Evening star., 1916-03-15

er or not they should be expunged On
the division those members who were
present and heard the colloQuy voted
against Representative Borland by fve
votes. Then a roll call was demanded.
il became a strictly partisan mater
and the republicans were beaten. by
"eXpunging" the remarks the record OF
today contains the line three times in
stead of merely once.
Criticism of the Bill.
What aroused Representative Bor-
land was Representative Manns refer
cnce to the careless manner in which
, the rider was drawn up, including the
a grammatical error.
Representative Mann said:
after all. it is not the quantity OF
work that is so important as is the
quality of work. l have seen gentle
men work many hours in the day and
not accomplish much in real work
as one who worked two or three hours
Government clerks must be accurate
If they be not accurate they are dis
charged. IL the gentleman from Mis-
souri, (A1r. Borland). who introduced the
amendment. could be discharged for
lack of accuracy. he would be out of a
job. When man suffers from BRAIN
fag by reason OF long hours of work
, his work is worthless. That is the
trouble with the gentleman from Mis-
souri,. Yesterday he offered an amend
ment. reported this morning. that left
out two important words. Brain-fag
That was possibly excusable. having
been hurriedly prepared several days in
called the 'Borland amendment cannot
be said to have been hastily prepared
1t reads, leaving out the unessential
parts. that the provisions of section Z
IL Il
man was not accurate or he would not
have said is as applcab BILE to the plural
of provisions If a government clerk
did that he would be discharged We
require accuracy; and if my genial
friend from Missouri, instead of work
ing overtime, will restrict his hours of
la Dor tosseven solid work hours he will
not make foolish mistakes like that
which we tolerate here, but which we
would not tolerate from employees"
Representative Howard's Suggestion
Representative Howard of Georgia ex-
pressed in a few minutes the idea that
had been spoken of throughout the halls
of the Capitol and in committee rooms
on more than one occasion. Beginning
his speech with the Characteristic re-
mark that government employees are
powerful nice set of folks" he said he
was opposed to the ell considered" Bor-
land rider, and that he believed the gov
ernment service needed six things. and
these were:
First. A readjustment in the lower
grades.
Second. The automatic promotion of
ths emc1ent from fixed basis annually.
Third. The establishment of an inn
partial efficiency board IN each depart
ment, alternating each year.
Fourth. A fixed tenure of seven
Eao f1u
the efficient and the retirement of the
inefhcient and superannuated.
Fifth The prevention of political
influence upon heads of departments for
over the deserving.
Sixth. The establishment of a board
of appeals in the civil Ae.yice to prevent
injustices from being perpetrated upon
prevent them
Another Opponent Heard.
Representative Austin of Tennessee
at one time a government employe. said
in part:
by this amendment we are asked.
with one fell swoop, without thought,
without study. without investigation,
without consideration, to impair the
usefulness of every bureau of the gov
ernment, and it ought not to be Sc
riously considered by any man in this
House. Thousands of these clerks have
purchased homes in the country and in
the suburbs. Elsewhere in the United
States government officials generally
live convenient to their place of busi-
ness. to the government buildings. 1t
requires longer time here for clerks
to go from their homes to the place
of their work. If you want to legislate
do 1t in proper way, in constructive,
intelligent, just way-after a thorough
investigation. We ought to increase
Members of Congress increased their
own pay eight years ago from $4,000
to $500 and why? On account Of the
increased cost of living. which not only
applied to congressman here in Wash
ington city, but to every government
clerk"
Calls It "Unrepublican."
Representative Garland of Pennsyl-
vania said that the Borland rider is
unrepublican.
"a few minutes ago." he said. the
gentleman from Kentucky, Mr.. Fields.
said there were twelve applicants for
every position in the classified service.
and yet if that gentleman will turn
back in history to six years ago he
will find that instead of holding the
examinations once year they had to
hold them many times year in order
to keep the roll full. Men in the classi-
fed service quit it because they could
do better outside; it was a republican
administration.
Refers to Efficiency Bureau.
Representative Good of Iowa, a