The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-12-30
FOR AGED EMPLOYEES
Plan for Retirement Now Being
Worked Out by Board.
Retiring Fund Suggested Which 10 In
Erect Compulsory Saving
Scheme-Mall Cost 20 Roads
Being Investigated.

eminent would make q desperate, II
not final effort at this session of con-
sress to have passed some kind of bill
for the retirement of aged civil service
employees. Economy and improvement
boards have been holding almost daily
meetings.
The presence in every department
OF scores Of men and women sixty,
seventy and eighty years old. has been
great obstacle to the adoption of the
progressive plans which the investiga-
tors are working on. Not all these
aged clerks are ineflcient, to be- sure,
but as a rule persons abilities do
not expand much after the age of six
ty, and it Is fact that hundreds of
venerable men and women are carried
on the pay rolls who not only are
worth nothing, but are a positive det-
riment to the service. How to get rid
of them without causing hardship Is q
very serious problem and one to which
the best brains in the departments
and in congress are giving attention.
+ Merritt G. Chance, auditor for the
post office department, has touched on
this important problem In his annual
report and has helped to put the sub
ject into concrete shape for discussion
by recommending with trifling
amendment, the passage of the bill
introduced last April In the house by
Frederick C. Gillett of Massachusetts,,
and in the senate by Mr.. Perkins of
California. This bill makes provision
for retiring civil employees on annui-
ties purchased by themselves by means
of monthly deductions in salaries. It
Is In effect a compulsory saving
scheme, the government merely to
stand back of it by guaranteeing a
rate of interest at 31s per cent, Ia
king care of the small expense of ad-
ministration and providing the annui-
ties for services rendered up to the
passage Of the bill. The annuity would
be payable quarterly throughout life
and would be equal to IN per cent. of
the annual salary for every full year
of service or major fraction thereof
between the date of the passage Of the
act and the arrival of the employee at
the age of retirement. The bill d.
vides the employees, for retirement pur-
poses. into three groups, two Of sixty
five years and one of seventy years
each. It empowers the president to
designate the branches Of the service
to be included in each group.
The bill permits employment after
reaching the age Of retirement. but
provides for deduction of ten per
cent. of the pay, the same to be treat
ed as a savings account and interest
paid thereon and returned to the en-
ploye when he leaves the service.
Three options are allowed on retire
ment: The first an annuity payable
quarterly throughout life, the second
the same. with the provision that in
case Of the death of the annuitant be-
fore he has received in annuities the
amount of his savings with interest,
the balance shall be paid to his legal
heirs, and the third that he may draw
his money in lump sum.
II, after retirement, the employee
does not avail hemself of one of the
foregoing options, but leaves the
amount due him on deposit, interest
at the rate of two per cent. on the
original sum left on deposit shall be
credited for 20 years. II the money is
not then withdrawn, it goes to the
treasury. Mr. Chance suggests as an
amendment that the retirement pay
of honorably discharged veterans of
the Mexican and Civil wars shall be
not less than so per cent. of the aver
age annual compensation during the
entire period of employment In the
civil service. The auditor says this
plan, compared with straight civil
pension paid out of the federal treas
ury, presents many advantages both
for the government and for the en-
ployes.
Simple and BusInessiIIe.
Mr.. Chance, himself. in report to
the secretary of the treasury. made
last February, showed how relatively
simple and businesslike the civil serv-
Ice retirement idea is If the govern
ment would get down to brass tacks
and put it into operation. He showed
that In his own ONCE, where more
than 700 persons are employed, there
were AZ persons, seventy years of age
and over, receiving salaries aggrega-
ting s54,580. Three of these persons
were more than eighty years and ten
were over seventy-five. The average
are. in fact, was seventy-three and
two-thirds years and the average sal
airy $1,000.
Under the Gillett bill these ~ en-
Moves would receive annuities aSgre-
eating s27,096. Mr.. Chance recon-
mended that without changing his APP
monriation at all 4 proviso be added
authorizing the secretary Of the treas-
nrv 20 retire all clerks who are seven
= wears or over and who served under
the civil service on an annuity equal
= IL per cent. of the annual pay
multinlied by the number Of years Of
.ervice. This would give = total an
unity Of $27,0s6. He then proposed
that the difference, $27, 4S4 be used for
=. ..rlovnnent Of clerks selected