Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-28
A Chief of Division Tells His E1-
perience.
PREYIEG ON THEIR FELLOW employees
Correspondents Who Think There
Should Be Some Regulation.
RESULTS OF FAST LIVING


| Permit me to add to the discussion what
| l intend to be fair conclusions drawn from
| my own experience. For some years l have
| been chief of one Of the larger divisions
Oh the departmental service once having
many as about 800 employees, and from first
| 10 last within a few years about 700 diff
feItnt ones, more than one-tenth as
many persons employed by Uncle
Sam in this city. Debtors among them
have been constantly brought to my atten-
| uon and | feel that | am justified in say
| ing that ] know what sort of class they
| are. In addition to my direct experience l
| rlay add hearsay evidence derived from ac-
! quaintances having experience with a large
! number of clerks. 1t is sufficiently within
the general rule 10 say that the debtors are
| lot women. There are some improVident
| and eAtravagant single women, without
dependents, who go into debt TO merchants
| and confiding fellow ks but they are of
small account. The female clerks, largely,
| 1--we close to the limits of their salaries 20
| MAINTAIN what is rated as a respectable liv-
| ing IN TINS city, to support dependents and
| TO pay the expenses of vacations and such
| comforts and luAuries as commonly accom-
| pany easy ana comparatively large earn
| 1ngS, but these women are not debtors to
| any perccptibe degree.
| Nor would say that the male clerks, as
| a class, are debtors, although NEST of them
| live up to their incomes. They receive
| qualntanceS back at the crossroads they
| labor and Kill time only six and one-half
hCurS out OF tWenty-four: they ind Wash
ington social and, therefore, an expensive
town, and their margin for saving is small
| II ii exists at all. Only a relatively small
minority of the male clerks belong TO the
| debtor class, of which your correspondents
| have been writing, and the money that
these clerks earn and borrow goes to the
| saloons, it is dropped in the Division" or
at the race track, poker and extravaganza
| and dissipation get it, and not infrequently
| their families are Undertaking TO live above
| their means, sometimes under what APP
pears to be the pressure of necessity.
| "Generally speaking. these hatitUal debt
| ors are a bad lot. They prey on grcenhOrn
| clerks, who are new to Washington life:
| they pretend to have life insurance prem
! iums TO meet, and if these are not paid the
| policies must lapse; hey rush up 20 you.
| GREATNESS, ana ask for so 10 save them
| from disaster. with the promise TO repay
| tomorrow, although pay day is week dis
| tant: they have had expensive sickness in
| the family have suffered a funeral
| know one father who buried his child al
| least four times-each time successfully.
| Indeed these fellows bad lot ]
| could mention one Office in which after
| change of administration, a new gang
| clothed with ii luence' and cussedness
spread so much terror that they We're able
to borrow. and did borrow, money from
| husbands that should have gone to wives;
they borrowed from fathers what children
needed, and they eXtUrted from poor wo-
| men who wore threadbare clothes.
Who has not seen the all but hopeless
| creditors assembled at the office door at
| o'clock on pay day? They have been there
! before, many and many a time. They are
| still hoping, or rather tLey trying TO
| hope, and al last they beginning TO
| make up their minds to complain to the
| chief clerk or Secretary. Four O'Clock
| comes and the clerks crowd into the street,
bat the lookel-for debtors are not among
| them. No, indeed; Brer Rabbit and Brer
Tor NOT I.,o
they. For one reason and another they
have been excused at neon or at > or =
| o'clock. One of these applicants for leave
once told me hat he wanted to make a
deposit in his bank, although he had prob
ably neN er been inside of a bank.
The wClst feature Of this borrowing
| business surely dema nds the attention and
action of the SecrctS reS. ana that is the
borrowing 10y SuperiOrs from subordinatCs
| What Is q $l.2co clerk to say and do when
his section chief or chief of division or
| chief clerk asks him for loan of so? If
the clerk is brand new he may feel honorcd
with the intimacy, but if his eyeteeth
| have been cut, he may feel that it is polite
to accept II e situation, hand over the mon
| ey and charge it to profit and loss-or loss.
1t would be unjust to give bad name
| to a very large majority of the depart
| mental clerks in this matter, but neverthe-
| less the evil of borrowing under the seduc-
uveness of guile or the bulldoZing of fear
Is Of sufficient prevalence to make Ii
worthy of suppression by chiefs of bureaus
| and secretaries of departments"
Protection of Business Men.
| Another reader CT The Star who has
| been watching the controversy urges that
| some rules should be adopted for the pro-
lection of business people of Washington.
of course" he writes, every one appre-
| ciates the fact that the government cam
| not and should not be made a party to
| innumerable attachment proceedings and
| haf hn off.
| OF. the government should investigate all
| disputed claims called to their attention,
| but do think that when man appeals 10
| the departments and has a Judgment
| against one of the employees that the judS-
ment debtor should be directed to pay l
| also think that it is not asking too much to
| request that when an employee is reported
for not paying a debt that he be called
| before his superior, and if he acknowl-
| edges the debt that he be told 20 pay the
same at once Let 1t be a rule of the sew
| eral departments that the retention of an
| employe is conditional upon his paying his
| debts, and it certainly would work no
hardship and benefit many. l read the
| letter Of "Ncritas'' in Saturdays Star
| who says, among other ridiculous things
| that If clerks were forced to pay their
| debts by the department that it would en-
| courage extravaganza; also, since the de-
| partments have ceased to be collecting
agencies everybody is benefited. 1 cannot
| follow his reasoning. Now, the govern
| ment clerk buys things for which he
| suffer. Because We have mothers, faith
| ers, brother, sisters ct al" dependent upon
| as is hardly good excuse for not paying
| our bills. Perhaps our creditors may also
| have some one dependent upon them
Results of Fast Living.
| Mr.. ]. A Settle, writing again to The
| Star, suggests that the civil service reform
| idea should be extended so as to provide
for certifying to a clerks integrity as well
as to his mental capacity. He does not be-
| lieve the willful mountaineering class is
very large, or that the number justites
| forebodings that the departments might be
| reduced to collecting agencies"
| THE present departmental protection"
| he writes, lis not needed by the honest
non-debt-paying class, who can always
demonstrate their good faith and honesty
| by a willingness to pay their deferred
debts as far possible after paying neces-
| sary living expenses; but 1t is a shameful
protection to such waste their salaries
| in eXtravagant self-indulgence, fast living
| or strained efforts to do society and to
| shine society leaders and entertainers
| while refusing to contribute the smallest
| monthly percentage of their salaries to the
| payment of debts of honor even though