The Washington times., 1922-11-18
FINDS CITY
MORALS
GOING
Civil Service Blamed for Race
Suicide and Lax Relations
BY Mrs. c. S. Taylor.

Race suicide, and q general
downward trend in the moral life
Of Washington, is being fostered
BY the present system OF civil
service administration. Mrs. Clara
Sears Taylor, District Rent Com
missioner, declared today.
Mrs. Taylor is in possession Of
important and appalling facts re-
garding this condition. She gain
ed them from the countless
stories told her by men and
women in the Government serv-
Ice. who come to her office IN
respect to housing and rents.
Homes Broken UP.
Married women in the Government
service deprive themselves Of the dig.
nifty Of motherhood because Of the
low salaries paid.
Married couples are living in sepa-
rate rooms or apartments because of
Governmental restrictions against
married women. The women are re-
tanning their maiden names and are
living in seclusiveness.
This condition must inevitably
drive hundreds Of people from the
Government service and from Wash
ington," said Mrs. Taylor. Mother
hood is the greatest natural impulse
Of q woman. / have had not one, but
many, women in Government service
married women-come to me and
say, oh. I'd give anything IL could
only have a child
Grind Is Dehumanizing.
"The dehumanizing grind of the
Government service, which Is only
being aggravated by the ever-multi.
plying number Nof restrictive rules,
and which is aided in it's soul de-
struction by the lowering of the
bars Of morality, will, II not cor
rected, sweep over the country and
tear down the barriers of carefully
cultivated morals. the product Of
centuries, of effort"
According to Mrs. Taylor, the con.
ditions under which married Gov
ernment employees live and visit
each other must in many cases be
misunderstood.
The retention of maiden names by
married women. cannot help but
cause scandal when supposedly un-
welded couples are living together
in an apartment, or when the secret
husband spends the weekend in his
wife's rooms.
Losing Morals Here.
But this only leads to a condi.
ton immeasurably WORSE" said
Mrs. Taylor" Washington people
are getting accustomed to think
that nothing Is strange In persons
of opposite sexes and different
names living together.
ESPECIALLY is this true OF Gov
ernment employees to whom such
tales may come. They are be-
ginning, In such cases, to whisper:
I wouldn't say anything about 1t IL
I were you. Maybe they're married.
Whether such persons are married
or not, the conditions under which
they live win reflect its shadow
upon the society in which they
move.
"If they are really married, they
may live for years under an un.
just stigma, and their lives dur.
ing that period, know through
personal observation. Is anything
but happy"
Urges Raise in Pay.
Whenever she has been before a
Federal or a District governing
body, Mrs. Taylor has advocated
more reasonable wages for Govern
mefft employees.
Thousands Of the Government
workers." said Mrs Taylor, ARE
eentlewomen and gentlemen. A
large percentage OF them are
students, and their native abilities
would command large salaries out
side Of the Government service.
Yet they have become 80 i'm.
mersed In the deadly routine Of the
Government shop, with its petty re.
strictions and It's encouragement OF
originality. except for some notable
Instances, that their minds have
gone into q rut and they cling to
their Government position as they
would to life preserver."
The moral cstaclysm which now
has ensuifed the Government scrv-
Ar~ussuw~A o~ para a Coiuuru sl