Evening star., 1909-06-08
TYPOS OBJECT TO lAY-OFFS
FAVOR FULL FORCE WHEN
CONGRESS Is IN SESSION.
Advantages of New Plan of Public
Printer Pointed Out by
G. P. o. Officials.

Considerable irritation is felt by en-
ployes of the government printing office
with the policy adopted by Public Printer
Donnelly of furloughing one-quarter of
the employees on three-day lay-offs.
The claim is made that the effect of
this is to overwork the employees who are
not furloughed. particularly those en-
ployed on the Congressional Record work
According to statements of some union
employees this is the first time that men
have ever been furloughed during ses-
sion of Congress. full force having al
ways been held on heretofore in case of
emergency. They declare that the ad-
vantages of the former system was
proven last night, when. after busy
day In both houses of Congress, there
came a rush Of work which forced the
night men to stay overtime and work un
til O'Clock this morning.
The public printer has put this policy
into effect. 1t is also charged. in order to
turn back into the Treasury a large share
of the money appropriated for the Con-
gressional Record work.
Attitude of G. p. o. Officials.
Public Printer Donnelly is absent from
the city today. An official of the office
made a clear statement of the situation
to Star reporter. He said that the
three-auarter time plan had been adopted
as the fairest for all concerned. Since
adjournment of the regular session of
Congress March 4 there has not been
enough work, he declared, to keep full
force busy.
I'VE do have our occasional rush
hours he continued. such as come in
every business Office. The head of any
concern knows that there are certain
hours when he could easily utilize twice the
number of men he carries regularly, but
for the rest of the time his ordinary
force is amply sufficient
The question, then. naturally resolves
itself into a proposition as to whether
concern is justified in carrying a lot of
extra men all the time for the sake of
having them on hand for an occasional
rush of work.
THE rush on the congressional work
usually comes late at night Even with
the three-quarter force of printers now
on duty the early hours of the night are
light. When a great deal of speechmak-
ing occurs at the Capitol now the
speeches are held out for revision. We
get them along about midnight.
An argument might be presented to the
effect that the furloughed men should be
allowed to report at the Office every night
at II or 1 O'Clock on the chance of get
ting work. The result of that would be
that they would get about one or two
nights work a month l think they
would soon gro" urea OF coming dIouIlu
every night for such a chance
Old Employe Sees Advantages.
An employe Of the printing office who
has known the ins and outs of it for many
years expressed the opinion that the en-
ployes were better off under the present
system than they were formerly when
the dull summer days came along. In
the old days two or three hundred men
would be dropped from the rolls entirely.
They used to lie around and starve all
summer" said the veteran. with no
work whatever to do. Now they get
three-q quarter time. If half loaf is bet
ter than none, three-quarters of loaf
has a shade on the half, according to my
way of thinking.
Another point that might be mentioned
in this connection is that these furloughed
men are not taken of the rolls. The
effect is that their regular annual leave
accrues just as though they had been
working all the time, which amounts to
real money, If you figure 1t right