Sanitation Men, Class A

New York City last week took steps to replenish its staff of street cleaners. The city estimated it would need about 1,600 in the next four years. So its Civil Service Commission arranged an examination, invited able-bodied men of 20 to 40 to take tests for the position of "Sanitation Man, Class A" (laborer). Salary: $35 a week. The response was terrific.

From early morning until late afternoon, a horde of men trooped into 23 schoolhouses to struggle with the Commission's first test (mental). Long lines of candidates shivered in the March wind. By nightfall, 75,000 men, second largest number in U. S. Civil Service history (100,000 took a U. S. customs inspector's examination a year and a half ago) had been examined.

Sample question: "You are helping to load a sanitation truck at night. A passing pedestrian asks you the location of a street address. You do not know the answer. . . . Of the following, the best procedure is to tell the pedestrian a) that you are a sanitation man and not a traffic cop, b) not to interfere with a city employee in the performance of his duties, c) to ask another man in the crew because you are busy, d) that you do not know and refer him to a nearby traffic officer, e) to look it up in the telephone book."

Survivors of the mental test (those who get 75% or better) will be further weeded out by an even tougher physical test in May.

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