The Washington times., 1917-01-14
THE SENATE AND GOVERN
MENT CLERKS PAY

Ten years ago the civil service en-
ployes of the United States Govern
ment were underpaid. One year ago
they were notoriously underpaid. The
hearings on the Nolan minimum
wage bill demonstrated that. They
were not only worse off than they
were twenty or thirty years before
because the buying power Of the dol
lar had lessened. Their average pay
actually was less because of the ere
alton of numerous low salaried posi-
tions.
Today the clerks are disgracefully,
shamefully, deplorably underpaid.
Even the members of the Senate sub
committee that Topped off the pro-
vision for a horizontal increase yes
terday admit that. Not even the
gentlemen on Capitol Hill who have
been singularly obtuse about the pay
of Government employees for several
decades any longer contend that they
are paid living wage, or are get
ting pay anywhere nearly comnhen-
surate with that paid by private
employers for the same sort of work.
Yet the clerks must suffer because
of sudden accession Of economy.
The river and harbor bill with its
$1Sy 900, 900 was; introduced in the
House at the same time yesterday
the, Senate subcommittee was pitt
fully attempting to make gallery
play for penny wise, pound foolish,
economy.
Certainly there'is big deficit star
ing Congress in the face. Certainly
the country is going to oppose any
measures to eliminate that deficit
which SAVIOR of the money spending
methods of past Years. But does any
member of the Senate or the House
really believe this country is going
to approve program of economy at
the expense of employees of the Gov
ernment? Are the citizens Of the
United States bent upon making
these employees bear a far larger
share Of the burden in meeting this
expenditure than any other citizens
are called upon to bear?
The workers who are having their
pay raised 10, 20, 30 and even 10
per cent, and who are getting
bonuses in addition, are not at all
anxious to see Government employees
exc cut an existence on less than a
living wage. Representatives of
these workers have been in the fore
front, through the leaders of organ
lied labor, in urging upon Congress
the need of going small fraction
of the way in raising the pay of
Government employees that private
firms and corporations are doing for
their employees.
Does Congress have any regard
for the efficiency of Governmental
work? Don't these legislators know
that the work of the departments
already suffers because it is hard to
get efficient men at the present
salaries? Don't they know that civil
service examinations, in the last
year, have gone begging for lack
Of applicants?
Is anyone hoping that the cost of
Government alone, among all the
other utilities that we now buy, is
going to stand still? 1t is not a ques-
ton of the Government clerk getting
his share, or even part of his share
of a prosperity that Government Of
ficials are boasting about. 1t is a
question of getting the simple justice
that was coming to him before this
era of prosperity set in. 1t is q
question of his getting a decent
wage, wage for the work he does
somewhere nearly commensurate
with the same sort of work else
where, a wage that will help atone
for the undeniable lack of oppor-
tunity for quick pSom ,tion that
awaits him in outside employment,
a wage that in some degree will help
meet the cost of living in Washing
ton, higher than in the places where
other workers are getting more than
they ever received before.
The California boys band is to sere-