Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-11
Uncle Sans Pensioners.

Ever since the enactment in 1920 Of
| the Federal retirement law efforts
have been made to secure provision
| of more adequate and equitable an
| nuities for those Government en-
! ployes who were detached from active
| There have been some adjustments.
but more remain to be effected before
the scale of retired compensation Is
sufficient One of the first bills 10 be
introduced at this session of Congress
! proposes 20 amend the law by adding
somewhat to the scale of the annu-
tiles. 1t will to an appreciate degree
relieve the wants of those in the
higher ranges of compensation, but il
will not afford material relief to Sc
eral thousa nds of the lower-paid an
nuitants 1t should be revised before
it is put upon its passage.
On the Both of June last there were
14,119 annuitants on the Federal en-
ployes' retirement roll, receiving an
average of S72139 a year. But 1851
of these were paid less than $500 an.
nually, 3.121 got less than $500 an
nually, 1856 got less than $500 year.
525 got LEES than $500 annually, 116
than 500 annually, and the list closed
with one receiving $34.44 a year, or
50 81 a month. All of these people are
superannuated or disabled and except
in a few instances are wholly in
capable of earning their subsistence.
The pending bill proposing to amend
the retirement act stipulates that no
annuity shall exceed $1,000. In order
to conform to the character of the
original act, it should likewise provide
for q minimum. and that minimum
should be in all justice no less than
$780, The original law provided that
the minimum should be one-half of
the maximum in all classes. If this
present amendment stands and is
made a part of the substantive law,
there will be several thousand cases
of annuitants receiving much less
than one-half of the amounts paid to
the highest-paid annuitants in their
classes.
A pitiful spectacle is presented by
the condition Of these lower-paid an
nuitants. Many of them served the
Government for long periods. faith
fully and capably. They were trans
ferred from the active to the retired
list without opportunity to better their
positions. Some of them had been SO
long in the Government service that
they were unable to find other en-
ployment when they received their
virtual dismissals. They could not
subsist upon the pittances doled out
by the Government from the funds
created by deductions from the SAL
aries of active employees, and they be-
came dependent upon relatives and In
some cases upon charity.
It was the purpose Of the retire
ment act not to cause distress to those
who for reasons alone Of length OF
service we're placed on the annuity
rolls, but to relieve the Government
of the incubus of the superannuated
without causing such distress. If ever
the whole story of the sufferings en-
tailed by the rigid and inadequate
scale of compensation is compiled 1t
will make a shameful chapter OF in
humanity. The opportunity is now at
hand in the purpose to amend the
substantive law to correct in some de-
gree this fault of a system which
should be marked throughout its scope
bv humane consideration and should
afford no instance Of such parsimony
as that which provides an annuitant
| with S2.S7 a month for maintenance.