Evening star., 1948-02-20

5,265; Maritime Il
Commi S on,
s,570; Veterans
A m inistration,
6,838, and War Joseph Young.
Assets Administration, 6,5l7.
Navy, which is well below Its
ceiling requirements, will not have
to fire any employees here. But VA,
WAA and the Maritime Commission
are in the process Of personnel re-
ductions and some cuts probably
will be made, although they will
not be many.
Most other agencies either were
not affected by the new ceilings
or were allowed to hire additional
employees for seasonal work. In
this latter category were the Agri-
culture, Commerce and Interior De-
partments.
| \
PAY RAISE-H a pay raise bill Is
passed this year, you can bet that 1t
will be based on the pattern OF the
$3.50 temporary Rees bill, rather
than on the permanent 81 900 meas
ure advocated by Senator LANCER.
In fact, there is a good chance
that the bill introduced yesterday by
Chairman Rees of the House Civil
Service Committee will win House
approval And if that occurs, don't
be too surprised if Senator LANCER
supports it in the Senate.
It's time for Federal employees to
stop fooling themselves about their
pay raise chances. There isn't q
chance in the world that this econ
omy minded Congress- will pass a
81 900 pay-raise bill. Or bill any
where near that figure.
But there definitely is a. good
chance for a measure like the Rees
bill. The Rees legislation is a tenn
porary one. 1t would grant. an an
nual $48O pay boost, retroactive to
January l, 1948, and extending to
July /, 1949.
The bill will appeal to even
the more conservative members
of Congress, who can scarcely
ignore the fact that Govern
ment workers are really feeling
the cost Of living squeeze. And the
fact that the raises would be re-
scinded after 18 months will be a
good selling point in getting Con-
gress to approve the measure.
!, OF course, if.sliNng costs remain
high, Congress could extend the pay
raises after July I, ~f949 1t would
seem that the smart thing for Gov
ernment employees groups to do
would be to support the Rees bill.
After all, a half of loaf is better
than none.
+. ECONOMY-In, these days Of
multimillion dollar budgets and
huge Government expenditures, it
was rather a quaint sight the other
Gay when Chairman Gurney OF the
Senate Armed Services Committee
made an urgent plea for, the Senate
to save 500.
The matter came up when Sen
ator Gurney presented routine
batch of Army and Navy Junior
officer promotion nominations to the
Senate. Senator LANCER jumped up
to demand that the nominations be
listed-he said he might want to
oppose one OF them.
Senator Gurney replied that this
would mean printing the names on
the Senate calendar.
That would cost about $780,
Senator Gurney added in an econ
omy minded tone.
Economy triumphed. Senator
LANCER withdrew his request.
PATENT RUMOR-We heard sew
eral reports yesterday that the Pat
ent once soon will move its ofices
to Denver, Colo Our sources were
Patent employees who said they had
heard stories that the Patent Office
would be moved out of the Com
merce Department to make room
for the agency that will administer
the European Recovery Plan.
We checked with Patent ONCE Of
ficials, who said that, as far as they
know, there is nothing to the re-
port. At least, they say that they
know of no plan at present to move
the agency.
For the sake of Patent ONCE en-
ployes, let's hope not. During the
war years they were shunted OF to
Richmond, causing many personal
hardships as employees sold their
homes and gave up their apart
ments. only to find themselves con-
flonted with housing problems
when they returned to Washington.
Now these employees are just set
ting down to their normal exist
ence in Washington Undoubtedly
the ERP program will entail agen-
cy housing difficulties, but the Pat
ent once should be left alone.
PROGRESS DUE-We had a very
interesting chat with former Pres
ident Herbert Hoover the other day.
It was an off-the-record back
ground discussion designed to &C
quaint us with the objectives and
progress of the 12-man Hoover COM
mission to reorganize the Govern
ment.
While we can't quote Mr.. Hoover
1t isn't violating any confidence toI
say that he is very determined to-
have his commission compile a re-
port and recommendations that will
really improve and streamlire gov
ernmental operation.
Federal employees stand to bene-
fit as much from the commission's
work as will the Government itself
For, while the Hoover commission
will seek to wipe out duplication
and inefficiency as much as possible !
it also is interested in making the
Federal service more attractive for
Government employees. Greater pro-
motional opportunities and greater