The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-01
PAY MORE MONEY
Salary Scale Doesn't Attract
Efficient State Employees.
Kansas Must Change Her Pol
icy, Says Geo. w. Ross.
TURN $50, 900 into TREASURY
At That, the State Grain Inspec-
tor Has Been Handicapped.
Several Institutions Are Max
ing Same Complaint.

Kansas should not talk about effI-
cheney in state government until she
provides a salary scale sufficient to
attract people who will do efficient
work, according to George w Ross.
state grain inspector. Ross has handed
out the advice that the state must
change her policy if she expects to
maintain an efficiency rank with
other states One of the immediate
demands, he declares, is for an In
crease in wage scales that the more
efficient state employees, may not be
attracted to employment in other
states or by the federal government.
Although Ross will turn nearly $780,
| 900 into the state treasury from his
department, he declares he has been
| handicapped thru legislative enact
ments which would not permit him
| to pay sufficient salaries to persons
employed as inspectors and testers.
AS a result Kansas has educated grain
inspectors who have gone to other
states or to the federal government
because this state did not offer an at
tractive wage scale. A number of
the more efficient men of the grain
department have, in the last two
years, taken employment in the gov
eminent department, Ross said. The
sole trouble was the niggardly wages
offered state employees.
can't h0CD OOO1I N1cHs
zone of the big troubles in my de-
partment is to keep efficient men,"
said Ross. Our wage scale is SO low
that as soon as an efficient man is
developed, he is taken over by other
states or by the federal government.
Several of our best men have been
lost because we could not pay wages
equal to those offered by the; federal
government, a1tho the men Were just
as valuable to Kansas as TO Uncle
Sam. With it all, we had a big sur
plus on hand as result of the de-
partments earnings. Yet none of the
money could be used to increase the
wages of deserving and competent
men,"
Complaints similar to those of the
state grain inspector have come from
several institutions. In the state char
tiles one of the big troubles of recent
years has been the fight to retain an
adequate and efficient corps of
| nurses. At the Topeka state hospital
an excellent nurses school is main
| tanned by the state. Hundreds of
young women have worked at the hos
pital until they completed their course.
Then they sought employment in
other states where more attractive
wages are offered.
Work IA u Hours a Day.
A nurse in a state institution re-
ceives an average of about $25 a
month and board. In spite Of the de-
mands of the state for humane treat
ment of women and girls employed in
stores, girls at state charities go on
duty at $3.50 in the morning. At 8
o'clock in the evening, they are told
there is nothing to do until tomor-
row." Once every eight or ten days
the girls receive a half day off
Neither the maximum hour nor mini
mum wage doctrine has been applied
| by the state to its own institutions,
Ross will make a fight before the
| state legislature for an increase in
wage scales for grain inspectors. Sew
eral heads of state institutions will de-
mand more money. for their institu-
tions. In a report filed with the state
board of control, Superintendent T. c.
Biddle of Topeka hospital recently di-
rected the states attention to the
hours and wage scale of nurses The
| wages, he recited, range from $22 to
| S34 a month.