Treasury Department, Dec. 15, 1904.

To the Civil Service Commission:

I am in receipt of your communication of November 21st certifying three names from which to select a Tea Examiner.

I hereby file objection to each and all of the persons so certified because of mental unfitness for the position for which they apply.

There is no tariff duty on tea and the sole purpose of examination of tea is to protect the American people from cheap and deleterious preparations. A competent tea examiner must be able to pour hot water on a sample of tea and by tasting, tell within five cents per pound of what it is worth, and to determine accurately whether the sample is composed of tea or of some imitation or preparation thereof, and whether it has been adulterated. Whether he can speak the English language or sign his name is immaterial. If he knows tea, and is honest and incorruptible, the American people will get protection. These men know no more about tea than you or I and they are as unfit for the place as either of us.

In proof of the foregoing, one of the names certified is that of a clerk in the Customs Service and is known to this Department to be wholly unfit for Tea Examiner. He is a clerk and not a Tea Expert.

Another is a bookkeeper, and has been continuously thus employed since 1886, and knows nothing about tea and does not pretend to.

The third is now an opener and packer in the Customs Service and admits that all he knows about tea is the fact that he once sold coffee. The serious side of this matter is the absolute and literal truth of the foregoing.

Some conception of the importance of the position may be gained from the fact that over three hundred packages of alleged tea have been excluded in the last ninety days at that port alone.

The balance of the correspondence is unimportant in view of the Commissioner’s letter of Dec. 9, 1905, practically one year thereafter, quoted page 173, and in which the Commission states that after two examinations, on its recommendation the place was excepted by the President and filled independent of Civil Service.