Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-27
ONE BIG EMPLOYER WHO LETS
HIS WORKING PEOPLE STARvE
The lnhuman and Unlntellieent Policy
Of an institution With Eleven Hun.
dred Thousand Names on Its

the case, seeking to fix the responsibility,
hunted out her employer. He discovered
that she had been working for the United
States Government in Washington.
A pathologist died of anemia. He had
been trying to support himself, his wife
and two children on government salary
of 5000 year.
The head of department in Washing
ton asked for an appropriation to permit
him to appoint two new clerks at $500
a year. Congress appropriated $3600,
but ordered that it be paid to four clerks
at 5000 apiece.
There are 1000 clerks on the payroll
in Washington so old that they are un-
able to do anything. One of them was
appointed by President Tyler. They are
kept on the payrolls because no one is
willing to discharge them and send them
to the poorhouse, and Congress refuses to
pension them.
These are few of the facts set forth
in a remarkable address made by Robert
Cathewood, of Chicago, yesterday before
the National Civil Service Reform
| League, in the course of which he demon
strated that the United States is the
most inhuman and unintelligent employer
| in the country.
There are 100000 persons on the gov
eminent payroll. In some of the depart
ments the men and women are working
for the salaries fixed by act of Congress
in 1872. The departments cannot change
the pay and Congress refuses to do so.
Not all the employees who suffer under
this system are in Washington. Some of
them are in the Mint and in the Custom
House right here in Philadelphia. Some
of the employees in the postoffice are not in
such bad state because they have used
their political influence to secure an in
crease in pay.
The curse of the system is that pay is
regulated not by any sound principles of
| business, but by political considerations.
The group of employees which can intimi-
| date Congress by a threat of voting
| against the congressman can improve
their conditions.
AS result of this state of affairs 60
| per cent of. the federal employees have
| affiliated themselves with labor organiza-
tions. They have been driven to it. Un-
less something is done to remove the ex-
isting abuses the remaining 40 per cent,
or large part OF them, will follow the
example of the others until only the men
| getting the higher range of salaries and
inspired by a feeling of professional
| pride will remain unorganized.
The outcome which Mr.. Catherwood
foresees is that the salaries will be fixed
by the organized government workers
rather than by Congress. They will make
their demands and enforce them under
the threat of strike, just as the rail-
road men forced the Adamson law
through Congress. Government will
then have abdicated and its financial
policies will be dictated by irresponsible,
unelected men sitting in the councils of a
labor organization instead of by the
agencies created by the constitution for
that purpose.
Mr.. Catherwood is not talking without
knowledge Of his subject. He served as
an assistant in the survey of the govern
ment departments made by joint con-
gressional committee on reclassifcation
and came in contact with the men and
women on the public payrolls.
The underpayment, scandalous as 1t is
and inhuman as are its effects, is not the
only defect in the system.
It results in the employment of men
at S2600 a year who when they resign
command salaries Of $4,000 from pri-
vate employers and men at $4,000 who
go into private employment at $4,000.
These men do not ask the government to
pay them what they could earn in a COM
mercial enterprise. Those who are still
in the service do ask for living wage
sufficient to enable them to maintain
their self-respect while they devote their
abilities to solving the scientific and
technical problems put up to them by law.
1t results, further, in cluttering the
departments with useless appointees
with nothing to do. 1t is estimated that
between $4,000 and 10000 superfluous
jobs exist in Washington alone. They
are perpetuated because when a place
has once been created Congress is loath to
abolish it, The incumbent with politi-
cal pull insists that his superior be for
bidden to discharge him.
How this works is illustrated in the
experience of Secretary Lane. There
was a useless woman in his department.
As she had nothing to do she made trou-
BILE. He dismissed her. A congressman
heard Of what had been done and in
sisted that some one else be appointed to
the vacancy. The secretary had to sub
nit. Then some friends of the woman
demanded that she be reinstated and the
matter was taken to the White House.
The secretary had to find place for her.
and the result of his efforts to abolish a
useless job resulted in the perpetuation
of the job and in the creation of another
one.
And yet Congress still permits thou
sands of men and women to work in the
departments for salaries ranging from
S72O to 5000 year, when the minimum