Evening star., 1934-01-07
In the Name of Economy.


The estimated Treasury deficit of
more than s7OO0OOO,O0O during the
present fiscal year and of $2,O00,Oo0 900
in the fiscal year 1885. which will place
the public debt at more than $3l l,ooo,-
600 900, clearly is to be used as an argu-
ment by the administration to over
throw the plans to restore to The Gov
ernment workers the fifteen per cent
which has been taken from their basic
pay by the operation of the economy act.
The President, in a conference with the
chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee and the subcomn!. =, chair
men, it is reported, declared ais op-
position to the restoration Of the Gov
ernmsnt workers pay beyond the FIVE
per cent recommended in his budget
message to begin July next, the open
ing of the new fiscal year.
The Government, however, is pouring
out billions of dollars to many people
to help restore buying power and even
tually prosperity. The total fifteen per
cent pay cut Of all the Government work.
ers saves to the Government S125 900 900.
1t is quite obvious that If this pay cut
is restored, the buying power of some
100000 men and women on the Gov
ernment pay rolls would be increased
by that much. These men and women
are scattered through the length and
breadth of the land. AS an economy
measure, the saving of $125,000,000
through the Government workers pay
cut is mere drop in the bucket when
it is compared to the huge expenditures
which the administration is demand
ing along other lines. The President
has told the Congress that he proposes
to ask for an additional S1,166,o0 900
in appropriations to be expended dur
ing the remainder of the present fiscal
year, bringing the excess Of expendi-
lures over revenues up to more than
81 0O,000,000 for this year, and the
total expenditures Of the Government
during the year to more than s1O.-
600 100000.
Millions are being poured out by the
Government for projects which GER
tainly cannot compare in merit to an
act of justice to the workers employed
by the Government, a restoration of
pay.
The President in his budget message
said that Government workers should
bear part of the burden of the depres-
sion; that employees in private industry
had receivedlpay cuts far more drastic.
That Is like saying to one business con-
Germ that because another had cut its
workers pay it, too, should take slice
of the pay roll. Furthermore, the Gov
ernment workers have already borne a
heavy burden as result of the depres-
sion. They have not only suffered the
fifteen per cent pay cut, but they have
been called upon to help support
relatives and friends who have been
out of employment, and they are still
so called upon.
The responsibility of the administra-
ton to do justice TO Government
workers is all the greater because the
Government worker has not at his hand
the weapon which the workers in pri-
vate industry have. Strikes against the
Government are unthinkable. Collective
bargaining, upon which the admins
tration has laid 50 much stress and
which it has written into its national
recovery act, does not apply to the
Government workers They are ex-
pected to take the treatment they get
at the hands of the administration and
like it.