Evening star., 1919-12-05
JENKINS RELEASED BY MEXICO
HOSPITAL TROUBLES
TOLD At DOMESTIC
SERVICE HEARING

| Accounts of conditions existing in
st. Elizabeth's Hospital, the Washing.
ton Asylum Hospital, the government
hotels and the laundry of the bureau
| of engraving and printing astonlsheo
members of the joint congressional
! commission on reclaSSification or sal
] aries in the District at the hearing
| today for workers in the government
| domestic service.
Here are a few of the facts as re-
vealed to the commission by repre-
sentatives of the workers:
! Facts Detailed.
| A girl laundry machine operator at
! st. Elizabeth's Hospital, in charge OF
! thirty-five to forty insane patient
| two who were fighting with shower
and took the shovel away from the
| men.
Workers .at the Washington Asy-
lum Hospital, many receiving as low as
$500 year salary, are forced to sleep IN
| the wards with the patients.
| Public laundries keep down the pay
given by the laundry of the govern
! ment hotels to its laundry workers.
Workers in the laundry at the bu-
reau of engraving and printing are
working on twelye-hour shifts, costing
the government more for overtime pay
than three eight-hour shifts would cost
Thirty designations n Month.
Conditions at the Washington Asylum
Hospital were revealed by Arthur C..
Oliver, assistant clerk, who told the
commission that the salaries there OF
the staff, exclusive of the medical and
nursing staffs, were based on living
conditions twenty years ago. and were
responsible today for labor turn over"
at the hospital of about thirty resigna-
tionS a month, and that one month
forty-one changes were registered out
of total staff of seventy-f1ve work.
ers.
The engineer at the hospital gets
5000 a year; three assistants, $500;
the night watchmen, $3.50; the order
lies of the hospital $500; the driver of
the, dead wagon, who must be able to
do undertaking work, 1865; pupil
nurses, $500; chambermaids. $3.50. :.
Workers Sleep in Patients' Wards.
Room and board is provided. Mr..
Oliver declared, but employees sleep
two End three in room." he said. In
sleep in the wards with the patients.
:.r..What diseases do you have over
there?'t asked mmissioner Cooper. :
No disease is Gefused;", !asSwered
fas Diseases h hsp ssaa sssai
in ward 1. who is OR the pay roll
as a chambermaid, sleeps in a little
room right in the ward" continued
r.,
ward have slept in ward with
'hs Mr.. ps5ir oiivss tcsssSsd tnas n. PRESENT
chief clerk of the hospital has served
twenty-five years with with !. never t,nns more e
year. He declared that the District
iail furnishes about fifteen prisoners
a day to help with the asylum work.
Remain for Two Pay Days Only.
1--WE can't keep our orderlies more
tbsy fman ret," .w" M M. Oliver stated. ''Then
when they leave. most of them buy
jump steady and soon they are back
"What is this 'jump-steady' you
smoke or" asked Commissioner Keat-
Hr. oliver explained that Jump
steady is the name given poor quail
ity Of imitation whisky.
would soon go insane" commented
NE "From what I see Of the way the
neople work to make good under the
aaSistine conditions" Mr.. Oliver testl-
6ed II have come to have better
annreciation of human nature.
Girl Stops Fight.
cir, has been a laundry machine
onerator at st. Elizabeth,s Hospital
Uemine. foreman of the laundry
there. It was she who only yesterday
stepped in between tWo :, nelpers' th ,~ra VINO
msn termed it. and wrested the shovel
She is charged with the duty of
,-sventing any of her helpers from
Suddenly throwing themselves into
the laundry machinery. She daily
re o uis ant over the running machin-
er~ to oil it, the foreman testified.
He asked a salary of $1,60o year for
Testifying that the laundry. at the
government hotels does the laundry
For about 1900 girls in government
service at about half the rate charged
Continued on Second Page.)