Evening star., 1954-05-06
IS Democrats
Sponsor Bill for
U. 5. Pay Raise
Senators Seeking
$400-to-$800 Boost
In Two Measures

today Joined in sponsoring legis-
lation to provide a pay raise of
from $400 to $500 for Govern
ment classified employees.
The same Senators sponsored
an identical bill late yesterday
for postal workers. Under the
legislation for classified and
postal workers the employees
would receive a 10 per cent raise.
or $400, which ever is greater.
The only exception would be
employees in grades l and 2 who
would get $500. and those in
grade 18 who would get 5000. A
pay raise maximum of $500 is
set in the two bills.
Senator Johnston, Democrat
of South Carolina, the ranking
minority member of the Senate
Civil Service Committee. spon-
sored the measure.
Joining Senator Johnston in
co-Sponsoring the classified and
postal pay raise legislation were
Senators Nicely Of West Virginia,
Humphrey of Minnesota, Chavez
of New Mexico. Lehman Of New
York, Hunt of Wyoming, Ke-
fauver of Tennessee, Pastore of
Rhode Island, McCarran of Ne
vada, Jackson Of washington.
Magnuson of Washington, Muir
ray of Montana, Hennings Of
Missouri, Smathers of Florida
and Kilgore of West Virginia.
Senator Johnston said three
other Senators might afflx their
names to the bill later.
High Hopes Voiced.
Senator Johnston said he has
high hopes for the legislation.
He pointed out that the spon-
sors included both the liberal
and conservative elements of the
Democratic membership in the
Senate. Senator Johnston also
pointed out that the Democrats
have a majority in the Senate.
The bill was referred to the Sen
ate Civil Service Committee.
In a speech on the Senate
floor after he introduced the
bills, Senator Johnston attacked
the administrations pay pro-
posalS as too meager. He de-
clared that private industry en-
ployes have Jared much better
than Government workers in
getting pay adjustments to meet
rising living costs.
Meanwhile, the House Civil
Service Committee meets in
closed session today to begin
dtafting it's Federal pay raise
legislation for classified and
postal workers.
Action 4 nTwo Weeks.
The committee is expected to
take at least two weeks to reach
agreement on the legislation it
will report.
AS the committee met, it re-
ceived an appeal from eight Of
the top postal employe unions to
reject the administrations $100
postal pay reclassif1cation plan.
Similarly, classified employe
groups have urged the commit
tee to increase substantially the
administrations 3k per cent
average increase proposal for
classified workers.
The postal employe organiza-
tions asked the committee to ap-
prove a fiat substantial pay raise
for postal workers and to side
track the Post Office Depart
ment's reclaSsification plan. The
postal groups proposed the crea-
ton of a joint House-Senate
committee, with employe union
and Post Office Department rep
resentatives, to conduct thor
ough study of the reclassif1cation
plan and report it's findings to
Congress next year.
In their petition to the COM
mittee, the eight postal unions
charged the reclaSsif1cation pow
ers sought by Postmaster Cen
eral Summerf1eld would give him
supreme authority to down.
grade postal employees whenever
he wished and would pave the
way for political patronage ap-
pointments from the outside to
postal supervisory jobs.