Evening star., 1920-02-22
HHE Oft repeated question
thrashed over at international
conferences and welfare meet

envelope Is delivered to him. has long
since been answered by many Of the
large corporations and business con-
Germs of the country in a practical
and satisfactory manner. 1t seems
only to have remained for the gov
ernment, the largest employer OF Ia
Dor, and the employer Of the greatest
variety of labor, to lag behind in mat.
ters pertaining to the health and
moral welfare Of its employees.
For over hundred years, month In
and month out with pay envelope IN
one hand and a board bill or living
expenses In the other. the government
employe has gone forth after the days
work with neither kind word not
thought on the part of his employer
as to whether he was i'll in body OF
mind, or whether his home surround
ings were helping to keep down MS
efficiency record.
The retiring Secretary of the In
terior. Franklin X. Lane. is the first
high executive officer in the history
OF the government to recognize In
a practical manner that the govern
ment owes moral responsibility to
Its employees.
In the early part of the first Will
son administration the Secretary, aid
ed by Mrs. Lane. was instrumental
in organizing a social and co-opera-
tive buying club for the employees of
the Departmet Of the Interior This
was a model club Of its kind, where
social, educational and business ac-
tivities were carried on for the bene-
fit Of its members. 1t is also a we'll
known fact that Department of In
terror officials, through social inter-
course with the clerks at this club,
were enabled to find men for certain
positions of trust whose qualifica-
tions they would not otherwise have
known.
In speaking recently of a service
club for government employees, Sec
retary Lane said: There is one thing
in this new day that we have come
to and are going further and further
into that must be recognized. and
that Is the call that the individual
makes for appreciation Of himself.
Social status ia a real part of life,
and it Is q real part Of wages.
"One Of the things that gives status
to a man Is the kind Of club to which
he belongs; and therefore there is no
reason why we should not have as
good a club a. any other guild.
Besides that, there are a great
many thousand people here to whom
the government has given no con-
sideration excepting that they are its
employees. We talk a great deal about
instilling into industry, II you please.
the right attitude to take toward
those who work for the industry. We
are carrying on in this department
an Americanization campaign, and
one Of the fundamentals of that cam
paign is that industry shall properly
house its people-not merely that 1t
shall pay them well, but that they
shall have decent living conditions
and they shall be brought together
In community houses; that they shall
have places on the Fairgrounds for
play; that they shall have various
recreational institutions and facili-
ties; and yet we who are preaching
that doctrine are doing absolutely
nothing to exemplify its need and its
merit in the government itself"
The restrooms, relief rooms and
other convenlences for the comfort
of the personnel of the Interior De-
partment are lasting monuments to
Secretary Lanes interest in the well
fare of the employees, and the exam
ple given by this work has found
reflex result in several branches OF
the government, notably the bureau
Of war risk insurance, which has the
largest number of employees of any
single branch of the government.
When Jouett Shouse. assistant Sec
retary Of the Treasury. under whose
direct supervision this bureau comes,
was asked IL he thought the govern
meut's duty toward it's employe end
ed with the delivery OF the pay en-
yelope. he answered: NO. l am firmly
convinced that the government not
only should take an interest In Its
employees TO the extent Of paying them
q living wage, but that 1t should go
much farther. 1t should give the