Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-12
PLEADS FOR women
IN EMPLOY OF u. S.
Mrs. Ruth Ravens Asks Fair
Treatment If q Retirement
Law Be Enacted.
COMMENDED BY CHAIRMAN

A plea for fair and equitable treat
ment in the matter of salaries, promo
lions and annuities If a retirement law
be enacted. for the woman employees
Of the government was made before
the Senate committee on civil service
forty years a government empIoye. She
told the committee that for the last
thirty-five years Of her service she
has received only one promotion,
though It has sometimes been found
possible to advance 8 man in her d.
vision twice in a single year.
MANY a cabinet officer, and even
many a bureau officer, has set an arbi-
trary dead line which women. regard
less of the grade Of their employment.
may not cross" said Mrs. Havens. DE
partment women are no strangers to
the Hoover economies, and to many of
us only one meatless day and wheat
less day week would be revel of
luxury.
IT have known admirable, efficient
women to receive their first advance
ment in salary at eighty years old. 1t
friefds call amounting for death
Mrs Hayens quoted from census bull
letin to show that Of more than 100000
employees in the federal service only
seventeen women were receiving a sal
airy Of $1,000 a year or more, while
6,38S were receiving less than $720 a
year and another 1000 loss than ss4o.
Asks More Honest Adjustment.
Retirement annuities based on aver
age ea1ary would give to women less
than half as much as to men presum-
employment" said Mrs. Havens. May
God put it into your hearts to secure
more honest adjustment in the future
II you know working women as l
kAh hot
their salaries must be divided among
as many as those of men. The tradi-
ton that women leave their homes to
work for pin money Is broken down.
ct must be admitted that woman
sometimes obtains an advantage under
the mere instincts of civilization. For
instance, when an old lady is sick in
our Office she Is tenderly laid on
sheet Of perfectly good brown paper on
the floor and ministered to by gentle
and skillful lady physician. For men
we omit the paper since the cost has
doubled, and their lingerie will not be
so hopelessly mussed on bare floor,
and we send them just an ordinary
man DOCTOR That is the only instance
recall Of special consideration for
women.
1--WE need a retirement law more urg-
emily than any language can express
1t is no fight of imagination to say
that we die at our desks. and few have
the audacity to do that until half-past 4.
And we also have need for a law for
automatic promotion, based on length
of service, without discrimination
against sex. or race. or previous condl-
more conducive to department welfare
than for clerks to know that IL their
work was sufficiently satisfactory for
retention in the service a promotion
awaited a fixed date and a living re-
tirement pension awaited total disa
bility or old age.
What People Say at Home.
when retirement was under discus
sion last year we were asked with
much solemnity, What will the people
at home say IL this favored class is re-
tired with lifelong payT
This Is what people at home say to
me: In Ohio they ask. Aren't you PEN
stoned yet? All sorts of employees here
are retired
I'm Connecticut an old friend in
quired, Couldn't that Washington
bridge have waited for its expensive
lions until the government had taken
care of its faithful old servants""
In closing. Mrs. Ravens predicted that
right and Justice would finally tri-
umph. 1.-The visions Of nations are be-
coming vocal and contagious" she said.
Humanity looms large in the picture.
The golden calf is reported to have
been displaced in the temples. Some
will insist that 1t Is still stabbed in the
Munsey building" she added, the ref
erence being to the criticisms which
have been made recently Of the advis-
DRY committees of the council of ma
tional defense. located in that building
I'VE are dreaming Of a world democ-
racy," she continued. I'm a world de-
mocracy the aged toilers will not be
cast out to perish, nor underpaid to
suffer want. The mothers of men will
not be esteemed less valuable than the
men whom they bore and nourished,
nor will they die with tools Of labor in
their faltering hands"
Senator Mcclellan, chairman of the
committee. congratulated Mrs. Ravens
upon her statement and said that II
any retirement Legislation was enacted
and he had a hand in it her recon-
mendations would be heeded