Evening star., 1920-02-02
CUSTOMS SALARIES
CALLED PER|L0US
Committee From New York
Merchants Association
"Amazed," It Says.

| Officials of the joint congressional
commission on reclassifcation of sala-
| ries in the District today received a
| report by the committee on customs
| service and revenue law of the Mer-
! chants Association of New York. de-
! claring that low pay of customs en-
! ployes is dangerous to the business OF
| the Whole country.
Owing to the fact that testimony
! before the reclassification commission
recently showed that inadequate sala-
ries for thousands of government en-
ployes here are threatening the very
| life of some of the federal bureaus.
general interest attached to the find
| ings of the special committee OF the
Merchants Association.
The plea Of the federal employees
| here, it is held. is supported by the
| report of the committee on customs
service and revenue law, which re-
| veals for another part OF the govern
| ment service the same general condr-
| tions that exist among the 100000
| federal employees in the National
| Capital.
Serious at Nations Ports.
Information gathered shows that a
most serious situation exists at the port
| of New York, and to a considerable ex-
| tent throughout the entire country de-
clared the report. The committee found
| that the customs service. in all its
branches, "s rapidly tending toward
decentralization. to such an extent that
| the business interests of the United
States. extending to the smallest COM
| munity. are facing to an alarming de-
gree a condition which is jeopardiZing
practically every commercial enterprise "
The reclassification commission is ia
miliar with exactly the same statement
here. with the exception that in place
of customs service the term govern
ha
instead OF every commercial enterprise"
the term every government bureau"
The Merchants Association report con-
tinues as follows:
I'm every line of exports and i'm
ports not only are there long and vex-
atious delays in passing the goods
through the customs, but it is apparent
that the standard Of service rendered
by government officials has been so
lowered as to impair the entire customs
system, leading to irreparable confusion
and loss. not only to the business in
terests but to the government as we'll,
through failure to collect the proper
revenue.
Examining into the reason for
these evils, your committee came very
exists one great fundamental cause
That is the present inadequate COM
pensation fixed by law for customs
officials.
Standard of Thirty Years Ago.
Your committee finds with amaze
ment that. with some few exceptions,
the compensation now paid is based
upon standard of wages fixed thirty
or more years ago. Men who have de-
voted many years to their work and
have become experts in their lines, are
paid salaries less than half and in
some instances less than a third or
a quarter of the compensation paid to
men OF similar ability and experience
by business houses"
Many government employees here
have been shown to be working on a
standard of wages fixed more than
thirty years ago, 1t is pointed out, and
one OF the major points made by fed
eral employees at the hearings before
the reclassifcation commission was
that employees ION the outside" got
higher wages.
The report of the Merchants Asso-
citation shows that many of the ex-
aminers of the customs service get as
low as S1,S00 a year, while inspectors
get only from 81 to s. day for a
ten hour day.
"Longshoremen working on the
same docks receive SIS cents an hour
for an eight-hour day, with S12O an
hour for overtime and Sundays" con-
tinues the report. Recently upon the
docking of a vessel the laborers of
the steamship company received for
their days work $780,