Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-25
BOTH HOPE
Two Speakers Address Retire
ment Association.
SENATOR CARRIERS VIEWS
Civil Pension List Regarded as Uto-
plan Vision.
SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED
But National Government Will Meet
Clerks Half Way-Former Audi
tor Castles Address.
SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED

Considerable hope was held out by Sena-
tor Garter last night to the clerks of the
Civil Service Retirement Association that
the government would at least meet them
half way in their plan for raising an
old age pension fund. Former Auditor of
the Treasury Henry A Castle also spoke
and tried to smooth out some of the wrin-
kles that Secretary Shaw had lately put
in the brows of the members. 1t was a
big meeting st the National Rifles Armory,
and a decidedly successful one
Senator Carter of Montana was the guest
of honor of the evening and he delivered
a very conservative, yet hopeful, talk. He
said that there was a good many things
that the association should dismiss mmedi-
ately as an irdescent dream. When they
had made UP their minds to some of the
things that could not be attained-at least
immediately-they might begin to think
of the things that within reach. He
said the idea of regular civil pension list
was a vision of Utopia and might as well
be dismissed for generation at least. The
horny-fsted son of toll who elects repre-
sentauves in Congress and indirectly sena-
tors, would not for moment think of
providing a pension for them when they
were worn out in the service and turned
out footsore and useless short grass.
Even less would he think of providing
by appropriation for the superannuated
clerks. The country stood for a war pen-
sion list OF nearly $50 100000 but it is not
yet ready for a civil pension list and the
clerks might as well dismiss that thought
a once
However, he said that was matter that
the future might and probably would take
care OF. He did not say that Congress
ought not TO pass civil service pension
bill. but that II would not is a certainty
and the clerks should forget It, tempora rflv
Things he said will Mo
civil service itself in its earlier days had
been strenuously opposed. but it had JUS
titled its own existence. The secure tenure
of Office has secured and retained for The
government brains and ability that ii could
not otherwise have commanded at the same
wages.
On Record on One Point
Senator Carter said he wanted TO go on
record as saying. however, that it was alb
solutely impossible for a government clerk.
to save competency out of the wages paid
him. He had had experience In that line
himself. and he found he was able to save
just as much when he was a school teach
er in the west on s44 a month as when ne
was commissioner of the land Office at SAG
a month.
The senator said. in passing, that what
the government could not or would not do.
is being done illicitly now, and he gave the
impression that he thought under the cir
cumstanceS Ii was rightly done. The exec
utives, he said, are keeping number of old
fellows the payroll who had outlived
their usefulness and their capacity for
work. They are from purely humanitarian
motives creating. In fact, civil pension list
that they are debarred from creating in
law. This was bad for the service. 1t
created congestion at the top, and 1t was
going to put a strain on the civil service
retirement scheme when 1t first goes into
effect But ii is one of those things that
a decent-minded executive officer could not
be blamed for. He said he had been in
yestigated for the same thing when he
was commissioner of the land office. He
had been asked if he kept clerk on the
roll when he was no longer fit for active
work and he replied no; that he did not
keep him on the roll. He was there and
he simply did not fire him.
Talks of Pension Fund.
Coming to the scheme for pension fund
,lsen from the salaries of the active clerks.
said that of course the integrity of the
md could not be better assured than by
having 1t handled by the government He
said that for the first ten years, when
there would be rapid clearing out of tbs /
deadwocd at the top of the tree. II was
going TO throw q serious strain on tho re-
sources OF the association. and he did not
see why the government could not perfectly