The Washington times., 1911-01-25

money to his credit. Now our appeals
to the department to keep men in office
whom they want to discharge are large
ly based upon the feeling that the man
is poor and, IL he is turned out, goes
out with nothing at all. II he had
sum to his credit 1t would make it much
easier. 1t seems to me that is one of
the great difficulties in our present civil
service which this would largely help us
get rid of, and that is one of the differ
ences between the Government service
and private service.
Private Pensions Different.
I'VE hear the argument made that in
asmuch as private corporations are pay
lag a pension, why should not the Gov
ernment do so? 1t is very different
proposition. 1 suspect that one of the
main reasons private corporations pen
sion their employees is because 1t is an
insurance against strikes. In other
words, It makes them faithful What a
private corporation wants to do is to keep
its good men, tie them to 1t, and make
them dependent upon 1t. They do not
have any difficulty, as the Government
does, in discharging employees, because
there is no motive to keep them. In a
private business because of competi-
tion the superior officials work ener-
getically to keep down expenses and in
crease efficiency. There is no such mo-
tive in the Government employ.
In private business the employer
wants to make his employees dependent
upon him. He is glad to have them
recognize that a pension is coming when
they get through. That increases their
dependence. But in the Government
employment the proposition is exactly
the reverse. The great difficulty in
Government employment is not keeping
good men. but in getting rid of poor
men. They do not have any trouble In
keeping men. but they do have great
trouble in getting rid of men.
Needs Such a Law.
80 it seems to me on that account
there is not the close analogy which
you would at first think existed be-
tween the Government empIoye and en-
ployment in a private corporation, and,
therefore, the Government service needs
such a contrIbutory law as this. where
the private corporation does not need
one Now, we hear a great deal about
the pension laws of Germany and of
England, but those, after all, are not
examples to us, because they are so
ridiculously small that no American
would ever think of them as being a
sustaining pension. In England, under
their poor laws, the most they ever al
low is SIS a week to a man when he
reaches the age OF seventy. That. you
see, is about $50 year. What would
an American employe think of $50
year for an old age pension? 1t is SIM
ply bagatelle.
I'm Germany they have, you know, a
very elaborate system, where the gov
ernment contributes, the employer con-
tributes, and the employe contributes,
but their amounts are insignificant com
pared with ours. 1t only applies to sal
aries under $500 Nobody getting more
than $500 receives anything in Germany
and that would cut off pretty nearly
our whole population, but to those VINO
do receive a pension in Germany the
government contributes only % marks
year-a dollar a month.
Employe Contributes.
The employe contributes from $iz TO
9 cents a week, and the annual pension
there is only from $3.50 to $3.50 a year.
So that these foreign analogies which
we hear so much about, for nat PEN
sion system, after all are on such
very small scale that they offer no prec-
edent at all for our Government service
And, moreover, the scale of pensions OF
our American private corporations Is so
small that it would not be considered a
working plan with us. I saw by a re-
port that they averaged last year a
little less than SEQ year for all the
employees.
ployes Is opposing this bill, and they
have organized for that purpose, be-
cause ii does not give them enough.
They are in favor of the Government
passing an act giving them straight
out pension.
That is very natural I have no crit
icism to make Of employees who feel
that way. 1t is human nature. | think
they look at it superhcially. But they
are for straight pension which leaves
their present salaries and gives them
something in addition, so II is perfectly
natural that they should prefer the sys-
TEN which they think IS going to give
them most.
Making a Mistake.
'I think they are making a mistake
and in aiming for something they can
never get are losing the chance of get
ting something helpful to them. But
We must consider the good of the Gov
ernment also. We cannot expect that
the employe is going to be so altruistic
as not to look at it as it appears most
in his own interest. 1 think that We
must all admit that one or the dangers
OF our civil service is the organization
of the employees together to effect legis-
lation in their interest in Congress. If
the civil employees of the Government
are going to keep growing in number as
they have in recent years, that is going
to present to us problem that has to
be solved in some way.