Evening star., 1928-12-09
Reorganization of Method of
Employment on Business
Basis to Be Urged.
MADDEN BILL SEEKS
PERIODICAL PROMOTIONS
Lehlbach Proposal Would Relieve
Pay Situation Caused by
Administra tive Action.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.


civil service committee had executive
conferences yesterday with Guy Moffett.
representing the Civil Service Commits
sion and the Personnel Classification
Board, and with Luther c. Steward,
president of the National Federation of
Federal Employees, regarding defects in
the WEIGH salary law and the admins
trative juggling under which the clear
intent of Congress was set aside, to
guide him in drafting remedial legis-
lation which he intends to introduce
before the Christmas recess. He will
confer with Budget Director Lord,
Comptroller Gen. McCarl, representa-
tives of the Navy and War Departments
and the Veterans Bureau early this
week.
From Mr.. Moffett Mr.. Lehlbach re-
celved a summary of the testimony
given by the Personnel Classification
Board on this same subject November
% before the chairmen and ranking
Democratic members of the various
subcommittee of the House appropria-
tions committee, handling the big Gov
ernment supply bills.
Three Measures Planned.
Following the conferences yesterday,
it was disclosed that three important
measures for the relief of hundreds OF
thousands of Government employees,
particularly in the low-Salary ranges,
are to be considered at the present
short session of Congress. They are:
Cd The stop-gap bill, which Chair
man Lehlbach Is the father to be re-
troactive in character, for the relief of
those deprived by administrative action
of the benefits that Congress clearly in
tended they should have under the
WEIGH salary increase bill, passed last
May.
~ A permanent, business-like struc-
ture carrying out recommendations in
the report to be made Immediately
after the Christmas holidays by the
Personnel Classification Board, by
which the Government can efficiently
buy the personal services 1t needs from
a personnel of intelligence and integ-
rity. This is proposed to revamp the
classification act and the Welch act
mel market system, establishing def
mite, sound principle of personnel
administration, to secure uniformity
and do equal justice as between groups
and to individuals.
CD The Madden bill, introduced a
year ago, now pending before the House
civil service committee, providing for
periodical increases within grades and
to do away with the proviso carried in
the appropriation bills for the last five
years, limiting the the average of the
salaries of the total number of persons
under any grade to the average of the
compensation rates for such grade. This
is the proviSo that Representative La
Guardia on Friday attempted to have
stricken from the Post Office Treasury
appropriation bill, and to which Chair
man Lehlbach referred when he said:
IF the limitation restricting salaries
to the average of the grade as originated
by the appropriations committee and
carried in the appropriations bills, had
not been in operation. the major part
of dissatisfaction and the muddled Situ-
alton with regard to classification and
salaries would have been avoided"
Willingness Unprecedented.
Never has there been such a willing
the present to tackle the important
problem of personnel and solve 1t on
sound business principles. The men,
berShip of the House particularly seems
aroused to the fact that there is wide
spread inequality ana injustice under
the existing compensation system, that
the will and intent of Congress in pass
ing the WEIGH pay bill has been frus-
trated and that there is strong and
rather general dissatisfaction among
employees as Representative Wood ad-
mitted on the floor of the House Thurs
day. Members of Congress from all
parts of the country are showing a zeal
to correct this situation on sound busi-
ness principles and to enact a perma-
nent law that will deal justly with the
army of civil service workers.
They are ready to approach the So
luton from practical, but heretofore
overlooked standpoint-that some $780,
600 civilian employees whose salaries
amount to hundreds of millions of dol
lars annually. and who carry on the
great works of the Government, an al
ready large and constantly growing
group must be studied as the most i'm
portant phase of administration. They
show in conversation they have come to
realize that they can't know too much
dUOuI tIllS lOICc, tEAat tAlCys EluSO cSIdD-
lish a real, buSinesslike system of pur-
chasing such services.
They also seem to have come to an
appreciation of the fact that all of the
great problems of Government-the
prohibition enforcement problem. oper-
ations of the customs service, income
tax administration-all lead back to the
quantity and even more to the quality
of the personnel. They emphasize that
failure to cure evils by legislation has
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