Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-28
NO INCENTIVE TO REMAIN
Dismissal of Aged Employees Ac-
cepted as Warning.
FORESHADOWS OWN FATE
Prominent Merchants View of the
Recent Order Displacing the
Old Clerks.

who have recently received notice of
their dismissal in the Treasury Depart
meDt. after giving the best years of their
lives to the service, movement has been
started among younger men in the gov
ernmental service, especially those who
have received degrees i'm medicine and
law. looking to their own interests. Those
who are directing the movement are
guarding the matter with the utmost Sc
crecy and will not at this time give out
anything for publication lest it both en-
danger the movement and their govern
ment positions.
4 leader in the association said to a
Star reporter today that it was proposed
to organize, not with the object of fight
ing the government, but for their mutual
protection for the future. Inquiries will
be made in all parts of the country to as
certain business openings for young men
of education and ability, and from the re-
plies received it is hoped to make the
organization means whereby it's MEM
bers may find positions in private life that
offer something more than a bare living
salary with few days of leave thrown in
and heartless dismissal in old age.
No Inducement for Young Men.
1t is argued that there is no inducement
at all for young men to continue in the
government service. The longer they re-
main the more they get out of touch with
the business world and the means of
making a living on the outside. Promo
tions. as a rule, are slow and the living
expenses in Washington SO high that but
little can be saved from the clerks salary.
"A clerk might rise to the very top of
the roster in his department" said one
OF the young men engaged in the new
movement. and acquire the reputation
of being an expert in his business, but if
he were to lose his position his expert
knowledge in the government service and
the years lost in acquiring it would avail
him nothing in the way OF making a liv-
ing on the outside.
No matter how good man may be
In a government department. it seems
to be the opinion on the outside that
his ability counts for little in the busi-
ness world
Recently a man who had held a high
position in one OF the departments, and
Ii is said, was turned down for the
position of confidential clerk by local
merchant, who declared that the clerks
years of fitness in the service was a
time record of his unfitneSS for outside
work. He declined to take him. even
at the small salary of $1,000 a year.
although admitting he was willing to
pay $4,000 for competent man.
Accepted as Warning.
The evident determination in the de-
partments to get rid of the superannu-
ated clerks, it was said by prominent
official In one of the departments today.
has filled not only the old clerks. but
even the younger ones. with consteENa-
tion, at least those of them who give a
thought to the morrow.
Il am not surprised he said. ito learn
that the more thoughtful of the younger
clerks are making preparations to get out
the government service. If twenty. thirty
or forty years of service in any line oners
but the poorhouse to man at Its close
it seems a poor inducement to remain.
and that is about the position OF the
government clerk today.
This talk of big salaries being drawn
nv superannuated clerks is all oosh
The instinct Of the bureau head is too
keen to permit such a condition TO exist.
and it always has been. The great
ma iority of the poor old men and women
who are now TO be turned adritt draw
less than $1,000 year on the average
There may be few, very few excep-
tions. The great majority of them.
especially the women, were long ago cut
down to barely enough to enable them to
keep body and soul together
4 prominent merchant OF Washington
who did not care to be quoted called at
tention to another feature that would
result from the unloading of these old
people from their government positions.
1t will virtually dump into Washington
an army of paupers who Will be aoso-
lutely unable to get other employment or
even to live without charitable aid. he
said They won't have the money to
get away or, even if they had. where
would they go? The great majority Of
them have no other homes but what they
have made and maintained here for years.
II they have no children or relatives to
care for them they will become public
charges.
All Washington Interested.
All Washington is interested in this
matter and 1t is astonishing that a
greater stir has not been made about it.
Congress we'll knows how hard it has
been for the government clerk to live on