The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-07


 will be taken Up in the disposal of the criminal cases, which are numerous. The 9S indictments found against sey- eral men in the county for alleged vio latiors of the prohibition laws will be tried a. this special term.
  a special message on this general sub ject.
 Civil Service Retirement
 It is impossible to proceed far in such an investigation without perceiy ing the need of a suitable means of eliminating from the service the super annuated This can be done in one of two ways, either by straight civil pen sion or by some form of contributory plan.
 Careful study of experiments made by foreign governments show that three serious objections to the civil pension payable out of the public treasury may be brought against it by the taxpayer, the administra tive officer and the civil smploye respectively. A civil pension Is bound to become an enormous, con- tinuous and increasing tax on the pub lie exchequer; it is demoralizing to the service since it makes difficult the dis missal of incompetent employees after they have partly earned their pension
  body of employees themselves since it is always taken into account in fixing salaries and only the few who survive and remain in the service until pen sfonable age receive the value of their deferred pay. For this reason, after a half century of experience under a most liberal pension system, the civil ser wants of England succeeded, about a year ago, ir having the system so modi- 4o lx xyir a nonfrih4i- tory plan with provision for refund of their theoretical contributions.
 The experience of England and other countries shows that neither can a oontributory plan be successful, hu- nan nature being what it is, which does not make provision for the return of contributions with interest, in case of death of resignation before pensiona- ble age. Followed to it's logical con clus:on this means that the simplest and most independent solution of the problem for both employe and the gov ernment is a compulsory savings ar rangement, the employe to set aside from his salary a sum sufficient, with the help of a liberal rate of interest from the government, to purchase an adequate annuity for him on retire. ment this accumulation to be inaliena- bly, his and claimable if he leaves the service before reaching the retirement age or by his heirs in case of his death. This is the principle upon which the Gillett bill now pending Is drawn.
 The Gillett bill. however. goes further and provides that the government shall contribute to the pension fund of those employees who are now so advanced in age that their personal contributions will not be sufficient to create their ar ching the rGtira- ment age. In my Judgment this pro vision should be amended so that the annuities of those employees shall be paid out of the salaries appropriated for the positions vacated by retirement, and that the difference between the annuities thus granted and the salar- ies may pc used for the employment of efficient clerks at the lower grades. If the bill can be thus amended I recom- mend its passage, as it will Initiate a valuable system and intimately result in great saving in the public expendi- lures.
 Interstate Commerce Commission
 There has not been time to test the benefit and utility of the amendments to the interstate commerce law contained in inc act approved June IS, -a16 The law as enacted did not count in all the fea' lures which I recommended It did not
  chase by one of two parallel and com- peting roads of the stock tf the other. Nor did it subject to the restraining in fluence of the interstate commerce com mission the power of corr. lations en- gagged in operating interstate railroads to issue new stock and bonds; nor did It authorize the making of temporary agree ments between railroads. limited to 3 days, fixing the same rats for traffic between the same places.
 I do not press the consideration of any of these objects upon Congress at this session. The object of the Est provision Is probably generally covered ny the anti trust law. The second provision was in the act referred to the consideration of commission to be appointed by the executive and to report upon the matter 10 Congress. That commission has been appointed and is engaged in the investi- aation and consideration of the question submitted under the law. It consists oi President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale uni versity, as chairman; Frederick C. Strauss, Frederick N. Juds3-l, Prof. B H. Meyer and Walter l.. Fisher, with William F.. S. Griswold as secretary.
 I'm. third proposal led to so much mis construction of it's object az being tha' of weakening the effectiveness of the antitrust law that l am not disposed tc press it for further consideration. It was interded to permit railroad companies t1 ayoi1 useless ate cutting by mere tenn porary acquiescence in the s'n rates foi the same service over competing rail roads, with no obligation whatever to mair tain those rates for. any time.
 safety Appliances and Provisions The protection of railroa1 employes from personal injury is a subject of tht highest importance and demands con tinu ng attention. There have been two measures pending in Congress, one fol lie supervision of boilers ant the othel 1 for the enlargement of dangerous clear ances. Certainly some measi res ough to be- adopted looking to D prevention of accidents from these causes It seems to me that with respect to boilers bil | might we'll be drawn requiring and en | forcing by penalty proper system of in | apeciion by tie railway cornsnies them selves which would accomplish our pun. i rost The entire removal of outside clear ances would be attended by such enor nous expense that some other remedy