The Washington herald., 1919-12-31
$4,000 CLERKS
TO LOSE JOBS
War Risk Bureau Will Lead
In Retrenchment by Drop
ping 5000.
CHANCE WITH CENSUS
Senator Smoot to Introduce
Bill Giving Those Dis
missed First Call.

Z Fifteen thousand government en-
'ployes. including more than 5000 in
the war risk bureau alone. will be
dropped from government payrolls
within six months. according to esti-
nnates made yesterday by the vari-
Gus departments and bureaus of the
maximum cuts in personnel that are
possible without Gripping them in the
manifold activities the government
assumed as a result of its entry into
new fields of work
Director Cholmeley-Jones. Of the
war risk bureau. who yesterday noti-
fed 1.7oo temporary clerks and minor
executives their services would no
longer be needed by the government.
announced that on January Is notice
wtl be served upon an additional
loo. while on January 20 approx
mately 500 more will be notified.
Successive reductions will be made
until the 5000 mark is reached in June.
Other Cuts Are Made.
The War Department already has
reduced its maximum wartime force
. from 3O.eCO to 16.OOO and by June 30
will cut of s.cOo additional Before
the war the fierce of clerks in the
The Navy Department and Marine
Corps also viii make reductions in
their forces. but dismissals in those
departments will be more gradual
than in the Wa Risk Bureau and
War Department. All other depart
ments are in process of readjustment.
with the exception of the Treasury
Department. which will not decrease
its force for several months
Many of the cleks to he dropped
will be given employment in the
Census Bureau. which is now en-
gagged in building up its force for
the new census. Senator Smoot an
nounced yesterday that as soon as
Congress is reconvened he will at
tempt to put through a measure re-
quiring that discharged clerks be
given preference in filling census
Jobs.
Given Two Weeks Notice.
Of the clerks. typists and other en-
pioyes. who are being let out by the
War Risk Bureau in its efforts to meet
insistent demands by Congress for re-
trenchment. all will receive two weeks
notice. but they will be compelled to
work the full two weeks. Director
Cholmeley-Jones said. Under no cir
cumstances will they be given the full
two weeks advance pay and allowed
to leave.
Investigations made by the Women's
Bureau of the Metropolitan Police
and civic organizations disclose that
conditions confronting girls soon to
lose their employment border on alb
solute poverty.
This is especially true of War Risk
L.
lief that salaries are abnormaIIv high,
large groups of workers who did not
receive the war bonus Of s2p are
notoriously underpaid. They were
grudGinEly allowed just half that
amount by Congress. Perhaps not
more than twenty women in the bu-
reeu get as much as $3.50 n year
Thousands of girls in the bureau. pay
ing high prices for board and one
sixth of room, have been unable
TO save anything from their pay.
Injustice is also done these war
workers by reports that they are
inefficient" they complain. This
will make il difficult. they fear. to
find private employment. yet the
government has no husiness-Iike
standards for measuring compare
tive efficiency of employees.
The employe who races through
the work and most successfully
passes the buck" naturally is able
to make a big showing as to "out-
put. on which efficiency ratings are
based. Thus the taking into account
only OF the number Of letters dictat-
ed or typed or other operations per-
formed puts n premium on careless
ness. it is contended. while the con-
Ecientious cmploye who takes pains
and is accurate is rated as "ineffi-
eient"
In giving standard tests to the
output of the employees. the bureau
chiefs realize 1t would be too great
a task to check the output Of each
clerk every day. so the tests of OUT
put are made at random.