Evening star., 1920-01-01
RECLASS|F|ERS co
ALONG UNM|NDFUL
Of NEW YEAR DAY
Final Fixing of Pay Scale for
Workers Soon to
Begin.

! ificatior wheels turned mer-
rly today. Commissioners Hamlin.
| Cooper and keating wishing each
other Happy New Year" over piles of
/ class specifications. which they gave
up their holiday to examine at the
headquarters of the joint congress
| sonal commission on reclassification
of salaries in the District.
| While most of the 10000 govern
ment employees of the National Capital
, enjoyed a holiday. the recassfication
commissioners were hard at work
| making final decisions on the class
! specifications outlining the jobs OF
! the 40. 600
Commissioner. ad ito Sign"
Even the ''hon. a. y commissioners"
| had to sign the : book prUSiied
! over by the cap - .. the guard AT
| get into building, D. in wing : OF
which the commission has It's head
quarters.
! Commissioner Hamlin finally round
| ed the commission up in the hearing
room, which has become familiar to
scores of federal. employees during the
| course of the thirty bearings before
the commission, which ended yester-
day afternoon.
While the reclassification commits
sion sat behind closed doors poring
over their class specifications the
chronicler of these events stood out
side the door and wondered what the
| New Year had brought the reclassi-
f1cation commission !.
New Year Brings of Hearings.
The New Year ;, first of all.
the close of the rs before the
commission, and I. OF the brlefs
presented by varit groups of en-
ployes of the government. 1t brings
/ an end of the request for higher sal
aries, and speeches in which the va
rious groups told the commission
what splendid work each group does
for the government.
The New Year brought the compile
ton of the division of the 10000 EN-
ployes into something like LOO
classes. and the completion, in final
shape of about so per cent of the
"class specifications" 1t is over the
remaining specifications that the COM
mission members today labor
Must Fix Salaries Very Soon.
Actual fixing of salaries for the
10000 local federal employees must
be begun within several days, if the
commission is to make its report to
Congress by January II. it was in
dicated today.
The situation the reclassification
commission finds itself in is crit
ical one, owing to the uncertainty
which prevails as to whether or not
the Senate will grant the extension OF
time of commission work to March Il.
as the House already has agreed to.
1t is felt by some that the work
should plow ahead as If there were no
possibility of an extension.
It was regarded as likely today that
Senator A. A. Jones of New Mexico.
chairman of the reclassifcation COM
mission, will call a meeting of the
full commission within few days to
decide upon the wage policy and to
delve deeply into the whole question
of wages. and finally actually set the
salary scales for all the ll0,ooo EN-,
ployes of the federal government and
the District government who come
within the jurisdiction of the COM
mission.
Edward H. Booth, clerk in the
adjutant generals office. yesterday
presented to the reclassiflcation COM
mission plan for reclassif1cation OF
his own He asked that the civil serv-
ice classifcations as to grades of sal
aries remain as they are now, with
the salaries for each grade increased
80 per cent Mr.. Booth recommended
that all promotions in the CLASSIFIED
service be made in the order of Sc
niority of service, as adopted by the
Army and Navy, he said. He asked
for a court of inquiry, and asked that
all the work of an office be consider
ed as of equal value and Importance
to the, government, "since it all has
to be handled in some form or other
by every employe of the office.
The accountancy service of the gov
ernment closed the hearings before
the commission yesterday afternoon
Requests for salary increases were
made by Charles Napier. representing
the accountants of the Federal Trade
Commission, and Alexander Wylie of
the Interstate Commerce Commission