Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-30
Treasury Controller Permits
Salary Disbursements Last
Day in Each Month.
REvERSES THE OPINION
OF HIS PREDECESSOR
Order Applying New Method to All
the Departments Soon
to Be Issued.

Government employees under the Treas
ury Department, and probably under
every other administrative department
and bureau. may expect soon to receive
their salaries on the last day of the
month. instead, as at present. the first
dered.
The Secretary of the Treasury has been
told that he can SO arrange the pay rolls
and has determined upon the change.
George E. Downey, controller of the
Treasury, has told him he had full au-
thority to make payments on the last OF
the month, reversing the opinion of his
predecessor, Controller TracewelL
The order directing the change in meth
cd of payment of salaries Is likely to be
issued Immediately. 1t Is hardly likely
to be applied to the salaries due now,
which will undoubtedly be paid tomor-
row, July /, instead of today. although.
1t is said. there is good and sufficient rea-
son why the change should be made for
this very pay roll
The convenience Of government en-
bookkeeping will be served by the new
arrangement. Department clerks will
rejoice, for frequently the first of the
month falls on a Sunday and sometimes
on holiday, and even on a holiday be-
fore a Sunday, In which event their pay
checks come to them two or three days
after due to them. Vacation periods also
not uncommonly begin on the first Of
the month, in which event a day or
more is lost from travel in waiting for
salaries. and sometimes the availability
of special first-of-the-month railway ex-
cursion rates is lost to them. The de-
sire for end-of-the-month payments has
been generally expressed by government
clerks for many years. but the rul- -ngS OF
previous controllers of the Treasury have
interfered with any compliance with this
demand.
Where Trouble Is Caused.
In the accounts of the government the
pay rolls made up and certified on the
10th and 1st of the month carry the
account for salaries earned during the
period from the 18th to the end of the
month into the accounts of the next
month, causing a trouble-making compli-
cation. it is said, against which the gov
ernment accountants have often protest
ed. At the end OF the fiscal year. which
arrived today, the pay roll for the last
half Of June. although payable from the
appropriation for the present fiscal year,
must be carried into the next fiscal year,
making necessary a double complica ton
and the checking back Of the charge
against the appropriation. All this has
been cumbersome and undesirable from
the viewpoint of economy and efficiency.
Secretary McAdoO of the Treasury De-.
partment, after pOnderlng the question
and satisfying himself as to the neces-
sity for the change. propounded the ques-
uOns to the controller of the Treasury
whether or not there is any legal objec-
ton to paying the salaries on the last
day OF the month. Controller Downey
ruled there was no competent reason in
law, Notwithstanding the view taken by
his predecessor in office. although he did
not refer to previous decisions.
The present form of cer,ification, he
said, is merely requirement OF the ac-
counting officers of the government as
to pay rolls in the District of Columbia.
If there was any legal necessity for it,
he commented, there would be no author
ton to the District of Columbia only, but
that 1t must be then applied to all gov
ernment employees who are pad by the
month or semi-monthly.
If the change in method Is adopted, he
suggested, the phrase, ''and that the full
period of service covered by the pay roll
has expired prior to the actual signing
thereof should be stricken out of the
certification form, and an appropriate
substitution of language made to meet
the new arrangement
Salaries paid to government clerks, he
defined, relate to whole days. and not to
any particular part of the day; and for
this reason, he said, salaries are viewed
as earned at the beginning of thaz.lay.
The technical situation OF a fractional
part of day not completed, he ruled,
does not involve any question of advance
payments to government empolyes, as for
hidden by section 364S of the Revised
Statutes
Last-Day Rule Outlined.
The certification and payment Of the
pay roll is authorized at any time on the
last day of the month, he found. Changes
In status, through death. resignation or
dismissal, he said, do not affect the right
of the employe to pay for the day on
which such event happened, whether the
last day of the month or any other day.
Promotions and reductions he pointed
out, are known at !. time sufficiently in
advance not to involve the pay roll in in
accuracy. Possible absence for a frac-
tional part of day, he said also, is
within the discretion of the employees
chief, and can be controlled accordingly.
The correction Of the pay rolls is fire.
quently a necessity at this time, he fur
ther indicated. These contingencies, he
said. are not a matter of such primary
consideration as to affect the question,
and he decided that the Secretary of the
Treasury could go ahead and do as he
saw fit about it,