Evening star., 1925-03-08
ITS G. P. O. EMPLOYEES
DISCHARGED SUDDENLY
TO MEET NEW BUDGET
Continued from First Page.)

81 sincerely regret that because of
g required reduction in the force
owing to Il decrease in the work it
las become necessary to order your
name dropped from the rolls at the
close of business today"
Then followed a quotation from
section of the act of Congress of
January IL. 1895, instructing the Pub
lie Printer not to employ more men
than the amount of work at the plant
calls for
No Hopes Held Out.
The notice concluded with the fol-
lowing:
II am sorry / cannot hold out any
encouragement at this time for fu-
ture employment in the Government
Printing Office.
With best wishes,
GEORGE H. CARTER.
Public Printer"
In confirming the report Of the dis
charges, Mr.. Carter expressed his re-
gret that the exigencies had neces-
stated such a reduction. He put the
responsibility sQuarely up to Con-
gress, however, declaring that under
the circumstances he could not have
continued employing men for whom
there were no appropriations.
In my last annual report TO Con-
STtSS DOlnIeu out Ildl, unless aOO4-
tional money was appropriated for
printing, the force of the Government
Printing Office would have TO be great
" reduced" Mr.. Carter stated. Il
waited until the end of the last Con-
greSs to see if the necessary funds
would be provided, and as soon as
saw that they had not been I was
forced to carry out the reduction in
force of which l had spoken in my
annual report.
There was no way out Of it. IT was
not a task I liked, by any means. In
selecting those to whom notice was
given today, I considered efficiency
only, except in the cases of emergency
employees not on the regular rolls and
men already within the retirement
provisions. The former were the first
10 he put on the list, and the latter
were included because they were en-
titled to retirement pay and would
not be entirely robbed OF their means
of support. The remainder We're
chosen according to efficiency.
In certain cases where employees
were the sole support Of large fam
lies consideration was given also to
that fact. While no formal advance
notice was given, there could not
have been any one on the force who
did not know that such Il reduction
prlations failed to materialize. They
just hated to think about it. that's
all. as l did"
Denies Seeking Help.
Reports that Mr. Carter not long
ago sent out call for additional
men in the form Of a large poster
notifying job seekers that Uncle
Sam has a job for YOU at the Gov
erument Printing Office" and urging
applicants to apply to the Civil Serv-
ice Commission for information were
denied last night by the public
printer. He said that the civil Serv-
ice Commission probably conducted
it's usual examinations for the print
ing office without solicitation on the
part Of himself
Wages OF the print shop employ es
were Increased recently by amounts
ranging from 5 per cent to II per
cent, Mr.. Carter stated. This fact
helned to cut down the available
funds, he pointed out.
The blow fell hard on a number of
the older men, especially some of
those in the proofroom. it was learned
last night.
one of the proofreaders who re-
ceived a discharge notice yesterday
afternoon as he was about to leave
for the day was Edward W. Morcock,
81 years old, who was president of
the Columbia Typographical Union in
1915 and 1916. He had been in the
continuous service of the Government
Printing Office for % years. He is
buying a home in Takoma Park, Md.
Another in the same section to go
was Francis II. Melick, who was fore
man Of the hand section under the
administrations of Public Printers
Benedict and Ford. He had been en-
ployed in the G. Z. O. for S5 years.
He would have reached the retirement
qualifications if he had remained on
duty for 10 more months.
Others discharged in the proof sec
tion included William F. OBrien for
mer assistant section foreman; Jo-
seph Goodkey and Patrick Gallagher,
veteran employe and formerly super
intendent OF division.