Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-28
RETIREMENT OF CLERKS
PLANS DISCUSSED by A SPECIAL.
Z COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY.
Report Made to tile Civil Service Re-
form League - Providing for
Supernnnuated Employees.

in the government civil service has lust
made public its report. The report opens
with the statement that those now in the
classified service who have become super
a1:nuated did not enter the service through
civil service examinations. As TO the RENE
dies. the report says the more radical ones
now generally proposed are civil pension
list: retirement fund to be made up by
deductions from salaries; provision requir-
Ing endowment or deferred annuity insur-
ance from all seeking admission into the
civil service; provision for the forced retire.
ment of a certain percentage of employees
each year; recurring examinations for pro-
motions. reductions and dismissais; daily
record of efficiency for the same purposes;
fixed terms of office; forced retirement at
certain age, and, also, certain combina-
tons of all these plans.
Discussing objections and advantages in
detail, the report says:
THE civil pension system has led to great
abuses in England. 1t Is extremely uupop-
ular in America There Is danger of civil
| service lobby in Congress should the system
be- adopted
1T is fairer to base a provision for old
| age the average salary during employ
ment rather than on the salary at retire.
| ment. as the salary at retirement Is usually
| the highest received by the emp.oye. Other
WISE there would be the temptation to Sc
| cure an increase of salary just before re-
tlrement, in order to increase the pension.
Retirement! Fund.
"A retirement fund made up of deduc-
| lions from salaries might be in two forms,
| a deduction from all salaries for the i'm
! mediate support of a retired list. and an
| ruai deductions from the salaries Of those
! hereafter to enter the service. which should
be allowed to accumulate at compound in
terest to form fund for annuities payable
only to those who have thus contributed.
AT present it would take about per
| cent of the average salaries Of those in the
| departments at Washington to pay the full
| average salaries Of those of seventy years
| of age and over and only IL per cent to
| pay pensions at 60 per cent of the average
| salary. In the future should have to
| allow, for deductions. 43 per cent and pos
Sibly even more.
| The plan of beginning with those now
| entering the service would be more fair.
| In England this system was begun in 1870.
Starting with the average of twenty-eight
years of those entering our classified
vice. it would require annual payments Of
| ST year on male lives to pay an annuity
| of $500 to those who should attain seventy
years of age, for every year for the rest
| of their lives This cost is based on infor-
| nation furnished by one of the largest life
| insurance companies in the United States.
| On the basis of paying the same annuity
| at the age of sixty-fve years 1t would cost
| 5000 year
lone of the objections to this plan Is
| that it does not provide for those who be-
| come prematurely old before the age Of
seventy or allow those over seventy who
| are still useful to stay on. Perhaps a
| good modfcat ton of the plan would be for
the government to allow as many Of its
| employees over the age of seventy as are
| really useful to stay on on regular salary.
| on condition that the annuities falling due
| on their lives would be used, as long
| they remained In the service. a fund
| from which to pay arnuities to those who
| had become Superannuated under seventy
years of age
/ Rs.f ire ant Mt 81 ta
| Forced retirement Of a certain per-
| centage of employees each year has some
| precedent in the navy of the United
| States, where ii was recently adopted and
| did good at the time. AS permanent pol
| Icy 1t is subject to the objection that 1t
| will retire too many at one time in one
| department, and too few at another time,
| in another, and if no provision We're made
| for old age support of some kind 1t would
| be hard on those who have been long In
| the service. and have become old, but, not
having had previous notice Of any such
| regulation. have made no provision OF
| their own for support after retirement.
| Recurring examinations for promo
| tons. reductions and dismissals without
provision for the support of those dis
| missed. are open to the same objection;
| so are also the plans of daily records of
| efficiency for the same purpose, or fixed
terms of office, or retirement at certain
| age IL taken alone.
| Daily Efficiency Records.
| "The plan of daily records of efficiency
| for promotions, reductions and dismiss
sails, whether alone or in combination
with recurring examinations and physi-
clans inspection, seems to have many
| advantages.
1.-THE system of forced retirement at a
| fixed age has the double disadvantage
that some men are dismissed whose serv-
| ices still of the greatest value, and
| that others who have not reached the
| specified age are and perhaps long have
been incapacitated are retained.
| LAS to fixed terms of office, the remedy
| does not seem advisable. II reappoint-
ments allowed 1t is a haphazard rem
edy, and sure to be Intellectual, as many
may need to be dismissed before the term
expires and because the same reasons
| that prevent removal for old age and in
| capacity will induce reappointment.
The Best Remedy.
The committee recommends the best
remedy a system requiring life insurance on
the deferred annuity plan by all employees
during probation, as a prerequisite TO final
| appointment, the policies to be non-assgn-
| able and in government control; and to be
| secured by deposits from the insuring COM
| panies in government control; those en-
pioyes still capable and useful at the fixed
age to be allowed to stay in the service at
| regular salary, cond tion that their an
nuities go to a surplus fund with which to
pay. annuities to those under that fixed age
who have become incapable from age ana
| through no fault of their own. and sys-
| tenn OF daily records of efficiency, combined
perhaps with recurring inspection by a gov
eminent physician, and in some cases with
| examination. to determine who stay
| in over the fixed age, and who below 1t are
| to share In the surplus annuit.es.
| Settlement Of Details.
1.-The exact age at which the annuites
would normally be payable. varying perhaps
for different kinds of service. the amount
Of the annuity to be paid for in the various
| grades, the age and conditions under which
the surplus annuities would be paid to those
| superannuated below the normal age ami
all other details necessary to carry out the
plan, should be fixed by regulations TO be
| drawn by some special comm ssion. COM
posed perhaps of the civil service commits
| sion and some experienced officials OF the
! departments appointed by the President. 1t
might be well to apply this system to por-
| ton only of the classified civil service. say.
| to the departments at Washington and the
larger post offices and custom houses. just
| xyac done when the civil service law was