at the rate of $1,800 or more, but less than
$2,000 per annum.

_Class 5_.--All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,000 or
more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,000 or more, but less than
$2,500 per annum.

_Class 6_.--All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,500 or
more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,500 or more per annum.

_It is provided_, That this classification shall not include
persons appointed to an office by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate nor persons employed as mere laborers or workmen; but all
positions whose occupants are designated as laborers or workmen, and who
were prior to May 6, 1896, and are now regularly assigned to work of the
same grade as that performed by classified employees, shall be included
within this classification. Hereafter no person who is appointed as a
laborer or workman, without examination under the civil-service rules,
shall be assigned to work of the same grade as that performed by
classified employees.

_It is also ordered_, That no person shall be admitted into any
place not excepted from examination by the civil-service rules in any of
the classes above designated until he shall have passed an appropriate
examination prepared by the United States Civil Service Commission and
his eligibility has been certified to this office by said Commission.

By direction of the President:

HENRY T. THURBER,
_Private Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 12, 1897_.

Hon. JUDSON HARMON,
_Attorney-General of the United States_.

DEAR SIR: The bill which has been for some time pending before the
Congress providing for the adjustment and extension of the indebtedness
of the Pacific railroads to the Government of the United States has been
defeated in the House of Representatives.

In the case of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Kansas Pacific
Railroad, a default in the payment of their indebtedness having occurred
and suits having been commenced for the foreclosure of the lien upon
said roads which is paramount to the lien and security of the United
States, you are hereby directed, pursuant to the provisions of an act of
Congress passed March 3, 1887, after taking such precautions and
perfecting such arrangements as are possible to assure as far as
practicable the payment of their indebtedness to the Government as a
result of the suits now pending or others to be instituted, to take such
proceedings in the courts as shall b