The Glenwood post., 1922-04-13
Where Your
Taxes Go
How Uncle Sam Spends
Your Money in Conduct
ing Your Business
By EDWARD G. LOWRY
Author "Washington Close-Ups," "Banks and
Financial Systems." etc. Contributor Political
and Economic Articles to Leading Periodicals.
and Writer Of Recognized Authority on the
National Government's Business Methods
Copyright. Western Newspaper Union
NV,
1NCOMPETENTS ARE KEPT
By EDWARD G. LOWRY


INCOMPETENTS ARE KEPT
The annual turnover in the govern
ment service is something almost in
credible. No business corporation,
however strongly established, could
long endure the heavy annual drain on
its resources. Hundreds of men leave
the government service daily; and
new, unframed people have to be taken
on and taught to do the work. This
costs money, as every employer
knows.
The designations from the govern
ment service are chiefly from the su-
pervisory and most highly paid posi-
tions and from the very lowest grades.
The men at the top, if they have any
initiative or ability or ambition to
make a name for themselves, are of
fered private employment at double
or treble or more what the govern
ment can pay them. The people in
the lowest grades leave for private
employment when opportunity affords
because in too many instances they
actually cannot keep body and soul
together on their government pay.
1t is the people in the middle class
who stay on the longest, The whole
constant process makes for a steady
deterioration in the quality of the
government service and tends to re-
tain the mediocre in public employ.
ment.
The civil service commission through
which the great bulk of government
employees are brought into the serv
ice, is acutely aware of this condition
Its reports give emphasis to the ditli-
Guilty constantly experienced in secur-
ing and retaining competent employ
ees. The rotation in oflice has become
increasingly frequent ard vitality i'm
pairs the efficiency of the service
During the war there was a lower
rate of turnover in the mechanical
forces than in outside establishments.
The proposition of separations, how
ever, is excessive in clerical, profess
sional and technical positions, in
which the rate of turnover sometimes
amounts to third of the force in a
year.
During the nine months preceding
pontmentS We're made in the civil
service and about 2S,OO0 separations
occurred-that is, for every two ap-
pOntments made one person left the
service. For a period of similar length
following the armistice only GO per
cent as many appointments We're made,
but there were nearly 80 per cent more
separations. In this period almost as
many positions were vacated as were
filed.
The exigencies of the war required
u great expansion of the clerical
forces at Washington and elsewhere
and this was accomplished by a labor
turnover several times above normal
The percentage of declinations of ap-
pointments among elgibles on the civ
IL service register increased in many
instances from 80 to more than 80 per
cent-that is, more than half the men
and women who successfully passed
civil service examinations and We're
offered jobs under the government re-
fused to take them. 1t is estimated
that more than $4,000 of those who
met the test were appointed during
that time.
The civil service commission says
fatty:
"I,hose familiar with the federal
service at Washington know that the
service is now hampered by the re-
tention of incompetents whose re-
movaI is rendered difficult by influences
which are incompatible with the eff
cheney of the service. Preferences
and exemptions increasingly clog the
departments with persons who, no
matter how inefficient, are difficult to
remove, and whose retention tends to
destroy the discipline Of the service"
Among these ineflicients of course.
are the superannuated and the phys
icaIly incapacitated. The bureau Of
efficiency estimated before the pass
age of the approximation retirement
law. the number of employees in the
civil service of the United States sew
enty years of age and over as follows:
Number
Railway postal clerks. ks.........."..-.. 1o7
Rural letter carriers. s..................... 4ol
City letter carriers. zJo
Post office clerks. Ss7
Mechanics Observation-Disclosures. 32i
General employees. Dist Columbia. .1.4A
General employees elsewhere. .1.6l:
Total 4, ,s93
The commissioner Of pensions sup
plies the following compact statement
of the age of the employees in the pen
sion bureau:
Number in the classified civil serv-
Of kN al
lightweight; number over eighty years
of age. 90; number between sixty-five
and eighty, 266; based on age of sixty
five, number eligible for retirement,
202; percentage of employees eligible
for retirement, 33.4 average age of nll
employees. July l, 1919, fifty-eight.
These old men and women bear the
burden OF the administration of the
complex, intricate and involved pro-
,nJ,,rn ,,udnr TIM po,, 1uuc an ,,tuU