The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-10-28
CALL A HALT.

"A civil service list is the logical cul-
mlnation Of the civil service system OF
Washington" says Lyman II. Gage OF
the treasury department. He complains
that the superannusted clerk is a clog on
public business and is virtually a pen.
sloner at the present time. There are
actually some old men on the list Of
clerks who are so feeble that they have to
be lifted up on their stools. A proposed
assessment on all the clerks TO create a
pension fund has met with difficulty and
the Gage scheme contemplates pruning
OF the salaries of the clerks.
The time has come to call halt on the
pension business. 1t is not the purpose
OF this article to criticise the pensions
that are paid to old soldiers on account of
the late war, but there is a vast differ
ence between the case of a man who
sacrifices his health for the balance Of his
days for salary OF $l3 per month, or
who lays down his life for his country,
and the man or woman who voluntarily
enters the service of the government as a
clerk at good salary. Mercantile houses
and banking concerns do not pension
their clerks and yet Mr.. Gage himself sd.
mits that clerks in his bank in Chicago
give better service on less pay than clerks
in his department at Washington. He
says: Good stenographers and typewrit-
ers can be had for 5000 year and the
very best for $1,000. but the government
pays $l400, and proportionately for other
work" He continues to say that "em-
ployment in the government service is
steady. The government is not going to
fail, and that is very serious question,
for the failure of an employer may throw
thousands OF men out OF employment
When hard times come the business
man may cut salaries or discharge his
men; but the government employs as
many men in bad times as good and pays
them the same salaries--n fact, the gov
eminent business is more likely to in
crease than TO diminish, even in hard
times"
In the face of this it seems altogether
out of place to suggest a pension list for
government clerks. They should be as
able to save up for a rainy day as are
people in other walks of life. II a farmer
who earns from $500 to 500 per year is
able to provide for bis declining DAYS
why shouldn't government employe,
who earns three or four times this
amount, be able to do so? Why cannot
a clerk at Washington City under good
pay provide for the future as well as the
poorly paid dry goods or grocery clerk or
book keeper or mechanic or laborer who
tolls in private walks of life? The boys
and girls growing up into manhood and
womanhood should care for their aging
parents as faithfully in one pursuit as
another, and relatives and friends and
fraternal societies and churches are as
available to unfortunate clerks at Wash
ington as to any other class who need as.
sistance.
The cost OF maintaining our govern
ment is already too great. The people
are calling for retrenchment, not in.
creased expenditure, and they are going
to insist upon it until their call is heard
and acted upon. During the past few
years the common people have learned
lessons of economy that will not soon be
forgotten, and it is high time that the Of
fetal portion of our nation should study
little out Of the same book.