Evening star., 1953-09-23

forseeable future.
Mr.. Young said future reduc-
tion-in-force plans are r'to eff
| feet payroll savings to &. very
large. extent by simply not filling
vacancies occurring through nor
NAL turnover. Nearly half of the
payroll reduction thus far has
been accomplished by this
method. We believe it will be
possible to extend the use, of
this painless method in the. fu-
ture."
Blames Critics.
The commission chief, noting
the general unrest among Fed
eral workers and low employe
morale. charged that critics Of
the administration had aggra-
vated the situation by ground
! less" charges that the Republi-
cans are out to destroy civil serv-
ice and engage in mass flrings.
The result is tending to cause
a local business recession, ac-
cording to information presented
to the commission by Washing
ton merchants and Board of
Trade representatives. Mr.. Young
said.
1--WE can grant that there is
a human tendency to be appre-
hensive about the thing that is
unfamiliar" Mr.. Young declared,
land this can apply to a new ad-
ministration taking over an ex-
isting Government force. But
the great mass of people in Gov
ernment jobs were those in jobs
under the former administration:
they are still in those jobs and
will be in them year hence. How
can anyone believe at this point
that any of the dire consequent
ces predicted by some of our
critics are going to materialize?"
Mr.. Young also defended, the
commissions separated career
employe program. He acknowl-
edged that there are many ca
reer employees who are yet to be
placed and there will be more
laid off-though in decreasing
numbers-in the coming months.
Defends Program.
But we have a good career
placement program in operation"
Mr.. Young said. 1T is the best
program of its kind that the Fed
eral service has ever had. 1t is
realistic and workable-and it is
working. With full cooperation
throughout the service, we can be
assured that present and future
cuts in the Government will be
accomplished without damage to
the career service and with the
least possible injury to the indi-
vidual Government careers"
Mr.. Young continued:
I'VE in the Civil Service Com
mission have reiterated many
times that we are going to hold
the line on the merit principle
and that we are going to extend
that principle. No one could
take alarm from these state
ments. 1t is true that we have
made no secret of the fact that
this is an economy minded ad-
ministration, and that we are
out to eliminate waste and eX-
travagance and do more work
with fewer people.
This was one basis on which
the administration was elected.
We have declared our intentions
as explicitly and as factually as
possible. We have given esti-
mates of the extent of the cut
that may be anticipated over this
fiscal year, cut of about 100, 900
in the competitive service. Fed
.eral employees should have this
information, because it is factual
and facts dispel fear rather than
arousing it. In fact, we have
asked the Bureau of the Budget
to obtain for us more specific
figures on contemplated reduc-
ton of personnel by departments
over the next eight months.
Meanwhile. career employees
generally can be assured of con-
tinuing employment so long as
their services are satisfactory. |