The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAsxfN, Director.
FAIR DEAL FOR THE OLD CLERK
Washington. .. C.

desk every day Dy ms servant VINO
/ deposited him in a comfortable chair
| where he sat all day long staring va
| cantly into space until the servant
returned for him.
This man waas An employe who had
been in the department. for many years
| and had done good work. Old age had
rendered him useless, but he was de-
pendent upon his SALARY for aliving,
and no enc in authority had the heart
| to turn him away.
| This man was one Of many superan-
| nuated employees who fill the desks
and delay the business Of the federal
| government. 1t is as a result of this
condition that the retirement of civil
| service employees on a half pension,
half insurance system Is now being in
troduced into congress by Senator Nc
Kellar of Tennessee, who declares that
the president. The civil service en-
ployes themselves also at last appear
| to be satisfied.
The Mcclellan bill is only one of
many bills dealing with the retirement
OF government employees which have
come up for debate in congress in re-
| cent years, only to land In ere Of those
| numerous incoEspicuous pigeon-holes
| in the capitol that have been labelled
by one of our representatives, 1.-The
abode of things which do not happen"
For the last half century government
l
sions with about the same result that
suffra gists have agitated the matter
OF suffrage. They have commanded,
they have entreated. they have threat
ehed. And, what is more important,
| they have organized to force such a
measure. 1t is estimated by one weary
representative that at least seventeen
different organizations of government
lemployes have called upon him to dis
euss the pension question. But with
all this, the United States has eontin-
ued to share with Turkey the doubtful
tenn for its aged employees.
| In justice to congress. however. 1t
must be stated that a pension system
might have been enacted before this
| if it had been possible to get all of
the government employees to agree on
what they wanted. Many of them held
out in the beginning for a straight
pension, coming wholly as q gift from
the government, while others asserted
that they preferred to pay for the en-
tire pension themselves. The present
bill before congress. which is a COM
promise between both attitudes is the
only one that has been able to satisfy:
all factions. All government en1-
ployes' unions stand solidly in back of
it.
| 1t provides, briefly. that the govern
ment empleye shall contribute az per
| cent Ol his annual SALARY lOWdTu6 Ills
| retirement pension, and that when the
time comes for him to retire, the gov
eminent will contribute the rest. Be-
| ginning with the first of the month
after the act goes into effect, deduc-
| tons will be automatically made by
| the treasury department from salary
| appropriations and transferred on it's
books to the credit of a special fund
to be known as the civil service re-
4 tirement fund" This fund will be in
| creased by per cent interest. COM
| pounded annually. In other words.
an employe whose salary is $1,000 q
year will have $50 deducted from it
and credited to his retirement PEN
| sion. At the end of the year one dol
lar in interest will be added. The
| next year the interest will be $z.04,
and SO on until our mental arithmetic
| is exhausted.
This fund. of course. is simply held
in trust by the government. At any
time that an employe leaves the gov
eminent service his share in the re-
tirement fund is handed over to him,
but until he has served fifteen years.
the government contributes nothing to
his pension. He gets only what he
| himself has saved.
The retirement age of all employees
in what is termed "the classified ser
vice" (Which means all service class
| tfted BY the civil service ceommission)
IS sixty-eight years, and that for me-
chanics city and rural letter carriers
and railway mail clerks is sixty-fiv
lPostmasters are not included in this
bill. Employees are divided into four
groups, according to the number. OF
Years they have been in the govern
ment service. The first group includes
those who have worked for the gov
Iernment for thirty years or more, who
are entitled to a pension equal to SO
Der cent nf their To, .ia ok
to exceed $500. The second group
includes employees who have been in
the government service for twenty five
years or more, and are eligible to a
pension equal to 40 per cent of their
annual salaries, not to exceed $40.
The maximum pension for twenty
years service, based on 80 per cent
LOT the average salary is $3.50; and that
: for the fourth group, including en-
pioyes who have been in the service
for fifteen years. is 1920. based ~ IS
per cent of the average salary.
The disbursement Of the retirement
fund is placed in the hands OF the war
risk bureau. Sixty days before An en-
pIoye becomes of eligibles ase he is to
mako application to this bureau for his
, pension. If he prefers to remain in
the government, and'the head of his
department is satisfied with his eff
his desk for arotRer two ysars.
Wt"c a great deal has been said
about the rights of the government
clerk to a pens;Sn in his old age after
spending the best years of his life toll
ing in its service, it is only since the
Mcclellan bill ha- come up for con-
alteration that something has also
been said of the right of the govern
ment to give such "a pension. For II
the pension is desirable from a senti-
mental point of view. it Is twice at
desirable from The cold, practical view
IF economy. There are now hundreds
Of aged People in the government who
are. unable to perform their work ef-
ficiently, but who retain their positions
because few heads of departments like
to take the responsibility of discharg-
ing them They have worked on small
salaries all their lives. from which II
has tbeen next ta Impossible to save
1 anything. II turned OUT of their jobs
thew would be destitute and so they