Evening star., 1933-08-09
DEFENDS TWO Jobs
IN LOW-PAY CASES
Attorney Avery, in Open Let
ter, Replies to Cochran's
One-Job Slogan.

A defense for the low-paid employe
who has the courage and ingenuity
to augment his salary by working at
another job during off hours was con-
tained in an open letter yesterday from
Attorney Edwina Austin Avery to Rep
resentative Cochran of Missouri. who
recently urged the President and the
Recovery Administration to adopt the
slogan, only One Job for Every Per-
son"
Mr.. Cochran had pointed out that
many employees, particularly those in
Government service, deprived others of
a chance to work by holding two jobs.
'One job for a person" wrote Mr.
Cochran in a letter to the President,
"-in times such as we are now ex-
periencing is sufficient. Let the other
fellow have chance"
Spirit Entirely Friendly.
Mrs Avery. reading of the letter in
The Star. wrote Mr.. Cochran in defense
of the double wage Garner. expressing
the opinion that IF convinced that you
are in error you are big enough to
acknowledge it." Signing herself "a
sincere sdmirer.' Mrs. Avery made it
clear that she took up the matter in q
friendly spirit.
Her letter follows. in part:
Because Of your position this last
year as chairman of the Committee on
Expenditures in the Executive Depart
mentS, you are in position to per-
sonally know about the thousands Of
jobs in the Government service for
which the salary ranges from $4,000
year down to $500 A number of the
men and women who are holding ttose
positions have been helped out IN TAX
ing care of their families by the addi-
tion of the salary Of another member OF
the family
IN many of these cases however. the
wife Is unable to work either through
temperament or lack of training or the
children are too young: or it may be
young man or woman with a job paying
from $500 to 81 900 has a mother ard
small brothers or sisters to support, or
again it may be some of our colored
employees whose salaries range from
$500 to about 81 800 and who are the
sole support of a number of dependents.
In all these cases and in many others,
if living is to be had. the Govern
ment salary must be augmented by
additional income tThese figures can
all be verified from statistics compiled
by the now extinct Bureau Of Eff
ciency)
Living in Washington. as you well
know. presents a far different problem
from living in any other place in the
country. The very fact of the Govern
ment pay roll makes living here much
higher than elsewhere. Let's take
typical case of the Labor Department
average family of four, for which the
basic salary of the wage Garner tlet us
take a fair figure is sl.680. With the
1917 per cent deduction to which that
is subjected today, it finally turns out
to be sl,36920 or S114.l0 a month.
Supposing the family limits itself to a
tWo-roOm apartment at S35 a month.
Il am sure that Senator Capper'S COM
mittee could tell you there are very few
of these to be had in the city) Then
let US allot 50 per person per week for
food total of S35 month: gas. elec-
tricity and ice at the lowest possible
figure will amount to another SIS. and
we have the magnificent figure of S39.l0
remaining to cover cloth ng. doctors
bills, schooling for children. insurance,
carfare and the thousand and one other
things that are absolute, necessities for
the average family of four.
Il am sure you never sat down and
figured this out in just this way II
you had. you would have mentally said.
God bless you to every man and
woman who had the courage and in
genuity to augment their salaries to
living wage. rather than weakly bowling
down to it and asking from the COM
munity charity to bring it up to the
proper scale. And then. having men
tally patted them on the back. you
would have bent all your faculties to
helping those other unfortunates who
are not even lucky enough to have a
low-paid job that they must augment"