The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-26
GOVERNMENT
VACATIONS
PEOPLE PAY SIX MILLION DOL.
LARS FOR EMPLOYEES REST"
THIRTY DAYS VACATION
ALLOWED FOR EVERY
BODY.
Then Everybody Has Thirty Days of
"siek Leave" With Pay-EmpIoyes
Paid for Twelve Full Months and
Work Ten.

T@'u TOT dWeiNe run months an
t Work Ten.
II costs Uncle Sam in the neighbol
hood of S6,OOO,OOO annually for tn
leisure Of his employees. Not man,
employers treat their employees s.
generously. In fact, not many coult
AFFORD to do so. There are on tn,
government payroll about $1,000 EN-
ployes, and their annual salaries ap
proximate about s6O,OOO,OOO. Most o.
these employees are entitled to thirty
days vacation annually. They are
also allowed to take thirty days sicl
leave annually on full pay 1t is esti
mated that rs per cent. of the EN-
ployes take their vacations regularly
and many take their full thirty days
sick leave.
A treasury official with whom sta
tistics are hobby has made careful
computation, and says that more than
$6,00O,000 of good government funds
go for "loafing spells" of employees.
says Washington dispatch to the
Kansas City Journal. AS he figures
it the government work could be done
with one-twentieth the present num-
Der of employees easily. Or, taken in
another form, the present force can
do all the government work in eleven
months, probably in ten, for which
they now receive twelve months pay.
He also suggests that if the govern
ment work was done by contract it
could be done for three-fourths of
the present cost
There is one remarkable feature
about this vacation business" said he,
and that is that the more salary
man draws the longer vacation he
takes. The ordinary employees get
thirty days annual and thirty days
sick leave, if they can supply doc
tors certificate. Many heads of de.
partments take from three to four
and do not have to account
to anybody. 1t is a case where the |
little fish get the worst of it, as usual. |
But the subordinate employees have no
when compared to the en-
ployes of railroads and other concerns
which are large employers of labor"
In the government printing office it
IS necessary to employ outside help
70 take the places of regular employees
IN vacation and congress annually APP
Dropriates $65,O00 to pay the bill In
other departments the clerks double
Up the work or let it pile up during
yacation time.
When confronted with the vast sum
)aid out for leisure, government Off
'ials say the payroll is just the same
whether the employees worked ten
hours or twelve; that there are just
70 many people to do the work and
ust SO much work to be done; that
they do it in ten months Uncle Sam
$ none the loser. Still, when a rail-
DAD Or other big employer of labor
nds that five-sixths of it's present
orce of employees can do all the work,
does not hesitate to discharge the
Their sixth. Uncle Sam is not so
arsh. He discharges an employee
ow and then for unfaithfulness. but
ever simply because the employee
as nothing to do.
Some time ago Secretary GARFIELD
egan "retrenchment" policy in the
apartment of the interior. He abol.
he'd two or three divisions in his
flee and sent the work to the Indian
ureau and general land Office But
ANY clerks in the divisions which he ;,
polished were transferred to the In
IAN bureau or land office, and several
them had their salaries increased.