Evening star., 1925-02-15
RETIREMENT LAW
|. CHANGE IN SENATE
Civil Service Bill Is Placed on
Program and May Be
Considered Soon.

The bill liberaIizing the civil serv-
ice retirement act is among those
given place on the legislative program
by the Republicans Of the Senate, and
Senator Stanfield of Oregon, chairman
| of the civil service committee, will
seek to have it considered during the
| coming week. The bill increases an
nuities and reduces, somewhat, the
age of retirement.
Thousands of civil service employees
on the retired list are anxiously
awaiting action on this bill. At pres
ent the maximum annuity which they
may receive is 1920 a year, $50 a
month.
A similar bill is on the House cal
endar, but so far no action has been
taken on 1t, the House apparently
waiting upon the Senate.
Retired Persons In Want.
1t is asserted that many of the re-
tired Government employees are in
actual want because of the small
amounts they receive in annuities
Senator Stanfield has received a let
ter, setting forth the experiences of
one OF them, as follows:
Il had served our Government
nearly 49 years continuously with an
excellent record, and felt perfectly
able to serve a few years longer a.
the increased salary we had Just been
allowed month before we were
dropped.
II took my final papers to my wife
with a heavy heart and broken
spirit and explained the situation to
her. She burst into tears and said.
We cannot live on $50 a month-what
in the world will we do? I told ber
We would simply have to sell our lit
tie nome for what we could get, also
our household goods of every de-
scriptlon, except bedding and clothes,
give up all our old friends and neigh
bors OF 40 years standing and GO to
some Western State entirely out Of
reach OF all our friends and neigh
oors, rent couple of rooms or buy
a lot In some good town or city with
ehe niue money we get for our home
and put up a cabin of two rooms and
set out to housekeeping.
we realized what a hardship IL
would be for persons over 20 wears
old, but we sold in Illinois and start
ed West, landed in Kansas CITY en-
tirely among strangers, found a lot
IN the extreme suburbs with a small
two-room building on the rear in
tended for garage. We bought it
and moved in. So here we are on
$50 month, barely enough to feed
wife and self, buy medicine, pay
taxes, water, gas, coal, to say moth
ing of clothes. The fact is, 1 have
not bought a stitch of clothing for
myself in four years. except one pair
OF ~ breeches, so you can imagine
look and feel pretty shabby. My
wife's relatives clothe her, so you can
see we are living partly on charity"
Saving to Government.
he 60,
Senate, 1t will be shown that the
Government has promoted some q, 900
of 10000 younger and more efficient
employees; has reduced the total num-
Der of employees, solely because of
the retirement law, over 5000, and in
troduced into the service, due to the
same law, some 5000 new employees.
The salaries of the 1850 upon the
retired list probably averaged about
$1,000, while their annuities average
about $3.50 per annunl. The salaries
of the new employees entering the
service because of these retirements
average probably about $1,1o0 per
annum. This would give the following
statement of cost and saving to the
Government:
Total former salaries of those re-
tired, $15,S25,000.
Total annuities paid them, s5,-
$4,000.
Total increase in salary of those
promoted, S3,750,000 (25, 900 at $500.
Total salary of new employees, s5,-
100000 $4,000 at S1,100).
Net saving to Government, 1924,
sSs0,0oO.
Thus it is evident that for the
fiscal year 1924 the Government, had
1T paid directly from the Treasury
the entire cost of all the annuities,
would actually have saved some
$8S0,000 in cash. Add to this the cash
value of the increased efficiency and
improved morale Of the service due
to the numerous promotions and in
PRODUCTION of new blood due to the
retirements and the Government will
have had a gain of not $sS0,O00, but
or many times the total amount of
annuitieS paid for that wear