Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-10-18
Conclusions Are Subject to
Hearings to Be Held at
10 Am. Nov. a.
INTERPRETATIONS GIVEN
GENERAL CIRCULATION
Employers Having More Than
Seven Workers Pay No Added
Tax Under Act.
BY DON S. WARREN.

The District Unemployment Com
pensation Board today made public
the first section of tentative In
terpretations of the multitude of ques-
tons dealing with employment, re-
ports on employment, wages and a
host of other problems dealing with
the forthcoming payment of benefits
to the jobless.
Tentative regulations dealing with
procedural questions will be released
early next week. Public hearings will
be held at the District Building be-
ginning at 10 am. November before
rules and policies are adopted.
The interpretations released today
by the board were drafted by Corpora
ton Counsel E. Barrett Prettyman and
John A. Marshall, superintendent Of
insurance, who has been appointed
compensation director in cooperation
with consultants from the Treasury
Department, the United States Work
mems Compensation Board and the
private insurance field.
Rulings Widely Distributed.
Because of the thousands of compli-
Gated problems associated with admin
istration of the law. Commissioner
Melvin C. Hazen, who is chairman OF
the Compensation Board, directed that
copies of the tentative rules be ais
tributed promptly to the Board Of
Trade, Merchants & Manufacturers
Association and many other organized
groups and to interested individuals
to post them on proposed rules.
Other members of the board are
Commissioner George E. Allen, En-
gineer Commissioner Dan I. Sultan,
Daniel J. Callahan, employer repre-
sentative, and John Locher, employe
representative.
Prettyman and Marshall explained
first that collection of a tax of per
cent on the pay rolls of all employers
begins in 1886, that the tax in 1897
will be per cent and in 1888 it will
go to per cent.
employer of persons performing the
greater part of their service in the
District, with a few exceptions noted
in the act and these regulations"
Prettyman and Marshall stated. LAS
10 employers of eight or more per-
sons, this act does not impose an in
creased tax burden. Such employees
are already liable to the United States
for taxes of /, 2 and 3 per cent for
1886. 1887 and 1888. The question
for them under the District law is
merely one of securing credits against
that Federal tax. AS to employers Of
seven persons or less, the District act
alone applies"
All Employers Included.
The tentative rules of Prettyman
| and Marshall find that the District
| law brings within its terms every in
dividual, company, corporation. asSo-
| citation. partnership and organization
of any nature who or which employs
one or more persons under the con-
tract of employment. except for en-
ployers who are specifically exempt,
so long as the greater part of the
service is performed within the Dis
trict.
OAlC WIN ONNdPASo bAAN POoASAOA
Of master in the relationship of mas
ter and servant is an employer" they
find. This relationship exists where
the employer has the right to direct
or control the manner in which the
services of the employe shall be per-
formed and the results accomplished.
The right to discharge is essential to
the power of control
They find that the act applies to
resident and nonresident employers
alike, so long as the employees perform
the greater part of their services
within the District. Nonresident
employers, as we'll as resident employ
ers, are entitled to credit against their
Federal tax, they agree. They held
the act applies to minors as well as to
adults, as employers.
Also, receivers, trustees, administra-
| tors and executors for whom services
are performed under contract of en-
ployment and who pay the wages for
(See COMPENSATION Page a.