Judsonia weekly advance., 1921-12-22

tun cOlly tcil tSuIS OI dSc OI Ofcl, cD~ gagged In gainful occupations. A little while ago, when the number of federal employees was even larger than 1t is now, one person out of every 6S in the United States who had any sort of a job at all was working for the govern ment. These calculations are based on recent estimates of the bureau of the census in anticipation of the re- suits of the fourteenth general census.
 Prior to the outbreak of the war, ill 1914, the number of men and women in civil positions in the executive service was approximately 3S5, 1880. In 1916 1t had grown to 398S3 In 1917, after our entry into the war, It was 459,7 On June 30, 1919, the number was TOT, AS. The number on July 31, 1920, was 891,116.
 These figures are confessedly ap- proximations. Since the signing of the arnSistice the number of federal em- ployees has been decreasing. Un- doubtedly the decrease in force will continue to be made for months to come, but the growth of the govern ment business in the past few years has been such as to make 1t larger employer in the postwar period than 1t had ever been in the pre-war period.
 These thousands of men and women working for the government comprise every type of ability and intelligence. Their duties cover range of activities that far exceeds that exercised for other public or private employers; for, besides its task of lawmaking and law enforcing, of national defense and national finance, the government Is charged with promoting the health and welfare of its people, of promoting their home interests, their agricultural, mining, manufacturing, shipping, fish ing and transportation interests.
 To do this it must investigate, con- trol and eradicate diseases that attack persons, plants and animals. It must inspect livestock foods and drugs. It must study conditions and progress in education. labor and commerce. It must prevent individual men or groups of men from using unfair business methods, whether in banking, trans portation, trade or manufacture.
 The government must administer public lands and the affairs of the Indians, and educate children in Alaska. It grants patents of inven- ton, 1t sets the clocks of the country, forecasts the weather, and makes observations of the stars and heavenly bodies. It constructs buildings, docks, roads, bridges, irrigation works, builds ! canals and aeroplanes, makes ordnance and ammunition, clothing and other supplies for Its soldiers and sailors. It makes all its own money and does all its own printing. It dis tributes all mail and many packages. The government does everything that any employer in the United States does, in addition to a great l.any things that no other employer does. How does it treat its people? Is it good employer or bad employer? Are its employees contented? These are questions that should advise the railroad men, the miners and other workers who seek naturalization of industry, to look into before they com init themselves
 Let them find out for themselves what government ownership would mean to them.
 The first thing they will discover, as I discovered when I began the present | inquiry, is that nobody knows and nobody in the government service is charged with knowing, the exact number of employees in the service from day to day. Even more astound- ing, nobody knows, or is charged with knowing, even approximately, the sum of the payroll of the United States. It is not possible to find out within hundreds of thousands of dollars how much the United States pays yearly or monthly in salaries and wages I went to the Treasury department, to the appropriations committee of con gress, and elsewhere where I thought the information might be lodged, bua
 nobody knew. I was told vaguely that the government was not run on an 1 asset and liability basis, and therefore it was not necessary to know the exact number of employees on the payroll. l If the average compensation is $1,- 100, the federal civil service payroll now amounts to more than seven hundred million dollars annually. The largest single branch is the Post Office department, with nearly 300,00O en- ployees. The War department has more than 125,0O0 civilian employees, the Navy department about 9O000. and the Treasury department about 60,0OO No other branch has as many as 25,000 employees. Any institution that em- ploys one in seventy-three of all this country's workers and calls for the expenditure of such large part of our annual revenues is entitled to your serious consideration. You and you alone put up the money.