The sun., 1909-06-21
TALK TOR, CIVIL PENSIONS
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ARE
TOLD OF VARIOUS PLANS.

TOLD OF VARIOUS PLANS.
The Perkins Bin. which Provides for As
sessmeats Plus Federal Contributi ons.
tho Most Discussed, Measure-Tatts
y Views OF the Need OF Such p Law.
In response to a call issued by branch
No.2 Of the United States Civil Service
Retirement Association about two thou
sand employees OF the Government in
the classified civil service met yesterday
afternoon in Grand Central Palace TO dis
cuss bills for the establishment Of fund
for retired civil service employees based
on an annuity of as per cent. of the max
imum yearly earnings. Among those on
the platform were William r. Wilcox.
chairman OF the Public Service Commis-
sion and formerly Postmaster; Herbert
d. Brown. actuary Of the Treasury De-
partment; M. F. O'Donoghue, national
secretary Of the association; Secretary
Llewellyn Jordan, Treasurer r. Stone
jackson and other officers of the organi
In the second row sat Jake Riley, q
veteran OF the Mexican war. IS years old.
who was last week, after occupying the
place OF night inspector at the Custom
House at salary of 81 .095 for many years.
reduced to subordinate position by Col
lector Loeb at salary Of $72O.
Mr.. Brown came from Washington
specially to speak on the plans which have
been set on foot to get Congress to aid
in establishment of the fund. He has
been for some time preparing figures on
the question and is in favor Of the Perkins
bill, by which employees after a certain
age will have deducted from their salary
a certain amount every year. This would
carry compound interest guaranteed by
the Government until the age OF retire
ment. The Government it was proposed
at the age ofthe employee s retirement will
give . sum equalling the amount on de-
posit. plus interest which will be fixed on
the time served. This will allow the en-
ployee on retirement an annuity of rs
per cent. what he was receiving in the
employ Of the Government. In case the
employees changes his mind about the
annuity he can withdraw his money with
interest. a'-
The Letter Carriers Band was in front
and played a. number Of patriotic airs
during the proceedings. Mr.. Wilcox was
elected chairman and a letter was read
from Pcstrhastef Morgan expressing his
sympathy with the movement and saying
that he would have been glad 10 have
presided as had been expected. but for
the fact that he was forbidden to go out
by his physician.
M Wilcox said that the movement had
his hearty sympathy. He knew what
the post office employees had to do and
their devotion to their occupation. Their
faithfulness he believed should not 60.
unrevarded t,+
4 believe in the merit system he said.
sThe merit system has come TO stay and
puts the service on a higher plane. Jap
piause,l The Government gains by the
merit system, but the Government should
zee to it that il you devote your life to its
service the oorollary should be that no
man who does his duty by it should end
his life in an almshouse. The teachers,
the fireman,and the police. are not better
entit.ed 70 aspsrsion or to retirement
annuity than the employees under the
classified civil service
He said that he knew men in obscure
places in the civil service who had given
their talents to the Government for years
with a great saving to the Government.
The men. for instance, in the post office
gervice we're not mere puppets. In one
department OF tho post Office there was a
man with a salary OF $500 a year whose
watchfulness saved the Government $780,
600 q year. This man was Frank Il.
Roome.
President O'Donoghue of the associa-
tion made speech in which he described
the difficulties he experienced in the en-
deavor to get Congress to act in provid-
ing for the retirement of superannuated
employees in the civil service. Mr..
Brown, he said, had devoted much time
to collecting statistics without which
with any measures. He described one
or two measures which had been framed
and were found objectionable in some
respects to the association The bill in
troduced by Senator George c. Perkins
of California. he said, met the demand bet
ter than any other that had been proposed.
and 1t would be approved by the national
convention OF the association in 1910
and urged for passage unless in the mean
time IL had become law.
Hesdesoribed an interview on May 2i
in the White House with President Taft.
in which President Taft assured the dele
gates from the association that the present
conditions were unsatisfactory and that
IL a civil service pension law could not be
passed some other course such as an assess-
ment scheme should he resorted to. He
then described the Perkins bill and it's
provisions as outlined above, but said
that he personally himself was in favor
of retirement on full pay after oortain
number of years Of service or at certain
age.
Speeches were also made by R'Stone
jackson. treasurer, and Llewellyn Jordan
secretary of the association, favoring a
bill similar to the Perkins bill IL no better
could be secured.
Mr.. Brown, the actuary for the Treasury
Department, then took the floor and de-
scribed the features of the bill in detail
He believed that the ages for retirement
should be fixed at about sixty years for
post Office clerks, sixty-ive years for letter
carriers and seventy years for all other
Glasses of the civil service employees.
When Mr.. Brown finished, Andrew
Mckee Of the New York Letter Carriers
Association proceeded to fire questions
very quickly at the speaker. He took
exception to the fixing Of the age limit
and said that he believed il should be the
term OF service which should bring about
retire ment.
At this time the meeting began to get
excited and Mr.. Mckee was asked TO take
the platform. He asked great number
Of questions Of Mr.. Brown, which we're
answerei and opposed the Perkins bill
altogether. He took exception to some Of
the figures given based on insurance
statistics.
Then said Mr.. Brown. -as these sta
tisties are the result of insurance investi-
cations in both continents you put your
self above the intelligence OF all the in
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