Evening star., 1924-07-29
THIS AND THAT
BY C. Il. TRACEWELL.

That is about the best one can say
Of the classification Of government
employees that went into effect here
this month. !.
Like near-beer it does not satisfy
wholly either those who like the
real stuff" or those who do not care
for the stuff at ALL u
Those who want a 100 per cent re-
classification will never be satisfied
with weak 2k per cent affair. Ask
any government clerk.
\ X n y
AS one who has followed the for
tune of reclassification since the days
of the old reclassification commission.
l can see one real gain in the sys-
tenn just put into effect, however.
1t does, in nearly all cases, make
the bonus permanent. That is some
thing. One case has been called to
my attention. at that, of clerk in
one of the departments who is 500
worse Off now than before. Even the
bonus was not made permanent in
his case, and l wonder just how many
cases there are similar to it
For something over which hundreds
of men have labored for several years
and upon which thousands of dol
lars has been spent, the present re-
classification is not all that it should
be, by any means. If the present
system is used as basis upon which
to work, then we'll and good. But if
Uncle Sam rests content with it, fat =
tering himself that he has done his
duty by the Federal workers, he has
another think" coming to him.
X X **
Reclassiication is one of the
grandest examples of 'muddling
through" that Washington has ever
seen.
1t is Comedy of Errors" brought
up to date, but so tragic in many of
it's aspects that only. the most heart
less would dare do more. than sug-
gest such a title.
Loves Labor Lost" perhaps. would
be better.
Conceived in fine spirit, reclassi-
fication got off on the wrong foot
from the very first, for there had
never been any real classification to
begin with, hence there could not be |
"reclassification," properly speak
ing, but only classification"
1t was Representative Henry Allen
Cooper of Wisconsin, then, as now,
one of the finest, most outstanding men
in Congress, who voiced the sentiment:
"Reclassifcation is SO broad that
it takes in the charwoman. who looks
down at the floor and the scientist,
who looks upward at the stars"
Today charwomen in some Of the
departments have suffered a loss OF .
So a year from their already meager
wages of approximately 1884 per an
mum as result of what has been
done recently in classifying them.
Scientists have gone ahead, as rightly
they should. Uncle Sam has incor-
porated the bonus in the salaries of
most Of the employees.
1t is a far cry, however, from the
ringing words of Representative
Cooper, then a member of the joint
congressional commission on reclassi-
fication of government salaries, when,
on the night of June 20. 1919, at a
meeting of supervisory officials at the
Interior Department, he said:
This will be the first and last
classification, because 1t will be cur
rent and up to date
When one thinks backward over all
the enthusiasm with which the old
reclassification commission began its
work, how it drew to itself workers
from all the departments, how it la
LNoI nd N
of 1890, and finally brought out
its monumental report March II of
the latter year, a sense of futility
overcomes one.
Here was work involving some
s200, 900, appropriated by Congress,
the use of the time and energies OF
Senators and Representative and Zoo
detailed federal employees from the
various departments. They went to
the thing right. The employees them
selves had finger in the pie.
Their final report was an awe-in-
spring volume, but it had to be that
way. 1t had class speclncatlons Tor
the entire service in 1t.
Four years later, when the Per-
sonnel Classification Board got under
| way, did it take that volume from
the shelf where 1t had lam. unhoh-
ored and unsung?
members refused to even think OF 1t.
Chairman Bailey of the board de-
clared at the hearings last Winter
on the bill to abolish the board and
transfer its functions to the Civil
Service Commission that he did not
think much of the reclassification
| commissions report and had not had
recourse to it.
Thus an expensive work got no
consideration. The board said it was
impossible to get up class specifica-
tions as specified in the reclassifica-
ton law, owing to lack of time, and
went ahead on the basis Of the Bu-
reau of Efficiency ratings.
1t seems to me it would not have
been bad idea for the personnel
board to have made use of the class
specifications in the old reclassitica-
| tion commission report. They cost
enough and had enough time and Id
Dor put upon them by enough men
and women to have made them worth
| looking at, anyway.
* + X
| There is no good now going into
all the charges and counter charges
that have been filed by employees dur
ing the past FIVE years. Whispers OF
this, that and the other have pre-
vailed. Employees are pretty certain
in their own minds as to whose fin
gers have been in the reclassificauon
mess.
! The thing to be done now is TO
make the best of it until reclassitca-I
| ton can be put under the Civil Serv-
| ice Commission, where 1t belongs.
Every effort should be made by re
sponsible officials to see TO it in the
meantime that no injustice Is worked
by the present classification In any
plain, open-and-shut case, -
&c