The Connecticut labor news., 1921-09-02
INCREASED PAY FOR NAVY WORKERS MAY
 COME OF HEARINGS
Evidence Taken Shows Government Workers Do Not Get Pre-
 vailing Rates.

Washington, Sept. 2.-Wage re- auctions have been recommended by the commandants of the various United States navy yards to keep expenses within the appropriation made by Congress"
 To hear protests against these pro- posed wage cuts the central wages board of the Navy Department has been in session in Washington dur ing the past week and 1t now looks that a wage increase may be recom- mended by the board instead of a de- crease. For one thing, 1t has been disclosed that the navy yards are pay ing below the prevailing union scale in almost every mechanical depart ment and that the cost of production lies largely with the paper workers"
 Carpenters employed in the Wash ington navy yard receive 83 cents an hour, whereas carpenters working for Washington contractors are paid $I.O5 an hour. The same comparison is found to exist almost all along the line, not only in Washington, but in other navy yard cities.
 James O'Connell, president of the Metal Trades Department, American Federation of Labor, pointed out that navy yard expenses could be largely reduced by trimming overheads. 'It costs more to do the paper work on a job than it does for a workman to perfect the job itself," said he, and told of one case Wheer the paper work cost the government $I2o for a job that one workman perfected in an hour.
 Seven Bosses to One Worker.
 There are known instances" con tinued MT. O'Connell, where there are seven bosses over one man in the navy yards" He suggested that the wage board take up the reduction of overhead charges, waste, losses and such before 1t gets to the reduction of wages of the Workmen.
 Luther C. Steward, president of the National Federation of Federal Elm plOyes, who appeared in the interest of the civil clerical forces, declared that this class of employees were com pelled to stay on their jobs during the war without raise in pay on the penalty of blacklisting by the navy department for lack of patriotism. They were finally given a bonus of $40 year, which was taken away on July of this year.
 One large item of overhead cost, said MT. Steward, is the navy officers practice of erecting fancy titles for personal friends, who in many in stances are former naval reservists brought into the yards as Inventory expert ''fuel supervisor" etc, at $Io to SIP per day, with no corresponding usefulness.
 Flag Makers Are Poorly Paid.
 Women fag-makers in the navy yards, who make the flags of all na- tions with which each ship is equip ped, work requiring high order of intelligence, training and mechanical skill, were shown to be miserably paid. Navy yard stevedores and ord nance men receive little more than half paid for similar work in outside plants.
 There are 22 navy yards in the United States, and representatives of civil employees contend that if the fancy overhead costs were eliminated there would be plenty of money to pay decent wages to the men and women who do the real work. They farther assert that in this period of industrial panic, wage cuts and lay offs by the government is indefensi- ble, economically and politically