The year 1938 marks the beginning of the era of modern personnel administration. The big test of this phase was to be whether a system conceived for an essentially negative purpose (i.e., the control of patronage and corruption in appointment to public office) could be adapted to meet the needs of modern personnel management.
This page can be found on the web at the following url: http://opm.gov/BiographyofAnIdeal/SubMain1938-1958.asp