Evening star., 1922-06-21
FIGHT UPON CUT
/. OF CLERKS BONUS
BEGINS IN HOUSE
LenIbach Asks Restoration
of S24O Allowance Through
Amendment.
DEBATE is LIMITED
UNDER SPECIAL RULE
Federation of Employees and Other
Organizations Join Fight Against
Reduction to $3.50.

Inc HBnl against the ieuu' 'ioi Va
the government employees bonus be-
gan today in the House. when Rep
reSentative Lehlbach of New Jersey
introduced an amendment calling Tor
the restoration of the S24o bonus ns-
ure which would be reduced to $3.50
by the report made yesterday by Rep
resentative Madden for the House ap-
preparations committee.
The so-called clerks bonus bill
came before the House today under
special rule from the rules com
mittee limiting debate to two hours
The rule was asked by House Leader
Mondell late yesterday. and was is
sued after an executive session of the
rules committee today.
Members of the National Fedora
ton of Federal Employees and allied
organizations are Solidly behind the
amendment, which seeks to save the
S240 bonus from the onSlaughts OF
those who would reduce it because
of reductions in the principal ele-
ments entering into the ccst OF
living"
Attack Reasons for Cut.
Opponents of the proposal of the
House appropriations committee to
reduce the bonus Of government EN-
ployes directed their main shafts at
TIE reason given by the committee
reductions in the principal ele-
ments entering into the cost of living
since the fixing of the $40 rate actu-
ated the committee in recommending
the decrease of $50 a year. says the
report made by the House appropria-
tions committee.
The s24O bonus was fixed" five
years ago. when it became plain. even
to the most obdurate member of Con-
gress. that the old salaries of federal
workers. set sixty years ago. were
not at all adequate to carry a man
and his family through a year OF
living, they point out today.
That $240 bonus was then regarded
as inadequate, in view of the boost
in the cost of living, but 1t did help
some, and has been tiding things over
until Congress could get around to
what all admit must come about--a
fair readjustment of salaries to meet
the increased cost of living. Now
comes the House appropriations COM
mittee talking about the reductions
in the principal elements" entering
into the cost of living.
"PrincipaI Elements" Higher.
The principal elements" entering
into the cost of living are homes
food and clothing, say the spokesman
of the clerks. A place to live. some
thing to eat and wherewithal to
cover ones nakedness-these are the
principal elements today as they
were five years ago and five hundred
years ago and five thousand years
ago.
If the appropriations committee
can find any real reduction in Wash
ington in the price of these three
principal elements. say the opponents
of the cut, it must have sources Of in
format ton unknown to the average per-
son living here.
Rents are higher here than they
more than make up for any slight
deere ase there may be in some arti-
cles of clothing and in some foodstuifs.
In other words, there has been no
real reduction in two of the 'Drin-
cipal elements" and there has been
an increase in the other element
The National Federation of Federal
Employees today turned its attention to
Congress in the hope of getting an
amendment adopted restoring the s24C
bonus figure for the ensuing fiscal year.
The cost Of living, the federation
asserted today, is now rising. and
higher rents have offset any decrease
in other expenses. so that the state
ment of the House appropriations
committee that the reduction in
bonus was made because of "reduc-
tions in the principal elements enter
fixing of the $240 rate" is not en-
tirely SO.
Established Sixty Years.
The present base pay, the fedora
ton stated, was fixed more than sixty
years ago and has not been adjusted
since. The federation declared:
The $240 rate was fixed July 1
1919, before the cost of living was
anywhere near the high peak which
it reached more than a year later
namely, in December, 1920. The de-
cline which has occurred since then
has brought it back to approximately
the point where it was in July. 1919
was applied to a salary schedule
which had been fixed in 1856, and
did not represent anything like the
increase in the cost of living since
that time, government employees fell
still farther behind in the purchasing
power OF InelT Sdld1l oui iHs Iue
subsequent period Of still higher
costs. They are still behind. even
allowing for such decline as has oc-
Cured since 1920.
Costs Again Rising.
Now prices are again on the rise
according to the bureau Of labor sta
tistics and also according to Dun's
Review. Rents are notoriously
higher than they were even during
the war and the increase in rents
alone is almost sufficient to offse,
any decrease in food or clothing
which may appear. Moreover. busi-
ness authorities and statistical agen-
cies record a rise in the price of farm
products. clothing, fuel, lighting, etc.
which amounts to nearly 4 per cent
since January, 1922. This upward
trend was marked by an increase OF
from 1 to 2 per cent in the retail cost
of food during the past month alone
The wholesale price Of clothing. ac-
cording to Dun's Review, has in.
creased sc per cent in the last
month.
"There can be no possible justifi-
cation for reduction of wages when
living costs are rising. Especially
for decreasing the pay of government
employees who have been on the same
salary schedule for more than sixty
years. The National Federation OF
Federal Employees will do its utmost
to convince Congress that Mr.. Mad
denis bill should be amended to re-
! store the $40 bonus rate"