Evening star., 1933-10-17
Old Promotion System
Urged for u. 8. Worker
70 the EDITOR Of The ossf:


Nov that Uncle Sam has perceived
plans for adjusting pay rolls are In ev-
dence. Whether these viii natsriAlize
to the point of enabling employees to
meet living expenses II speculative.
Some adjustment seems probable.
For many years Uncle Sam has failed
to give his employees full justice. To-
day he tentatively proposes merely to
reinstate some portion Of the IS per
cent cut Apparently he does not rec
ognize the fact that these basic sala-
ries will remain inadequate although re-
stored to former levels.
The impression has been spread that
Federal pay recently has been put on
. living cost basis. The fact is that
quirements. The reason lies in the
failure to maintain Federal salaries on
par with living cost during the days
when prices and wages were rising to
normal proportions. Even through the
prosperity era Federal employees went
threadbare It Is these same long
deprecated Federal salaries which the
administration Is hesitating over re-
storing now. No plans are under way
to actually render them sufficient to
meet the cost Of living. No steps are
being undertaken TO rectify the old
| injustice Of permitting these salaries
to fall below American living stand
ards. Government salaries need more
than superficial adjustment before a
pose Of magnanimity can be equally
Any picture that takes cognizance Of
less than the whole situation Is founded
on half-truth. In mapping fair wage
scale for Government employees, the
initial qualifications of the employees,
| the character of the work performed,
salaries paid by private employers for
equivalent services, hours of labor, the
efficiency, skill, experience. ana train
| ing OF the individuals, their economic
status, the scale OF living cost IN the
| employees actual residence, should all
be taken into consideration. Nothing
short of the establishment Of . pay
rate that takes into account all relevant
factors can suffice. For in ignoring
| any factor, the most important may
be overlooked. If such q survey, COM
pretending all factors, pointed to . pay
reduction, then, and then only, could
| Federal employees be expected to SUBJ
NIT to reductions without protest.
Several years ago a survey was under
taken In order to determine how Fed
eTAl salaries compared with private. It
was found that Uncle Sam paid poorly,
| in particular in certain At the higher
bracket grades and skilled labor classes
Greater Inducements are offered by pfi-
vate employers, the report stated. A
. result of this inquiry, proposals were
made to elevate Federal salaries. award
| four raises o year, and In general to
completely rehabilitate the system. In
no case was pay to be reduced. The
idea of opportunity as opposed to In
| timidation as an incentive to efficiently
and faithfully serve Uncle Sam may
sound like a fantasy today, but 1t was
actually proposed then, and was based
on what purported to be an impartial
investigation.
Out of this Investigation nothing
came. Finally. after q period Of agita-
ticn, some index figures were manufac-
tured which ignored the basic inequality
| but succeeded in providing an aspect
of Justification to the harsh measures
| which followed. In utter disregard OF
the fundamentally inadequate pay rates
promotions were abolished, and fur
ioueh and economy cuts imposed. From
such attenuated salaries Federal en-
ployes are compelled to extract . living
Clearly there should be no hesitation
wf1atever about restoring the various
cuts and reviving the promotion sys-
TEN; but the reform should not stop
there. Not until Federal employees have
been given the deal they have deserved
for decades win Justice be done. Real
Justice does not falter halfway.
Very truly,