Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-27

Representative Jones Of Washington.
year period from 1890 to 1880 have been
compiled and these show that bacon is
3s.s per cent higher; eggs, 31.6 per cent
higher; chickens, 2}.6 per cent higher; corn
meal, 222 per cent higher; flour, 1919 per
cent higher; ham, 1875 per cent higher; salt
fish, Is per cent higher, and SO on. Out of
thirty standard articles Of food twenty
eight were higher and only two, coffee and
prunes, lower.
The cost of gas and other lighting has
rather more than kept pace with the in
crease in other necessaries, and there has
been another factor that has entered seri-
ously into the cost OF living-namely, the
necessity for buying almost all household
necessities in very small quantities. With
the adoption Of fiat life as distinct from
separate houses, purchases have been made
by all families in more and more reduced
quantities In the memory of most resi-
dents of Washington, it was the custom for
even the fairly wellto-do householder to lay
In winter supplies of groceries, salt meat,
fish, potatoes and other things that would
keep. Flour was bought by the barrel, and
If there had been sudden blockade of sup
plies it is likely that most of the residents
could have struggled through the winter on
what they had under their own roofs.
This condition has changed. There are
few fiat jewellers who could exist forty
eight hours If cut off from the corner
grocery, and still fewer houses that could
run more than week. This is an essen
tial feature of modern housekeeping, and
the bearing that 1t has on the wage discus
sion is that families lose all the dvantages
of buying in anything like wholesale guam
titles, and pay enormously enhanced retail
prices.
Two views of the wage question were adj
vanced to Il Star man who was looking for
information. One may be summarized as
the view of the higher-paid officials in the
classified service, and the other that OF the
clerks of lower grades.
Statement Of One Glass.
The statement of the first class was about
as follows:
1.-The government is paying too much for
the cheap clerks ant. too little for the upper
men in the service. A study of the lower
ranks of the classified service in Washing
ton will show that for mere clerical hire
the government is paying out more money
than the same work would bring anywhere
in commercial life The routine cierk is
cheap commodity. His work is not exact
ing, and requires no particular ability be-
education. You will find that for this sort
of labor the government is PAYING more
tnan would be paid by the average COM
mercial house. Suppose the average salary
of the government clerk in Washington is
$780, and l mink this is fair average, the
same man or woman on the outside would
not be able to command more than $500.
Many people live on that and are glad
to get 1t.
But when you come up the scale and
take the men who have some executive
ability-men who direct subordinateS and
who originate lines of work and see that
they are carried out-the scale of pay rap
idly decreases in proportion to what out
side Trims pay. When you get into the
higher branches of the service you will
find many of the best men who are only
staying in the service because they are
genuinely interested in the work As a rule
they couiti make considerably more ~ go
ing into priva.e employment.
when you consider the men that have
special technical training and qua .ifica-
lions of that sort, and who are engaged in
scientific work, the only wonder to me Is
that the government can keep them at ell.
can mention just a few cases that >haye
come to my own knowledge in the past few
weeks of men who have left the technical.
branches of the government service sim
ply because they could not AFFORD to stay.
In the face OF the offers made them from
the outside. Take Brown of the bureau OF
corporations, Webber of the Department of
Agriculture, John Marchand of the inter-
state commerce commission, Frof Noyes
Of the bureau of standards, Harvey Weed
and Mr.. Spur of the geological survey All
of these were specially trained men who
were getting from $1,000 to $1,000 in the
government service. All Of them were
valuable-men that 1t will be hard to re-
place. And each of them has gone into
private employment to take salary OF
from two to five times the amount he was
getting.
i am sorry enough IOT the ,loW-pd1u ihcA
in the service, and would like to see them
all get raise of wages. But It would be
manifestly unfair, as one OF the bills In
Congress proposes. to raise the pay OF the
lower grades 20 per cent, and leave out the
men above $500 altogether. 1t seems to
me II the raise is to be granted, not as
matter of charity, but on the basis of what
the men earn, 1t should begin at the top,
and provision should be made for keeping
in the service the men that the govern
ment needs and can Ill afford to lose"
The Other View.
The other Wow of the situation was
voiced by some of the lower-paid clerks
the men who work In good government Of
fee buildings and are thrown constantly
in contact with comfortably situated gov
eminent officials: those who have at least
to keep up appearances among the people
with whom they are thrown. Their posi-
ton may be best boiled down into the state
nent of one man, who said:
TT is not fair to say that any Of the men