The Washington times., 1911-01-25

| not exceeding 5000 year.
Now l have the figures here to
show just how much that would cost
the Government. 1t would cost the
! Government, to begin with, about $1,cOO.-
900 the first year; but 1t is computed that
we already are losing $l,200,0O0 by the
! men who are of that age and who are
not doing a full days work, SO that
really there would be no loss to the
Government. The first year 1t would
cost $1,092, 900. Then 1t would increase
! little by little for twenty-seven years,
when 1t reached its maximum and
would cost the Government for that
year $2,476,000. Then 1t would gradually
decrease, and very rapidly decrease
until at the end OF sixty years ii would
be costing the Government nothing;
the force would be .on self-sustaining
basis, and every man when he attained
the age of seventy would be getting a
pension of IL per cent of his annual
salary, multiplied by the number of
years he had served. In other words,
II he had served fifty years, 1t would
be Is per cent of his annual salary.
Would Save Money.
Now that would cost the Government
in the whole sixty years $S7,000,OOO. That
seems like a large sum. 1t is large
sum, but 1t is expended over sixty
years, never costing more than $2,7OO,OOO,
and you want to consider that this
81 100000. which, as I have suggested, Is
the present cost to the Government of
the employment of superannuated em-
ployes, is a very small sum compared
with what it is going to cost the Gov
ernment very soon. In other words,
now is a very good time to start such
a movement as this, because just now
the proportion of old men to the entire
force is very small.
In the last twenty years the num-
ber of Government employees has enor-
mously increased. You know we have
for instance instituted our rural deliv-
cry service, and those of us who have
been here in Washington twenty years
have seen an enormous increase in the
clerical force here. All over the coun-
try the Government has been extending
its activities, and the number of Gov
ernment employees has grown prodigi-
ously. Consequently the number of the
superannuated is proportionally small
now and will grow. The men who are
above seventy now are mostly the
relics of the service of twenty years
ago, when the service was small; but
in twenty, thirty, or forty years from
now the men in the Government ser
vice who will be seventy years or age
the reason that this annual expense
will grow.
But while that grows. you can see
hat the problem also grows in serious
ness from year to year, and that while
now we have here in Washington for
instance only about 700 men in the Gov
ernment service who are over seventy
years of age, twenty or thirty years
from now, when the present force
comes to be seventy. the number C1
,r,1r cod xr-fn hn so
larger and the Government will be los
ing so much more.
The bill which the committee report
ed does not embrace the whole service.
We thought we had better start moder-
ateIy, and so it simply embraces the
city of Washington. We thought it
would be more likely to succeed by ap-
plying ii simply to the District of Co
lumbia, though l should hope it would
be extended to the whole service.
There are about 5000 who would be
benefited by the bill. The committee.
or rather the Census Bureau-has gone
very elaborately through computation
OF the cost of both this bill and of a
fat pension bill. The figures were OBJ
tained in this way: The Blue Book
ting the figures for the Blue Book each
person in the classified service was sent
a card so that we have a report from
each member in the service throughout
the whole country stating his age, the
time he has been in the service and his
salary. So thai these figures are not
guess figures, but the exact figures ap-
plying to the men now in the service,
worked out on insurance tables and con-
seuuentlY give the exact facts as to
what it would cost to men now in the
service
Preferable to Flat Pension.
The gentleman from New York.
Mr.. Goulden, gave us an inter-
esting speech a few days ago advo-
eating fiat pension. In other words.
saying that the Government ought to
give to each employe when he reached
the age of seventy a certain annuity.
1t seems to me that our bill is very
much preferable TO that for numerous
reasons.
In the first place, this bill which
we report. if it should once be adopt
ed, after a certain length of time, will
be self-supporting. That is one ad-
vantage. This bill also provides that
fthe person at any time should leave
the Government service he could with
draw the full amount of his accumu-
lation.
We provide that II shall be kept in
this way. That in each month there
shall be deducted from the salary this
percentage. and that it shall be turned
over to a board which shall invest it
either in savings banks or certain Stip-
ulated bonds of cities and States. and
that it shall be kept in a fund by it
self, the Government guaranteeing
3h per cent interest,". l myself think
that rate of interest is too low. I
think the Government might well guar
antee 4 per cent interest because l be-
lieve that these bonds could be secured
which will bring in per cent interest;
but even of they did bring a little less
now and then. / believe that is VIII
the bounty of the Government could
best be shown.
Interest Adds Greatly.
ut is quite interesting to note how
much of this money which the man
himself gets is a matter of interest
and not of principal. We find that if
man enters the service at twenty
years of age and remains in the ser
vice until he is seventy years of age
he would if getting a salary of 800
per month have deducted from his
salary every month S4.30. Four dol
lars and thirty cents a month would
provide him a sufficient amount of
money invested at 8 u per cent so that
when he became seventy years old that
money would give him an annuity of
5000 a year according, to the inSur-
ance tables. That $3.50 month
throughout his time of service would