The Washington times., 1911-01-31
WHY THE CIVIL SERVICE IS
so MUCH Misunderstood.

Our ancient, staid, and, of course,
esteemed contemporary, the Atlantic
Monthly, in its current issue, prints
piece by James o. Pagan entitled
Socialism and Achievement" In the
course of this piece the following
casual bit of wicked misrepresentation
is tossed in with free hand and easy
manner, as if to lie about hundreds
of thousands of people were quite a
matter of fact:
Nor is the government ownership
and direction of labor one whit more
satisfactory than other methods. Eco
nOmically speaking, it leaves little to
ment offices in. Washington, where
thousands~9f employees go to work in
tTie- morning at or 10 o'clock and go
hume at or in the afternoon, has
GiScouraging, if not a soporific, effect on
q visitor of ordinary energy"
That is a perfect illustration of the
reason why the civil service is mis-
understood by the country, why it
seems so difficult to get justice for it,
why civil service workers are COM
monty supposed to be loafers and para
sites.
Mr.. Pagan is entitled to the benefit
OF the doubt, we assume 1t must be
granted that he could not have broken
into so respectable journal as the
dear old Atlantic if he had not been
trying to tell the truth. 1t must be
accepted that he didn't mean to tell
talsehood.
Yet what of an article, seriously dis
cussing a great social and economic
topic, whose groundwork of assump-
tion and accepted conditions is made
up of such disingenuous and dishonest
predications as this? How can any
man deserve acceptance as an au-
thority, or even a reliable commenta-
tor, on great questions, when he can
mislead his readers in such fashion?
As this article of Mr.. Fagan's is
constructed, it is necessary for him to
establish the impression i'll the readers
mind that the Government employe
does not work and will not work-that
il is impossible for Government to get
honest service out of its employees. The
paragraph quoted is his reliance to
fix that impression in the mind of his
reader.
4 communication to The Times, call
ing attention to the Fagan fake, points
hot no
Fagan statements and the truth:
l. No tour of the Offices could give
first-hand knowledge of the length OF
time per day the employees work; to as
certain that for himself the visitor
must do timekeeper's duty-at the Varl-
Gus departments in succC ssion Tor at
least one day each. For reliable second
hand knowledge on such a point the Wis,
itor would have to be informed by an
officer or employe who is in position to
know, and no such person could truth
fully give information which could by
any possibility be construed into the
statement Mr.. Pagan has made. Plainly
he has accepted a mere careless hear
say, of which he ought to be ashamed
10 make use.
, The two most conspicuous labor
pluploying branches of the Government,
the Government Printing Office and the
Bureau of Printing. and Engraving,
work under union eight-hour schedule
OF piece-work plan, and they employ
both night and day shifts.
3 Speaking for the clerical and Scien-
tifc departments alone, the hours OF
work are the same as the hours of
other business offices in the District of
Columbia-seven per day. Government
employees work from a. m. to 4:3O p.
m, with half-hour for lunch. Business
offices are open from q. m. to p. m,
with an hour for lunch The business
offices have a half-holiday every Satur-
day. The Government offices have this
haif-holiday for three months only, al
though the law grants it for the entire
4. All the departments have a time
keeping system. In some cases they
nave sims clocks. In the Census and
the Treasury, and probably elsewhere,
there are gongs by which to begin and
finish the days work. Other offices
have watchfnen to record arrivals and
departures Hardness or absence is
charged in units Of not less than fifteen
and in some cases thirty minutes. al
though the actual time may be but one
minute, and these charges are deducted
from the employees annual leave.
g. Ir various offices, notably the De-
partment Of Justice the Patent Office