The Coolidge examiner., 1932-09-30
SEEKS A FORMULA
FOR FINDING FEES
Writer Would Have Fog of
Doubt Dispelled.

Gentlemen" said George b. Cal
uous, at the weekly meeting of the
Rowanis club, Il do not know when
anything has intrigued me as has
the formula to be applied to all sal
aries of state officials, employees
and appointees, so that they may
understand and realize what they
will be paid in the future. | had
thought at first that this formula
was something thought up by the
state board of accounts, or some
other accounting organization, but
they tell me that it is written into
the law. If, for example, you are
drawing pay from the great state
of Indiana, and you wish to know
how much you will obtain, after the
cuts authorized by the general as
sembly have been applied, the law
takes you by the hand, leads you
to a pad and pencil, and thereby
directs what you must do.
you divide your annual salary by
100. Then you multiply the result
by oops. Subtract the answer you
obtained from 90. Your next step
is to multiply the figure so reached
by the total annual salary, and the
result will be the new annual sal
ary. Now, then, | will admit that
this looks simple, at least to a GER
titled accountant But when | en-
deavored to see how it worked out
I was led to believe that it is not as
simple as it looks. | took a salary
Of 81 200 a year because that seemed
easy. Then | applied the formula.
went through the various steps, and
got S269 as the amount anybody who
had been getting 500 month would
receive hereafter. By reference to
the corrected salary table | learned
that the amount | should have fig
ured was S1,152. Where l made my
mistake / have not been able to de-
termine. l asked a gentleman who
was familiar with the work of the
legislature, each day it was In spe-
cial session. He said the formula
was a simple thing to work. 1 sus-
pect.' he said, that you did not sub
tract properly. You know you must
take q four place decimal from n
three place decimal Perhaps he
was right. | would not venture to
say. All I know is that whenever
I took the legal formula and worked
the problem over got a different
result. At any rate, l could not ac-
cuse the procedure of inducing mo-
notony.
zone trouble about these simple
formulate Is that they invariably
bring about the asking of additional
questions. We cannot. or will not,
take a plain statement of fact and
let it 90 at that. We insist that 1t
be repeated. Recently l was wait
ing to ask a question at the Union
station information window. A wom-
an Just in front of me asked what
time the next Monon train left for
Chicago. She was told, whereupon
expected her to move out of the
way. Instead she asked again. and
was given the same information. She
inquired If the clerk was sure, and
he said he was. She informed him
that she had been thinking all the
while that the train left an hour
later. He said such conclusion was
erroneous. Then she brought forth
her contract and repeated the origi-
nal information. He repeated 1t for
her, and then she repeated 1t again.
Eventually. with doubt on her face.
she left the window. | am confident
she thought the clerk was wrong.
"I feel the same way about this
formula for salary fixing. have
been told that it is the law. that it
is simple and that n child could Op-
crate 1t. But the longer l work at
II the more | am convinced there Is
a Joke about it somewhere. A friend
says 1t can be worked by algebra.
but that Is no comfort to me. l am
inclined to think that If 1t read more
in the form of a recipe for cooking
something that it might be under
standable. Suppose the law read in
this fashion: Divide the annual sal
ary by 100. Add the white of two
eggs. and beat briskly until the sal
airy has attained a rich. brown col
or. Multiply the result by OOPS.
Breathe deeply for five minutes, with
all windows open. Stir until the
mixture comes to a boil, then drain
through a bit of cheesecloth. Sub
tract the answer from 80. Add diced
carrots, a pinch of paprika and a
trace of chives Roll as in biscuit
dough and shorten to suit. Multiply
the figure so reached by the total
annual salary, and the result will be