Evening star., 1915-06-13

Granting this. in most instances the
man never would have had the oppor-
tunity to demonstrate his capacity out
side the government service. 1t is the
government service which has given
him the opportunity But. having dem
onstrated it, the field of private employ
is open to him a vastly greater remu-
neration.
This is what I mean by saying that
the government service is, in a meas
ure. a training school.
stop to think for a moment. Where
else is there greater training school
for executives? What is the cry of
the business world today but for exec
utives. men who can organize and eff
GENTLY direct other men? Business
has found that no salary is too high to
pay to the efficient executive. Never is
the supply of such men equal to the
demand. And nowhere, outside of the
government service, is there better op-
portunity for a man to develop skill as
an executive.
THE government employe, as rule.
from the first begins to deal with big
things In the beginning, perhaps. he
has no large responsibility. but pres
emily, if he has it in him, he is at the
right hand of some sort of an eXecu-
tive possibly a division chief; then.
as a division chief himself, he begins
to direct others. to handle other men.
And thus he mounts the ladder.
In many departments of the govern
ment you will find eighteen hundred
and two-thousand dollar men handling
for their chiefs great problems of gov
ernment. dealing on equal terms with
twenty thousand and irty-thousand
dollar men in business life. Many such
government employees are prone to
complain that they are underpaid. Per-
haps they are. but they are getting a
training that is a wonderful asset to
them.
More and more the business world
not alone, the transportation world with
which l am more familiar. is turning to
the government service for its executives,
it's technologists. its scientific assistants.
the work the government is doing in this
direction.
"Of course we must not overlook the
fact that some men and some women
have not it in them to grasp opportunity
or to develop. Such are born to perform
clerical labor all their days, perhaps ex-
cellent clerical labor For these the gov
ernment service is ideal. Government pay
for such routine labor is above the ordi-
nary rates. and. in addition, there are
the advantages of only seven hours work
per day, thirty days annual leave under
pay, and, if necessary, thirty days sick
leave Few private employers are so
generous.
But, tradition to the contrary not
withstanding. the government service is
becoming less and less a place for the
clock worker. Here in the commission.
for example we want only the ambitious.
While we promote freely into vacancies
and into new positions created by in
creased activities, and are always seek
ing opportunity to promote for merit, we
also denote and remove employees from
our service when they fail by reason of
tneficiency or misconduct to furnish the
high standard of service that the work
of the commission demands.
"All who are familiar with the gov
ernment service know that in the past
every unit of organization worked far
below the maximum of efficiency by reason
of being ncumbered with what amounted
to pensioners, employees who either had
outlived their usefulness or who never
had any, but were retained as an act OF
charity. 1 am thankful to say that our