Evening star., 1921-11-13
TACKLES BIG JOB AFFECTING .
ALL EMPLOYEES OF UNCLE SAM

When President Harding got tired Of
waiting for Congress to reclassify the
work and pay Of government employees
and get them working under q fair
competitive merit system, and issued an
executive order that this should be done
at once. he selected Herbert D. Brown.
chief Of the United States bureau Of
efficiency. to carry out his instructions.
This man Brown is now the patriarch
among those who have been studying
for years the problems of government
personnel, having worked with Presi-
dent Roosevelt on civil service reforms,
and having devoted his entire time for
the last twenty years to these subjects.
with the intent of devising ways to get
the most economic efficiency. he has also
viewed II from the human side. consid-
ering the lives OF the men and women
and their families, satisfied that Uncle
Sam will get his work done better by
we'll paid employees, content and happy
in being able to bring up their families
consistent with American standards OF
living. and protected aeatnst old age and
the proverbial rainy day."
Affects Hundreds OF Thousands.
The Job that Mr.. Brown has tackled
in accordance with President HardiHgs s
directions Is one that directly affects
persons. Q) Redistribution compre--
hends upward of 100000 men and
women in their daily work-every one
except the employees Of the government
whose compensation Is fixed by wage
sHa s1ssn sgs as Tss n1 en syss
which he has been directed to set sup,
applies at present only in the National
Capital, but directly concerns more than
$1,000 government workers. CD In
supplying the Senate and House appro-
priations committees with comparative
figures showing how much tn" proposed
reclassification, will cost, as compared
with the regular departmental estimates
and as compared with the alternative
budget Of Director Dawes. it Is expected
that Mr.. Browns new salary schedules
will be used by Congress as basis for
absorbing, after July 1 next, the $24o
bonus now paid to the government
workers to meet the high cost Of living.
and give the government employees
new basic salary to per cent higher
than they are now getting, including
the bonus.
Mr.. Brown brings to his position an
Inheritance of the best American
colonial traditions and ancestry. the
zeal and progressiveness OF pioneer
forebears, and unequaled familiarity
WIN tue government ScINlCS-Aioiu
within. His ancestors can be traced
back to the early days of the Massa-
chusetts colony, whence they pioneer
ed to Vermont and thence to Ohio.
In the days before the great west
was opened up by railroads. Mr..
Browns parents went down the Ohio
river in d steamboat to ST. Louis and
up the Mississippi river in another
steamboat to keokuk, Iowa. and then
settling at Fort Madison, then an
Indian trading post. He was born
on q farm.
At the age of eighteen young Brown
went to Kansas City and got job
n clerk in what was then the largest
law office In the young west. Next
he essayed to make his fortune by
going to Mexico with the Guggenheims.
After several years he came to Wash
ington on a visit and picked up a
job on a field party, under the
geological survey.
the arithmetic of insurance. and while
In Washington saw in the newspapers
an announcement of a meeting at
which government employees We're to
consider plans for a retirement sys.
tom. They were declaring that it
would not cost the government any
thing. He soon figured out that it
was not scientific. They proposed nat
deductions from salaries to pay an
nuities to employees based on length
young men would have to pay more
than their annuities were worth to
pay pensions to the old men. He
attended the conference and mixed
in with the leaders of the government
employees. He decided to try and
work out an Improvement on the pro-
posed retfrem ent scheme. 49,. -.
Made Friends In Congress-
At that. time he made the ac-
quaintance and won the friendship of
Representative James A. Tawney.
then chairman of the House appro-
priations committee. and Representa-
tive Frederick H. Gillett, now Speaker.
Then he was chosen by the census
bureau to assist In formulating plans
for handling mining statistics that
were being collected. He thought that
the methods being followed for
tabulating the returns were cumber-
some and involved too long a process.
so he studied ways and means for
getting results with less labor. In
this way he came into close contact
with DR.. S. n. D. North, then director
Of the census. and they have been
good friends ever since.
Representatives Tawney and Gillett