The Washington times., 1911-01-25

thirty-fve years of age, he would have
to pay $3.50; at forty, he would have to
pay s. 50. and at forty-fve, Sis;
"Of course. the amount which Is de-
Quoted from his salary necessarily in
creases with the age of entrance, bRt
that seems to me one of the good fea-
lures Of this plan, in that II would dis
courage men from entering the Govern
ment service when they were old, be-
cause the deductions from their salaries
would be large, while If the Government
gives a fiat pension, as my friend ar
gues, then II Is a constant encourage
ment to man to enter the service old
and discouragement to young man.
OF course, 1t is better for the service
to have younger men go into the SER
vice. This principle encourages the
young men to go in, while the fiat pen
courages the old men.
while / am on that l will speak of
the expense of a fiat pension scheme,
which would pay the same amount,
l " per cent for each year of serv-
Under our bill the highest II would
ever cost the Government would be
two million and a half and under
fiat pension bill. and not nearly as ex-
the gentleman from New York. (Mr.
Goulden) and which some organiza-
tions of employees favor. These same
figures automatically worked out
show that it increases year by year
and in seventeen years ii Will cost
five millions of dollars and in thirty
years 1t will cost the Government
fifteen millions of dollars per year:
zone of the main troubles with the
fiat pension proposition is the enor-
nous expense. which it seems to me
the House would never dare to meet.
l do not think the fiat pension system
Is much less expensive. 1t is simpler.
We calculate that all that 1t would
In A. fnrnp nf the Gov
ernment to administer this bill would
be about twenty clerks. and that is
not very large expense.
England recently modified It's oId
straight pensions in a way that recog-
nizes the principle of this bill. The
English system which they had so
many years cost 16 to 20 per cent an
nually.
Would Be Same Here.
lone of the evils of the fiat pension
proposition is illustrated in the expert
ence of England, and human nature in
dicates to US ii would obviously come
here. One of the difficulties is this.
that although We start out with gen.
eral principle in a fiat pension apd say
that when men come to the age OF
seventy they shall have a pension, yet
if we read the English appropriation
bills we constantly see such clauses as
'gratuity,' compassionate allowance
and compensation allowance showing
what would obviously be true here, that
there would come constant appeals to
us to- extend the pension system 10
widows, for instance, and orphans or
persons who were not within the ot1gl-
nal pension would ask their friends or
REPRESENTATIVE to urge that bill
should be passed for their beneht, ana
If our experience would be anything
like England's we would be constantly
besieged by attempts to obtain such
Our experience with the civil war
veterans shows how little we would re-
sist such appeals. and constantly the
general law would be increasing anu
growing from these appeals to an eX-
tent that would be surprising, and that.
it seems to me, and | think we VIII all
recognize, is one of the worst KINDS OF
legislation that we should as far as
possible eradicate from pensions.
Now, when we make a man con-
tribute his own retirement fund, nave
a fund from which whenever ne ledNts
the service he can take TINS amount
can draw out and go away, then theIe
is no inducement for us to increase II.
Everybody would contribute eXaclly III
the same fair proportion, and these
constant attempts to have any PEI Isoliai
legislation would be done away WIN. T..
nv mind to a fiat pension scheme asioe
from the enormous expense. ana that Is,
If YOU have a fiat pension every man
Who is in the service feels that as soon
az he has worked a few days ne mas
earned part of his pension, ana am
sure we would all have that feeling, ana
tine EMPLOYER would have the same reel
ing, and, although man was inefhcient
and incompetent, and the mead OF the
bureau Or department would De glau
to get rid of him, yet he would reel that
by discharEing him he would take away
fTom him his rights to pension ana so
would refrain and let him burden the
service.
One of the Evils.
Now one of the great evils. L believe
in our civil service today is the dlf-
ficuIty of getting rid of incompetent Of
ficials. The department heads are them
selves Ioath to discharge, and then when
they are urged not TO by Representa-
tives in Congress or the friends of the
various clerks, you know that 1t is very
difficult for an inefficient employe to be
discharged. If the officer in addition
knew that when you discharged him you
were robbing him of a pension 1t would
he impossible to discharge him, while
good deal of the present difficulty in
discharging him.
There would be much less unwilling
ness to discharge a man of whom you
could say when he went that he had
nice nest egg that he had a sum OF