Included in the classified service are positions in or under the departments and offices at Washington, D. C., the Custodian Service, the Customs Service, the Engineer Department at large, the Freedman’s Hospital, the Forest Service, the Government Printing Office, the Immigration Service, the Indian Irrigation and Allotment Service, the Indian Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Land Office Service, the Lighthouse Service, the Mint and Assay Service, the National Military Park Service, the Navy Yard Service, the Ordnance Department at large, the Panama Canal Service, the Post Office Service, the Public Health Service, the Quartermaster Corps, the Reclamation Service, the Rural Delivery Service, the Railway Mail Service, St. Elizabeths Hospital, the Steamboat Inspection Service, the Subtreasury Service, the United States Penitentiary Service; and the position of fourth-class postmaster, except in Alaska, Canal Zone, Guam, Hawaii, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and Samoa.
Where, in the opinion of the Civil Service Commission, such an examination is practicable and desirable, applicants are assembled in examination rooms in certain specified places, conveniently located throughout the country, for written scholastic tests. In many cases, however, the competitors are not required to assemble for a written examination, but are graded upon their training and experience and, where necessary, upon their physical condition. These so-called nonassembled examinations are given for two general classes of positions, viz: (1) Mechanical trades and similar positions, and (2) high-grade technical, professional, and scientific positions, and administrative positions which can not adequately be filled by promotion and for which the Government requires men whose fitness is demonstrated in a record of successful experience. In such examinations, competitors are rated upon the sworn statements in their applications and upon corroborative evidence gathered by the Civil Service Commission. In some examinations of this character, these, published writings of the applicant, and the like are considered. Applicants for positions of mere unskilled laborer are given a physical examination only.