Evening star., 1921-05-20
hensible and susceptible to practical ad'

l ohN SuSNcpIlUle 10 pIASliS0A o~
| Senator Sterling asked DR.. Reese
! Tor his opinion of the proposal to
nave minimum. medium and maxi
mum salaries in the several grades
SO that employees may be advanced
upon the maintenance of a standard
o. OF emcieney H.H rating. The Departme1n.
| undoubtedly is wise one.
] In indorsing the principle of hav,
heads reviewed and adjusted by ar
| outside agency. in the interest OF
uniformity and Standardization. DR..
| Reese said that either the Civil Serv-
fciency would be a proper body to
| make the reviews Personally, he
,, said. he would favor the assignment
! being given the bureau of efficiency
which probably has made a more dl-
rect study of efficiency considerations
in government work than has the
Civil Service Commission.
DR.. Skinner Testines.
DR.. w. w. Skinner of the bureau OF
chemistry in the Department Of Agrl-
culture was the next witness. ne
strongly urged the necessity for re-
particularly those holding technical
positions. AS an example of the ne
cessity for reclassffication with re-
gard to the removal of inequalities in
pay OulSluC Lie tcSllulCdl pooIeAoAS'
DR.. Skinner said:
We have clerical positions paying
$500 in the top grade, yet the man
who handles the fiscal affairs of the
department, checking up all the ac-
counts. amounting to more than 81
600. 600 year. gets only $4,000
He said in answer to a question that
under the report of the Reconstruction
commi mission the man handling the ms,
cal affairs of the department would
received about $4,000.
DIR. Skinner said that during eight
months of the year 1920 there had
been tifty-eight designations of men
from the bureau of chemistry occupy
ing technical positions. All of these
men went out at increased salaries,
some of them at double the amount
they received from the government.
This great turnover of labor means
a loss Of efficiency in the unit, said
DR.. Skinner.
He said that the proposed reclassi-
fication should correct this situation
to considerable extent.
Discussing the various bills, includ-
ing those introduced by Senators
Sterling and Smoot and Representa-
tives Lehlbach and Woods. DR.. Skin.
ner sa i'd that he believed enactment of
any of them would be of great as
an examination of the Sterling and
Woods bills and found that there was
not very much difference in the pay
allowed. The main difference in the
bills. he said. is in the agency selected
for enforcing the law. In reply to
question by Senator Sterling, DR..
Skinner said that for the sake of uni
formity there should be either an in
dependent agency to allocate the en-
ployes or reviewing agency follow
ing the ALLEGATION of the employees by
the department heads.
New Rfll Offered
Robert Catherwood of Chicago. rep
resenting the National Civil Service
Reform League. laid before the COM
mittee reclassification bill drafted
by the legislative committee of that
organization. He said that it was
based upon laws already existing in
the states. in foreign countries and
rules adopted by big organizations
with many employees. He said that 1T
was not deemed necessary for Con-
gress to lay down hard and fast sal
aries or to specify in the statutes just
what classes of employment should
be joined together. These were mat
ters. he said. which it was better to
leave to the determination of the ad-
ministrative bodies.
Mr.. Catherwood said that his or
ganizati ton was impressed with the
need at this time Of economy. and that
there were many ways known to busi-