The Washington herald., 1921-01-22
Nolan Minimum Wage
Bill Branded as Unfair
To Many Classes.
SMITH WOULD BAR
DISTRICT RESIDENTS
Johnson Declares Living
Costs Make Federal In
creases Necessary.

yesterday on the Nolan minimum
wage bill. by which $4,000 District
and Federal employees here and as
many Federal employees throughout
the United States would receive In
creased pay aggregating s1o'ooo'Ooo.
Senators Smith, of Georgia, and
Dial, of South Carolina, attacked
the measure as setting a dangerous
precedent and being unfair to the
hundreds Of thousands of employees
excluded by it. The debate lasted
for more than an hour, when the
Senate recessed to take 1t up again
today.
our high costs have been a rea-
son for the $24o bonus said Sen
ator Smith, but another year Is
expected to see conditions normal.
This bill fixes the minimum wage
at So a day. 37h cents an hour, or
S1,OSO per year, excluding military,
naval, postal employees and those IN
Porto Rico. Haiti, Guam, Philip
pines, Canal Zone, Alaska and Ha-
wall It raises the pay of menial
workers, messengers, those who
dust of furniture and do work that
requires no skill or education, and
does nothing for the Underpaid
women clerks and others whose
services require training and
amount to something.
Favorz Fair Salaries.
Il am in favor of paying all gov
ernment employees as much as they
III h.
old age benefit, stability of employ
meut and other considerations that
private employees do not get, but
am opposed to singing out the
cheapest and least important en-
ployes, many of whom do very little
work and put in only seven and a
half hours a day, more money than
they can receive in private employ
ment OF the same kind anywhere,
This bill arbitrarily fixes their
pay at a minimum of $1,000 a year
without inquiring into their serv-
ices. 1 have offered an amendment
to except the District of Columbia.
I shall vote against the bill.
In the District government en-
pIoyes have easy conditions COM
pared to those in Porto Rico and
elsewhere Why exclude the others?
why exclude the soldiers, the sail
ors? Why not raise the postal en-
ployes? Isn't a postmaster worth
as much as a messenger boy? Why
not include rural mail carriers. who
give service?
Doubles Some Incomes
1T was said before the commit
te.. which considered this bill that
a family could not be supported on
less than $1,OS0 a year. In this city
there are frequently three in a fam
lily. all working. 1t is wrong to fix
this amount on the ground that
sl,OSO a year is needed to support
a family. 1t practically doubles the
salaries of some employees for whose
rCsitions there are daily applicants.
The workers whose pay this bill
proposes to increase are in large
part as unskilled and ordinary as
these of any other class, including
the farmer. whose pay is much
smaller.
Women of education receive in
some Instances $500 a year. I agree
this is too small. But why raise
the menisl to the standard of the
educated who have qualified at eX-
pense to themselves? We have a
commission that is studying the en-
tire question of salaries. Why not
wait for its report? This S1O,-
OOO, 900 increase in the Federal pay
rolls does not include people who
are giving service, and will be the
cause OK a great deal of discomfort.
II sets a bad precedent. If we raise
those who are merely filing jobs,
Se should raise the sailors, the SOL
dfers, the mail carriers and all the
rest who are undoubtedly under
paid. To do this would cost more
than $500, 0OO, 900. Congress can't fix
s1,Os0 as the minimum living wage
without hearing from the under
Maid teachers and others in private
Industry who are getting less. It
would mean disorganization in priv
ate business, where employees such
as those concerned in this bill are
receiving far less"
johnson supports Bill.
A sharp tilt with Senator John
son, Of California, father Of the
bill, occurred when Senator Smith
declared that the average pay of
teachers is $500 a year.
would you pay Senators accord
ing to service?' asked the Califor-
man. Some are worth more than
others, yet they receive the same
pay"
Senator smith said II would be
impossible to rate the pay of Sena-
tors according to what they were
worth, and that the Senator from
California was of inestimable serN-
ice.
asTranscended by that of the SEN
ator from Georgia" replied Senator
Johnson.
But in this case I am doing the
public a service by opposing this
bill, while the California Senator
is not"
Senator Dial, Of South Carolina,
declared the proposal to increase
the pay Of a select portion of gov
eminent employees was undemo-
cratic, unjust, wrong in principle,
and would result in widespread dis
satisfaction. Compensation should
not be fixed by legislation. he de-
riared. 1t does away with competi-
iron in services and the individual
desire to excel, he said, and passage
Of the bill would say 10 employees
aII over the country, Unless your
employer pays you as much as
81 $50 a year. or 50 a day. you
should not work.
He declared that II the bill is
passed it would not be two days