Evening star., 1921-05-31
I.nys IdI-ness to Supervision.

clerks. they light upon. accusing
them of spending their office hours
Knitting or making trousseaus
I.nys IdIeness to Supervision.
For every such instance Of idle
ness or sIacking among the woman
employees, We ask you. gentlemen OF
IN charge Of tn. divis on or bureau.
Every reputable employer in the
country vii! tell you that women as
Class are more conscientious work
ers than men. Only bad manage
ment explains idlencSS. or stacking. if
there be any. in the departments.
Miss Smith alluded a second time
TO the act of Congress reducing the
salaries Of the woman expert iuvesti-
gators and Statisticians in the WON
ans bureau. in the Labor Depa rtmrnt
with the caustic comment that it
merely cripples the womans bu-
reau and Insults the women Of the
whole country by writing into law
!, different salary standard for wom-
en- and men doing COMPARE BILE work.
Discussing conditions in various
departments. Miss Smith went on TO
say that in the bureau of engraving
and printing there are nine fore
women al salaries $1,000. Sl,io6, ST.
$50. $1,000 $2.2a6 and two at $1,000,
The women in charge of the exam
ining DIVISION where NOR different
kinds of work are done than in any
division of the bureau. she said. re-
ceived $500 for directing the work
of 1883 subordinates. while the chief
of the sarface division, a man in
charge of 463 subordinates, is paid
$4,000. In this same place, she con-
tinued. men who carry materials and
products from place TO place in the
building on trucks are paid more
than III. skilled woman operatives on
the machines that turn out the prod
uct.
Cites Mail Bag shop.
In the mail equipment shop. in the
Pest Office Depa rtm"nt. the wage
rates for all male la borers. the Wit
ness testified. range from 1920 a day
up TO $3.50. The mailbag makers and
repairera who are women, most of
them machine operatives. and nearly
ali of them NOR" or less skilled. are
, rated at S2.SS to 81, she pointed out.
"Not only are these the existing
rates. with lump sum appropria-
ton declared Miss Smith but the
superintendent of the shop appeared
before committees in the last Con-
g-ess asking that these rates be made
statutory. When the women's repre-
sentativeS protested at the discrep-
ency between the mems rate and the
shop, spea king for the superint end
ent, stated that they must keep the
womcns rates that low in order TO
meet outside competition and not lose
contracts for repair jobs to private
concerns. In other words they kept
down their costs by keeping down the
wOmen's pay below a just relation to
h." rnc--s.
MSS Smith said in the navy ward
the wage scale Sewers are rated at
$3.50 a day. The women are cutters
and machine operatives engaged in
making life preServers mattresses and
flags for the Navy. No machine op-
Grafton when done by man is called
unskilled. yet the rat" these women
receive. the witness charged, is the
same that is pad to unskillcd labor
in the navy yards.
Speaks for Government Workers.
Preceding Miss Smith. the commit
tee heard l.. G. Major of Portsmouth,
Va, business manager of Local No.
10. National Federation Of Federal
Employees, who spoke for government
workers. other than mechanics. who
are employed in the navy yard naval
base at Norfolk and the naval station
at Yorktown, Va He indorscd the
Sterlins-Lehlbach bill. Mr.. Major
said the adoption of standard rates
Of pay for navy yard work had great
ly improved the morale of the service
and that efficiency in government
work generally would result from
standard rate of pay as proposed in
Several briefs were presented to the
committee without being read. and
incorporated in the records of the
hearing. One of them was from the
Polcemen'S Association of the Dis
trict of Columbia George a. Warren
followed Miss Smith with a statement
made on behalf of claims examiners.
He said that inclusion of the eX-
aminerS in the government civil Serv-
ice. Of whom there are several thou
sand. in the official service" of the
Sterling and Lehlbach bill. which is
essentially clerical service. is i'm
proper. unscientific. and would work
to the disadvantage of the examiners.
These employees. he said, feel that
they should at least be placed in the
subprofessional service. the scope of
which. as it appears in the Sterling
and Lehlbach bills. is wider than its
name would ordinarily imply.
Mr.. Warren, on behalf of the ex
aminers. offered an amendment which
provided new clause to the existing
description of the "subprofessional
service" designed to cover the fnjus-
tices which it is claimed would result
from pa assage of the bill in it's present
form.