The Cordova daily times., 1921-03-09
GET RID OF THE FOUR-HOUR DAY
 AT WASHINGTON

In getting the government back to a business basis, one of the first steps that should be etaken is to re- QuTe a days work for a days pay of every government employe, from the lowest to the highest
 There are government employees who are Overworked and underpaid, but this does not apply to thousands of department employees at Washing ton, who are now engineering a movement for the perpetuation of certain abuses entirely inconsistent with businesslike conduct of the gov ernment
 The government ought to pay it's employees enough to justify them in working to earn their pay in the same way that people work who pay the taxes out of which official sal aries are disbursed. Then it ought to expect the same sort of service from employees that is exacted in private business, at this time when the tax payers of the country are bending under burdens which threaten to break the back of productive enter prise. In the establishment of work ing conditions the government ought to be 8 model employer but not a mere easy mark
 Under the present system the hours for employees in the Washington de- partments are seven and half. From this half hour goes for lunch at noon, and most of the departments have a system of rest periods during the remaining working hours, aggre- gating a half hour additional. This reduces the work hours to six and a half. In many offices it takes fiji teen minutes to get down to work after the hour of assembling. and fiji teen minutes to get ready to quit and get out of the building. Every na- tional holiday is celebrated by ces- sation of work; if the holiday comes on Sunday. Monday is taken The GUS tom gnew up under the last ad-
 
 ministration of dismissing the de partments a half day in advance of the holiday, but protest was made when this was undertaken last Christ mas, and President Wilson issued in. structions forbiddiug this innovation. During the three summer months Saturday half holidays are given. During the past few years there have been many special holidays.
 Thirty days leave with pay is given each permanent employe, and thirty days additional sick leave, with pay. Methods of administering sick leave differ in different department, but in some of them the system is sim ply made the means of getting an other months vacation with pay.
 In addition to all this there are many offices in Washington in which many employees spend working" hours in reading magazines and newspapers, gossiping and otherwise Ioafing ou the job. This condition continues, despite the protests of members of congress and others.
 If half of the employees in the Washington departments were dis charged, and the other half required to work as hard and as long as the average American taxpayer, the gov ernment's work at the capital would be better done, and, what is even more important, the graft" spirit which such methods as this inculcate, would be eliminated from many quar- ters where it has been running strong.
 A generalization of this kind of course should be modified by the statement that many government employees at Washington render con scientious service. More than any one else such employees are inter ested in reform of the present sys- tenn, which puts a premium on lazi- ness and inefficieucy. They do not resent attacks on abuses they are not helping to perpetrate.
 The new administration cOu1d dO