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LEFT CIVIC ASSOCIATION 3 roots and fruits. It is sometimes kept in the region which it inhabits for the sake of the perfume which it furnishes. There is an allied species, V. rasse, in Java. CIVIC ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN, an organization established in 1904 for the general purpose of cultivating higher ideals of civic life and to promote city, town, and neighborhood improvement. It has for an additional purpose the pres- ervation and development of landscapes and the advancement of outdoor art. The work of the association is conducted on national lines by its varied activities for the physical improvement of the various communities. It has devoted special attention to city planning and the cre- ation and maintenance of parks, the elimination of smoke, billboards, and other nuisances, and the organization of citizens into working groups for civic improvement. The association did valu- able work in the preservation of the scenic beauty of Niagara Falls. It also took a prominent part in the movement for the protection of the national parks. Its headquarters are in Washington. CIVICS, the science that treats of citizenship and the relations between citizens and the government. It em- braces ethics, or social duties; civil law, or governmental methods; economics, or the principles of finance and exchange; and the history of civic development. The study of this science has been largely introduced into the schools of the United States. CIVIL ENGINEERING, the science or art of constructing machinery for manufacturing purposes, constructions and excavations, for general transit, as canals, docks, railroads, etc. It is so called in contradistinction to military en- gineering, which is confined to war. CIVILIZATION, a condition consist- ing in what may be broadly called cul- ture in a nation; and a nation may be considered as civilized when a large pro- portion of those belonging to it have their intellectual and moral faculties and all their higher nature in large measure developed and becoming increasingly so with the advance of years. Before this can take place, a considerable amount of material prosperity must have been achieved, between which and the culture already described there are continual action and reaction. Regarding progression in material prosperity, certain stages tend to occur: (1) a barbarous one, in which one feeds on roots, fruits, and fishes, when these last can be caught without effort; (2) the state of a hunter; (3) that of the shepherd, in which, to avoid the uncer- CIVIL SERVICE certainty of the result in hunting, wild animals are domesticated; (4) the agri- cultural state, and (5) that of manufac- tures and commerce. Regarding mental advance it has been maintained that na- tions necessarily passed through a theo- logical, a metaphysical, and a positive or scientific stage. CIVIL LAW. the law of a state, city, or country; appropriately the Roman law comprised in the Institutes, Code, and Digest of Justinian, and the Novel Constitutions. CIVIL LIST, the annual allowance voted to the members of the reign^ing family in constitutional monarchies in which Parliament possesses control of the finances of the country. CIVIL SERVICE, that branch of the public service which includes the non- military servants of the government. The purpose of the civil-service act, as declared in its title, is to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States." It provides for the ap- pointment of three commissioners, not more than two of whom shall be adher- ents of the same political party, and makes it the duty of the commission to aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying the act into effect. The act requires that the rules shall provide, among other things, for open competitive examina- tions for testing the fitness of applicants for the classified service, the making ' appointments from among those passing with highest grades, an apportionment of appointments in the departments at Washington among the States and Terri- tories, a period of probation before abso- lute appointment, and the prohibition of the use of official authority to coerce the political action of any person or body. The act also provides for investigations touching the enforcement of the rules, and forbids, under penalty of fine or imprisonment, or both, the solicitation by any person in the service of the United States of contributions to be used for political purposes from persons in such service, or the collection of such contri- butions by any person in a government building. The commission was organized on March 9, 1883. The first classification of the service applied to the departments at Washington and to postoffice and cus- tom houses having as many as 50 em- ployees, embracing 13,294 employees. The commission then consisted of three commissioners, the chief examiner, sec- retary, stenographer, and messenger boy. On June 30, 1917. there were 517,805 officers and employees in the executive civil service, of which 326,899 held posi-