Evening star., 1920-01-20
.F|REMEN'S PAY BILL
GOES ESTOPRES|DENT
Senate, After Brief Debate,
Adopts the Conference
Report.

The conference report on the fire.
mems increase pay bill was adopted
by the Senate today, following a brief
debate. The conference report had al
ready been agreed to by the House.
The bill now goes to the President for
his signature.
The bill provides increases for the
firemen in all grades, the pay of the
privates being $1,460. The increases
allowed in the bill are retroactive and
when the bill becomes a law the fire.
men will receive increases from Au-
gust l last. The increases are in line
| with those recently granted to tht
police department.
On motion of Senator Calder of New
york. the Senate today took up 70,
consideration the conference report
on the firemen's bill.
Oppoaftf0n Develops.
Opposition to the adoption Of the re-
port, which provides the increases al
lowed by the House, which are con-
slderably more than those allowed by
the Senate, Immediately developed
Senator Dial of South Carolina, a
| member of the Senate District COM
mittee, protested against the adop-
tion of the conference report, saying
that he did not think the increases in
pay were justified.
When the Senate committee on the
District of Columbia had the bill be-
fore 1t, it cut down considerably the
increases allowed by the House.
Under this conference report the pay
of privates in the fire department is;
increased by about $500 or more. The
position of fireman is not an ardu-
Gus one. The fireman remains in the
house much of the time and does not
go out except when called upon to
put out a fire.
Il am opposed to that feature of the
w iph
to the firemen from August 1, 1919,
on. l am against any such retroac-
tive legislation.
TT is time to put on the brakes and
to attempt to economize. We appro-
pirate here as though money grew up a
tree. Some one has got to pay the
bills, and the taxes will be continued
high unless we put stop to these in
creases."
Senator Thomas of Colorado also lee
tured the Senate on economy.
Senator Calder took up the cudgels
for the conference report, declaring
that the increases are thoroughly
justified. He said that both the House
and the Senate had passed the bill
with the retroactive provision in it.
vote. when only one or two senator's
voices raised against it.
Under the retroactive clause of the
bill the firemen will receive, in addition
to- their regular salaries, the following
amounts next month:
Chief engineer. $3.50; deputy chiefs,
$500; fire marshal, 5000; deputy fire
marshal. $500; battalion chiefs, 5000;
inspectors. $500; chief clerk, 5000
captains, 5000; lieutenants, 1920;
sergeants, $3.50; superintendent of
machinery. $3.50; assistant superin-
tendent of machinery. s4O0; pilots,
$275; marine engineers, $3.50; assist
ant marine engineers, s41O; marine
firemen. s310: privates. class 1, $3.50;
privates. class 2, $210, and privates,
class 3, $3.50.
The chief engineer will re-
ceive $4,000 year and the two
deputies. $4,000 each. The other an
! nual salaries, plus the $240 bonus. will
be: Fire marshal, s2,640; deputy fire
marshal, $2,240: battalion chiefs
$3.50: inspectors, $1,S40; chief clerk.
$2.640; captains. s2.140: lieutenants'
$4,000; sergeants, $3.50; superin-
tendent of machinery, s2,740: assist
ant superintendent of machinerv
s2,24o; pilots. s1.94o; marine en-
gineers, $1,940: assistant marine on.
gineers, $1,000; marine firemen. ST.
privates. class 1. s1.700: class 2. s1's00
and class 3. $1,000.