Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-10
i. s. EMP[OYEF0R
43 YEARS; SALARY
NOW ONLY $1,000
w. B. Magruder and Others
Tell RecIassifiers of Low
Pay in Patent Office.

| IeI neCIdSSlIlerS OF LOW
! Pay in Patent Office.
Two thousand dollars salary a year
as me reward for forty-three years of
mere Was the condition revealed today
by Willis Il. Magruder chief OF the
| assignment division of the patent Of
nee. TO the joint congressional COM
| in the District
t Got 5000 3G Years Ago.
Thirty-six years ago 1 was get
| IlHS 9soo a year and my salary of to-
! aay is only equivalent to that of thir-
| ty-slX years ago" Mr.. Magruder told
| me commission. which heard the files.
! ate office building
nave made my work life ca
nave Accomplishment"
! me government has saved eight
millions of dollars" answered Com
missioner Henry Allen Cooper, recall
! ing that the self-sacrifice of such men
as Mr.. Magruder and the other en-
ployes of the patent office had been
i largely contributory to the acquisi-
ton by the government of that sum
of money through patent office re-
ceipts
1t is sad. sad" remarked Commits
sioner Cooper, in a whisper, to an as
sociate
Mr.. Magruder said that the recorder
OF deeds for the District, who holds a
relative position to his own. receives
$4,000 year for his services He
testified that the patent office has
clerks working at 1920 year salary,
ana that during the war the office
| round 1t impossible to get clerks at
TINS figure. and was forced to go to
| LIS frv- ~
required to pass civil service exami-
| nations
'Turn Over" of 100 Per Cent.
| Mr.. Magruder told the reclassifica-
| uonists that in his division there were
| hfty-one designations in the past two
years out of a staff of fifty-one work
| ers. turn over" of exactly 100
per cent.
| He declared that many clerks whose
! average salary was 5000 had left the
patent office and that records showed
| that within nine months their aver
! age salary was S1,100 a year.
| The clerks in the patent office are
the poorest paid in the entire govern
ment service said Commissioner
! Cooper.
The work of the office had doubled
| in some instances. and yet the patent
office is not able to get any more
, clerks. Mr.. Magruder testified.
1--WE have $4,000 deeds that haven't
been touched" the speaker declared.
1T is nearly four months before a
man who sends deed gets certifi-
cation of record" Mr.. Magruder told
| the commission that he had fifty-one
employees directly under him.
| In presenting a brief for increased
! salaries for all workers in the record
| ing service, Mr.. Magruder. who acted
/ as spokesman, asked that all record
| ing clerks be paid minimum salary
! not less than the minimum salary
| for bookkeepers.
"Deplorable conditions exist in the
| various departments at the present
! time due to the Irregularities of the
| civil service classification and the
| low salaries incidental thereto" Mr..
Magruder stated. Members of the
recorder service committee, which
drew up the brief. were: Mrs. Lila
| X A. Eble, Mrs. NJ. c. Mey and w. n.
| Rydalch.
| Entrusted With Important Papers.
valuable and confidential papers of
| the greatest Importance are intrust-
| ed to the keeping of file clerks" de-
| clared Homer Smith. who presented
salary increase pleas for the thou
sands of file clerks in the federal
service here. Other members of the
file clerks committee were: r. NJ
! Gibbs, Wilbur Jarvis. H. c. Drummer.
Louis A Rosafy, William E. Wise,
Margaret Brightwell. David Salmon
/ and William H. Galbraith.
Dead men not only tell no tales in
the government service, but many of
them, especially in the filing service,
take. away with them much valua BILE
information which it takes years for
the government to work out again,
according to the testimony of Mr..
Smith before the commission.
Reports Many Changes I'm Force.
division" Mr.. Smith said. who could
find in fifteen minutes what it now
takes weeks to find" Twenty three
changes among thirty employees in ten
months revealed the turn over" in
the filing service
Mr.. Smith combated "a general i'm
preston throughout the government
departments that persons engaged in
file work are not so capable and that
they should not be given so high an
efficiency rating nor so adequate a
salary as those engaged in other lines
of clerical work" The effect of this
iunderestimation. he declared. is eX-
hibited in the large labor turnover in
the files service.
Increased salary schedules were
asked by the mails service. for whom
Charles r. Brill acted as spokesman.
Other members of the committee
which presented the brief were w. ID.
Hobbs, c. w. Butler. Robert l.. F'ugitt,
William Jarvis S. NJ. Croft. Lillis b.
Bowes and William Galbrath.
A brief in behalf of the seventy-two
finger print experts of the War and
Navy Departments was presented by
j. H. Taylor.