The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-02-05
JOBS
FIXED BY
Avn
Three-quarters Of Employees
Immune to Executive
Displacement
By WILLIAM HARD,

BY WILLIAM nAWOs
Our active Federal payroll Of
81, O48,421 100 and our consider
able army Of s21. OS5 active Fed
eral payrollers, just how and
where can the President dras-
tically shrink them?
That is the problem to which
he patriotically and patiently Cd
dresses himself ii his new search
for "superfluous employees, and
that is the problem in which he
most certainly needs the help Of
the country If he is going to find
3 solution.
For consider:
In the first place, there are
some 206, 900 Of those employees
who belong to the Postoffice De-
partment. The Postoffice De-
partment is far from being
lazy place. It bears the reputa
ton oftener Of being like sweat
shop than Of being like . bed Of
ease.
Workers Hard Driven.
Postal employees, most Of them,
work under the severest super
vision. They are hard-driven. "A
reduction in their number Is exceed
ingIy difficult.
In the Postoffice Department IN
the District Of Columbia, for in
stance, there are this year 1888
1890. ra4R.n W1r.wns.nn ~ 49,
Budget itself does not suggest any
contraction Of that number Tor
next year. On the contrary Il
recommends that Il be expanded to
], AL.
There IL really not much hope
that the postal service staff can be
shrunlk.
Let us then go on to consider
the army and the navy. The mum
Der Of officers and of enlisted men
in the army and In the navy and
in the marine corps is fixed by
Congress.
De- the people want change in
military policy? Do they want less
national defense?
Change Up 60 Congress.
In the army and in the navy
and In the marine corps we now
have total Of 256, 643 officers and
enlisted men. They count as "en-
ployes. Do we want fewer? Only
the people and Congress can say.
The President and the Bureau of
the Budget cannot OF themselves do
anything about it.
Moreover, our officers and our
enlisted men have to have q large
amount Of '.civilian personnel"
working with them. This IL un-
avoidable. AS long as we have
a certain quantity Of military
personnel, we have q corresponding
quantity Of civilian personnel in the
War and Navy departments.
Today In those departments we
have some $4,000 civilian employees.
Some of them, perhaps, could be
spared. Some Of them, indeed. are
going to be spared.
Process Is Slow.
The process. however, is slow.
In two years from the fiscal year
1924 to the fiscal year 1920 the
Bureau OF the Budget has brought
down the War and Navy Depart.
ment employees in the District OF
Columbia only by lot from an
original total Of 4,794
On the whole it Is not thought
that reductions Of staff I'm our War
Department and in our Navy he
partment can possibly be In any
way startIingly drastic as long as
we continue our present firm policy
of adequate national defense.
But where does this land US?
Add, together our postal employees
and our War and Navy Depart
ment military and civilian employees
The precise total is 64S,974.
But our whole grand total Of
active federal employees was only
821 ,085.
The postal employees ana the war
and Navy Department employees are
actually more than three-quarters
Of that whole grand total: and the
federal employees number
only 177,111.
So we started on our hunt fox
superfluous employees in the proceed
ing article by observing q supreme
great grand total OF 1,S47,267 em-
ployes on the Federal payroll.
Now, deducting the employees who
are really ex-employes and who are
getting lawful pensions and other
and deducting the postal
employees and the War and Navy en-
ployes, we are down to 177,111 re-
naming employees from among whom
in final mass our unneeded and I'M
wanted employees must be found and
then eliminated.
New Bureau Growing.
We then discover a further final
painful fact As fast as the President
Ind the Bureau Of the Budget cut
5ff a few employees from our old de-
oartments and bureaus. public senti-
nent or possibly public necessity
zones and creates new governmental
which think so much Of
that they demand and
ret. from the Bureau Of the Budget
lot a shrinking but an expanding Of
heir employed staffs.
TonOrrOW-If the People Demand
service They Must Pay for ScEvantnJ
copyright 1870