerk)... General messenger and laborer service (under direction of the chief clerk). Total....... Outside of Washington, D. C.: 53 stations with 1 commissioned employee.. 45 stations with 2 commissioned employees.. 50 stations with 3 commissioned employees. 18 stations with 4 commissioned employees. 14 stations with 5 commissioned employees. 7 stations with 6 commissioned employees.. 5 stations with 7 commissioned employees.. 2 stations with 8 commissioned employees. 3 stations with 9 commissioned employees.. 1 station with 10 commissioned employees.. 1 station with 12 commissioned employees.. 1 station with 23 commissioned employees.. 200 stations..... In addition to the foregoing there are eight special observing (one man) stations in the West Indies, mainly in operation during the hurricane season, and a special repair station in Washington operated from October to April, inclusive. The following salary table omits persons on duty at special observing and substations where the salaries are $25 a month or less, and where, as a rule, the tour of duty covers but a small fraction of the day and only certain seasons of the year. This represents the normal station force. On June 30, 1911, there were actually on duty 591 employees. 23165°-AGB 1911-13 |