The Evening critic., 1883-03-02
WHO is TO BLAME
For the stOppnge of Pay of District
Employees?

The stoppagc Of pay of District employees,
which has just gone into effect Oh the Feb
ruary pay-Iolls, as stated last evening, is II
very serious matter to the employees in-
volvcd, and who arc compelled to suffer Il
suspension of their pay without any just
cause, and are given the disagreeable alter
native of working without pay or resigning
their nositions.
A brief statement of the circumstances
leading to the stoppage of pay is, in sub
stance, that under former boards Of Com
missioncrs when unusnal duties were i'm
posed upon the clerks i'll the form of night
work on tax-llsts, pay-rolls or reports, the
Commissioners, acting upon authority which
they supposed they had, paid these en-
ployes at an equitable rate for their extra
exertioDs out of the appropriation for con-
tingent expenses.
The right of the Commissioners to give
extra pay for extra work continued uu.
questioned for many years, and under
Messrs. Dent, Morgan and Twining $7,32i.95
was paid out in this way, while under
Messrs. Phelps, Dent and Twining S7,772 60
was spent. In December, 1882, Judge Law
renee notified the Commissioners that he
could find no authority for these extra
payments, but, on the contrary, section
1765 forbade such payments when it provided
that "no officer or employe of the United
States, whose salary is fixed by law, shall
receive any other or additional COM
pensation." Under this law, he said,
the $l6,33i05 must be refunded
persons to whom it had been given would
be stopped. The Commissioners induced
the Comptroller not to enforce the stoppages
on the December rolls as it would interfere
with the clerks Christmas money, and on
the January rolls the matter was again
postponed until the questions involved
might be determined by the Attorney
General.
No decision had been reached when the
February rolls were ready, and when the
checks of the parties who had received
extra compensation (about forty-three in
number and mostly clerks in the Assessors,
Collectors and Water Ofiices) were sent to
the Treasury to be cashed they were re-
fused, on the ground that the money over
drawn by these parties had not been re-
funded. These clerks are now in serious
dilemma, from which there is little hope of
escape unless the Commissioners can find
some law relieving. District employees from
the provisions of section 1865, which has
been quoted.
General West thinks that this can be
done and relies for relief upon section J.,
clause 3 of the organic act, which says
''The District of Columbia shall remain aud
continue municipal corporation, as provided
in section of tho Revised Statutes relating to
said District, and the Commissioners herein
provided for shall be doomed and taken as
officers Of such corporation"
The Commissioners will lose no oppor-
tunity for gaining relief for the
clerks at the hands of the highest legal au-
thorty, if THAT be possible, OF
if not, at the hands of the Congressional
Committee, and both sources have been ap-
pealed to as it is manilestly UNJUST that
the present Commissioners should pay for
the errors of their predecessors, or the
clerks lose their current pay simply be.
cause they were paid what they earned in
the mast.