The Washington herald., 1916-12-22
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

movement for a general increase In sal
ary as a raid upon the government treas
ury.
Representative Keating. of Colorado, de-
Tended the increases and endeavOred to
have written into the bill the 10 and u
FER cent increases urged by the Amerl-
can Federation of Labor and the Fed
der was sustained and the amendment
stricken out.
Joseph H. Hurley. president Of the Dis
trict branch of the Federal Employees
Union, Immediately went to work to
have the amendment written into the
bill when 1t reaches the Senate.
There Is no equity in legislation that
grants an increase to some employees OF
the government and denies it to others
who are doing the same kind of work
for lower salaries. 1 have not lost faith
IN the justice OF the Congress of the
United States. I know that they woulc
have voted differently with the full
knowledge Of the facts.
Wages Cut in 1870.
"On July II. 1876. the employees of the
District government suffered a % pei
cent reduction in salary because of the
depleted condition of the Treasury al
that time. It has never been restored.
To-day the employees of the District
are working for much smaller salarie,
than those paid by the government fol-
work in the various departments. II
anybody needs these increases the Dis
trict employees need It. There are 3.3&
employees affected by the and 10 pei
cent graded increases, that Is exclusive
of the policemen, firemen and employees
of the schools Sixty-six per cent oi
these employees get no leave Of absence
and the majority are per-diem employees
% n1r fhAa
men and women the and 10 per cent In
creases, It would cost S954.ooo to give
them the 10 and 20 per cent graded in.
creases which think they deserve
Certainly shall spend my time and my
money to right this injustice.
ct have an abiding faith In the honesty
Of Congress. I have an exceedingly
high appreciation Of their perspective or
Justice With these convictions I shal
center my efforts on members Of tht
Senate and the House to point out the
inequality that gives the employees under
the legislative bill increases In com
pensation and denies the same relief from
the high cpst of living to those who
need 1t equally as bad. The District en-
ployes must win in the end"
BorIand Move Defeated.
4 Although the District employees had
their increases deferred temporarily
they did see decisively defeated the
proposition of Representative Borland tc
add an hour to their working schedule
On a roll call the amendment was turned
down l69 to g.
Members Of the House after the vote
was taken said that the feeling Of the
members generally was that the EN-
pIoyes had not shown q proper apprecia'
ton Of the increases voted in the legisla'
tive bill and there was resentment be-
cause the mass meeting held since the
schedule was adopted in the legislative
bill were not gatherings to thank the
4 House for its consideration rather thar
; to protest over the sire Of the increases
granted
In reply to that officials of the Federal
EMPLOYEES Union declared last night thai
they considered the membership Of th<
present Congress the fairest and best
that had ever sat at the Capitol
I'VE did not expect that Congress