Evening star., 1939-01-02

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Urges Government to Set
Example Of Employing
Needy Men
To the Editor Of The Star:
The civil service setup has been an inn
portant factor in our administrative
work-the employees have been compelled
to stand competitive examinations, and
it has not been so easy for many we'll
qualified men to pass the required test,
and many applicants have taken the Sec
ond and third examinations because their
grades were too low, though they passed
by small margin. These employees
started at a low salary, and many who
have been serving for years have not
been promoted beyond the $1,440 salary.
Consequently, it seems little unjust
to blanket in the emergency agencies
through nom competitive examinations.
These agencies were created to take
care of emergency needs and it was
thoroughly understood that men and
women seeking these jobs must be quail
fled and also in need of work-these
were supposed to be the first and para
mount requirements, but soon it was an
open and recognized fact that unless one
had strong political backing or had rela-
tives or influential friends it was difficult
to secure a place regardless of qualifica-
tions. Thousands were admitted with
little or no previous experience, but they
could learn, since the average work was
not so difficult that grammar school or
first-year high school pupil could not
master it.
Among the emergency employees are
well-to-do men, women and young girls
who do not need the work; they were
started off with little or no Office expert
ence, at salaries beyond the old civil
service employees, who have been in the
service for years. There are, in this
class, men and their wives working in
the same office, making from 5000 to
$3,500, with no dependents; there are
hundreds of young girls from every State
in the Union holding permanent jobs,
who have left good homes, or have COM
Portable homes here in Washington and
whose parents are fully able to care for
them. These young women are paid
from relief money-from 81 $40 to 81 800,
and their check usually goes for luxuries,
night clubs, seal coats. And the money
to pay them comes from the burdened
taxpayer.
There are married women holding
important posts in these emergency
agencies, not through qualification, but
patronage who are drawing from 81 900
to $6,000 and who have husbands en-
ployed by some branch of the Govern
nent or connected with private industry,
who are commanding from $4,000 to
$1,000 per year.
My question is, since there are II OOO,-
900 unemployed, why not give the quail
fled men, who have families, chance
to live decently2
The money appropriated by Congress
for the undeserving, rich and money-mad
women who only work for more luxuries
at the sacrifice of worthy, capable men
who are losing self-respect and courage.
These well-to-do women will feel safe
and secure after being blanketed in
under non-competitive examinations,
while there will be thousands of men
just as capable and probably more so,
who have dependents, Wretched wives
and hopeless children, who can only
nurse their resentment and bitterness
against a government which claims to
be democratic
Where do these restless, insecure men
seek redress from wrongs inflicted upon
them by government that should stand
for the protection of the health and hap
piness of its citizens?
Twill tell you where they seek any form
Of relief from their present unsafe and
hopeless future-in unions and any or all
un-American organizations: and can any
sane thinking man condemn them? It is
too often their last hope.
Will our next Congress allow all these
AhJuoeiSSo W SolieAluC az IIlC ChpcISc VI
the taxpayer and to the detriment of
our citizenry? Will Congress vote for
millions of dollars to continue the spend
ing of money to give luxuries to the I'M
worthy while millions still barely exist
on the crumbs left from the executive"
setups?
There are among the worthy recipients
of this relief fund large number who
are honest enough to confess that this
free spending is dangerous and detri-
mental to the morale of the individual,
and that when easy money is stopped,
which 1t must be, the people as a whole
will be less self-reliant and little better
off as whole than they were in the
beginning. Many feel now that the Gov
ernment owes them living.
If the millions of women who do not
need work were replaced by men, and
these men paid sufficiently we'll to MAIN
tain decent living, there would be no
reason for wives and mothers to seek
work. Prosperity will never return until
the women of our country willingly re-
turn to their homes and assume the
role of wife, mother and home builder.
Some honest and we'll directed relief
work must 60 on, but its present form
is Wrecking our country.