_The Civil Service Law of 1883._--The assassination of President Garfield in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker aroused public opinion to some of the worst evils of the existing system, and in obedience to the demands of public sentiment, Congress in 1883 enacted the civil service law which forms the basis of the present civil service system. This law provided for the creation of a commission of three persons, not more than two of whom should belong to the same political party. The commission was charged with forming rules for making appointments to the public service, and with carrying out the provisions of the law. _The Classified Service._--The act provided for the classification of the positions in the departments at Washington and in the customhouses and post offices where at least fifty persons were employed, and for the holding, under the supervision of the commission, of competitive examinations to test the fitness of applicants for appointments to positions in the classified service. The classified service now includes the departmental service at Washington, the customs service, the post office service, the railway mail service, the Indian service, the internal revenue service, and the government printing service. _Extent of the Classified Service._--At first the law applied to only about 14,000 positions, but since then the number has been increased from time to time by the creation of new offices and by orders of Presidents extending the rules to other classes of positions. A large extension, for example, was made by President Cleveland in 1896. President Roosevelt also made large extensions, so that when he went out of office there were about twice as many positions under the rules as there were when he became President. In 1912 President Taft added over 36,000 fourth-class postmasters and 20,000 artisans employed in the navy yards; and in 1917 President Wilson placed 10,000 first-, second-, and third-class postmasters under the rules. Of 517,805 officers and employees in the executive civil service in 1917, 326,899 were subject to competitive examination. _Exempt Positions._--Among the positions not under the rules and for which competitive examinations are not required are the more important presidential offices such as cabinet officers, assistant secretaries, chiefs of bureaus, United States attorneys, marshals, judges, ambassadors and ministers, besides a large number of minor officials like private secretaries. The income tax and currency acts of 1913 exempted from the operation of the civil service laws employees who collect the income tax and employees of the Federal Reserve Board. By an act of the same year deputy collectors of internal revenue and deputy marshals were withdrawn from the operation of the laws. These acts have been criticized by civil service reformers.