Evening star., 1934-01-01
Now Is the Time.

President Roosevelt has the power in
his own hands to restore hope and
confidence to hundreds OF thousands
of Government workers. He can re-
turn to them the basic pay which they
were receiving before the economy drive
which first cut their compensation by
81s per cent during the Hoover ad
ministration and then increased the cut
to IS per cent last Spring after Pres
ident Roosevelt and the new Congress
had taken charge With a drive
throughout the country to increase the
pay and salaries of workers in private
industry, the Government has set and
continues to set sorry example so
far as its own 800 900 civil and military
workers are concerned.
1t is stated that the President has
received from the Bureau of Labo-
Statistics of the Department of Labor
a report on the cost Of living and tina.
he will consider the report over the
week end to determine if an increase
is justified. Whether that report indi-
Gates q drastic increase In living costs
or not, the pay should be restored to
the Government employees. The whole
effort Of the administration has been
to increase commodity prices-which
means an increase in the cost of food
and clothing and everything that the
ultimate consumer has to purchase.
The aim is to cut the dollar in halt.
The prices can go and stay higher only
with the advance in the purchasing
power OF the workers, Government and
private, throughout the Nation. The
Is per cent cut in the pay of all Gov
ernment workers has reduced the buy
Ing power by many millions Of dollars.
And, furthermore, the example set by
the Government brought cuts and
further cuts in the pay scale in pri-
vate business.
The sentiment in Congress, as ex-
pressed by both Democratic and Re-
publican leaders in the two houses, is
strongly in support Of restoring the pay
to the Government workers. When the
matter comes before the House and
Senate for consideration, there will be
real demand for removing the Govern
ment pay cut. There seems no good
reason why the President should leave
leadership in this matter of justice to
the Government workers to Congress,
when he himself Is in a position to take
the lead. Government pay has never
been high and has been ridiculously low
in many instances. When boom times
we're on, the Government worker was
hard put to make both ends meet. And
when depression came he was called
upon to bear heavy burden In pay re-
duction. There seems, indeed, no time
when the Government worker gets the
better deal. Even the vaunted safety of
employment, which has been advanced
in favor of Government service.
did not stand the test, and literally
thousands were dropped from the
rolls. Had it not been for the crea-
ton of new Government agencies, which
absorbed many of these ousted workers,
the casualties among them would have
been even more severe.
The President has before him for final
consideration the Government budget.
Under the economy act, the fifteen per
cent in pay is automatically restored to
the Government workers with the begin
ming of the new fiscal year July l next,
unless Congress continues the operation
of the provisions of the economy act
relating to Government pay or provides
for some other pay cuts. The Presi-
dent, however, can act Immediately to
restore this pay to the workers. It has
been suggested that five per cent, or
ten per cent, is to be given back to the
workers either by the President imme
diately or by the Congress in its legis-
lation for the next fiscal year. The
restoration should be in full.