Evening star., 1922-06-22

By a vote of 22o to IS the House late
yesterday repudiated the action OF
the appropriations committee in en-
deavoring to cut the so-called DO
nus" for civilian employees OF the
federal and District governments
from $240 to $3.50, and declared en-
phatically for a continuation OF the
present rate of adjusted compensa-
tion-$24O.
This vote came on an amenament
offered by Representative Fred X:
Lehlbach of New Jersey. chairman OF
the committee on reform in the c}VH
service and author of the reclassin-
cation bill, which has passed the
House and it hung up in the senate.
which would establish new. perma-
nent statutory salaryS schedules car
rying substantial increases over the
existing antequated salaries. -,
, Chairman Madden, oherlng the piil
which sought to reduce the pay OF 'se
loW-salaried government employees 30
a month, fought hard for the mea sure
but was overwhelmed IN the esht. !. :.
ment of the House. which vented lts
impatience by repeated CRIES VI
vote. vote"
$40 Rate Virtually Assured
The action virtually assures con
tinuation of the s240 pay adjustment
because it has been toreso'e ,ora t
clusion that the Senate would res.ore
the present rate, even If the House
did vote to sustain the appropriations
committee and accept $3.50. ..,,
AS it goes to the Senate the nia'
makes appropriations OF S5!' 'Tel' %.
which is $9,445.293 higher tnan the
recommendations of the appropria-
affects
176. 900 government employees
Representative James r. Mann OF
Illinois. former republican leader, EN-
phasized that the placing OF the s1fo
adjustment this year means that
amount will be included as a basls
from which the pay schedales Mii h;II M
figured when the reclasslncatloh oiii
is enacted Representative Mann salo
The Redistribution bill as 1t passed
the House provided for reclasslnca :
ton of the civil employees OF the gov
ernment based on the salaries which
they were receiving at the tine 'ns
reciassification takes effect which. II
II should become a law at once. would
not be until July. 1928. The recias assi,
fcation would not take erect untii
July, 1923 The initial salaries Which
the employees of the government are
to receive under that reclasslncaion
will be largely based on the salaries
cluding any bonus as part OF the
salary. So that If no bonus is granted
for this next fiscal year that amount
will not be taken into consideration
but the initial salaries under the re-
classification act will be the oasic
salary without bonus; but IL VIZ
provide for a bonus forth next Hsca
YEAR. then the amount of that bonus
will be ireluded in the permanent sal
aries under the reclassificat ton act
Chairman Madden clashed with
Representative Crowther OF Ne"
York. when the latter charged MN
with acting in bad faith by creating
the impression that the S240 bonus
was to continue and then bringing
a bill to reduce it to $50. Represen,
| tative Madden argued that ne mao
! never promised that the bonus
would be continued. but "a bonus
Representative Madden ADVISED nls
colleagues that eff nobody except the
GOVERNMENT employees in your district
Voted for YOU you would not be here,
| and warned them that voting for the
s24O amendment meant taxing ~
000. 900 from the pockets of the othef
voters. ~,
Among those who championed the
cause of the government workers ano
made vigorous speeches in favor .ol
continuing the present$240 rate were
Representatives John w Ralney
(ul); Linthicum, Md: Mann. ll!L(
johnson, (Wash.): London. On. 1.)
and Wingo. (Ark.l.
! Representative Rainey charged the
majority with having played politics
on reorganization and reclassificatior
! while the employees have been worried
about getting enough salaries to live
| ON. although the bureau of eficienc!
and leaders in the administration ano
| in industry have repeatedly testiheo
that Uncle Sam pays his workers
| less than they could get in any DE;
cent business establishment. He SAID
| the proposal was virtually state
ment by the majority that it intends
to tax the low-paid government en-
| ployes IS a month to help win re-
! election. He recited statistics IRON
! official sources showing that the costs
! of living for government workers
were increasing rather than decreas'
| ing. He asked how a married man
could be expected to raise a family
decently on $1,000 a year.
Chides Those Urging Reduction.
! Representative London. socialist
chided those favorins the Madden bill
! for assuming that the condition OF