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Show 4 f 1 ; j Improving the I "Government Job" i 1 j By Frederic J. KaskJjx. j M'AHINGTOX. May IT. This new eon-ctc eon-ctc 3 19. fot:- to tackle the heavy and I :o! .s,--ni elected uik 01 making the civil i'i-ic-'3 a place where an t-ivplovc-.? can t:e- wnat he is vorth. win promotion on hs merits, and do the kind of work he is best fitted to do. The pre-nt ci il service system does not eo-uer any of theru boons. As a result re-sult rho t. rin 'govern mem. jo -V ) as come to be a-ocia ted in many minds ith re-1 tape, the rut and low salai ie?. To a groat extent, the association is justified. And with (he ovcrnmmt civil service beeom'i-e; onstamly a Ul-ct.t thing, the necessity for giving the government Job a better reputation, is pressing"- The work has been started by tlift appointment ap-pointment of a commission of Fix mem-b-M's. who are to make a report on the re-c.!;:.-sii"icatio:i of the bundled thousands government employees in "Washington. This is imiwrant in itself, and it is probably prob-ably tho bofrmnlns? of a reform which will effect tho entire civil service of the United States. An apprcpr'.n tion bill pa-sr-ed hurriedly by the hut coimree-s created this commission. commis-sion. It consists of three senators, appointed ap-pointed by 1 ho vice president, and three ex-congressmen, appointed by the speaker of the house, line members chosen were Senators Jones of New Mexico, Spencer of Missouri, Henderson of Nevada, and ex-llepre.se ex-llepre.se nt at ives Keating' of Colorado, Cooper of Wisconsin und Hamlin of IMla-sourl. IMla-sourl. The commission started out auspiciously bv taking tho government employees into its confidence. The federated Union of Federal Employees has been recognised by the new commission. The government workers have I een consulted, the plan explained to them, and committees appointed ap-pointed in. each bureau to help with tho work. The commission is working to establish a policy by which government service will no longer mean a life sentence at one job. "We want the United States civil service serv-ice to furnish a desirable career for ambitious am-bitious younj? men and women," Bald Mr. Keating, secretary of tho commission. "Well defined 1 aths must be provided to lead from the humblest positions in the service to the places of power and emolument." emolu-ment." The first step the commission took was to find out tho exact number of employees with which it had to deal. The most recent re-cent figures phow 104,137 employees in forty-three departments. Independent bureaus bu-reaus and commissions in Washington. "This figure," said Mr. Keating, "represents "rep-resents the greatest pay roll of a single enterprise- in any city in tho world. Taking Tak-ing $100 as the average monthly salary of the government worker and the figure is probn.bly a good deal ihighen over $10,000,000 is paid out monthly by tho government gov-ernment to these employees." The next stet- is to obtain information as to salaries and positions. Experts on reclassification have com from Cleveland, Cleve-land, Chicago, New York and Ottawa to help the government, una Information aa to salaries and methods In private indus-try indus-try and commerce has been obtained for purposes of comparison. To got facts first hand from tho cm- ; ployees, printed questionnaires will bo sent to each one in a few days. Tho ernes- j tionnaJre will inquire the employee's sai-ary. sai-ary. working 1 ours, whether he has any subordinates and their work ajid salaries, years of government service, entrance pay, and other facta about his service. On the back-of the form is a space where tho employee , is to wrlto an account of the work actually performed by him, and another an-other space where his immediate superior is to state his version of the samo thing and his opinion as to tho qua llfications applicants for this position should possess. These questionnaires, when ca.l!ed in, will be turned over to reclassification experts ex-perts to be sorted. Then notices will be sent out that a certain class of employees stenographers, for instance are to be classified. At that time any stenographers stenogra-phers who wish to appear before the commission com-mission will be granted hearings. In grenetra, reclassification will not be made for each case individually. A salary schedule will be fixed for stenographers, for example, and each stenographer will bo placed according to the record shown j by the questionnaire, with the testimony i of the hearing's, if any, also consieiered. j In this proce-ss, some salaries will be raised and some will be lowered. Special 1 effort will be made to see that every government gov-ernment worker has a living wage. The Federal Union of Federal Employees slates that probably 75,000 government employees are paid less than a living wage. This statement It supports by-saying by-saying that a large proportion of the workers have to elo outMde work, are in debt, or have to put their children to work. An instance of this is the case of a ch iinvo man in go ver n m e n t service who draws 5312 a year for the hardest sort of manual labor. Some of the reclassification exoerts are in favor of gradual reduction of the saJ-aj-i es at toch od to certa in nf the h t g-h er paid positions. The n-cthod suggested it that persons holding- the positions continue con-tinue at ih-.ir present salaries, but that their successors to tho offices enter at tho lower rate. The need for standardization of government govern-ment saJariea is obvioas. Of several chemist e who take examination for appointment, ap-pointment, cno will be appointed to the department of agriculture at $1200, an other to the department of Interior at 51400 and another to commerce at $1600. This absurd syftem, or lack of it, is due paitly to the fact that maintenance of different departments is provided for by different appropriation acta. "Even clerks in the same bureau receive widely varying vary-ing salaries for the same work, and without with-out reference to ability. How high in official rank the revision of yaJaries w,n po the commission refuses to predict It is admitted that the cabinet officers may bo mentiored in its recommendations, recom-mendations, This would mean, of course, a "raise" for the secretaries. The commission's work, it should b-e clearly understood, Is not to authorize any chang-es in tho present system. It was instructed by congress to study the situation, situa-tion, work out 'improvements and turn in a report on the second Monday in 1920. Using that report as a basis, congress will The commission and the Union of Federal Fed-eral Employees believe that this reclassification reclassi-fication of district employees must inevitably in-evitably lead to reclassification of the federal field service, including: about 400,- 000 civil employees, which was omitted e.t first because of the nifjimitude of the wcrk. unci because - conTC3 wished to hurry through legislation to start the reform. Since 1??3, when the present civil service law wag written, there have been no fundamental changes in the civil service system. We liavo outerown the law of eishty-three, and Its defects are glaring. Among the reforms long uraed are, firit, a change in the transfer system, which at prerent permits no employee to be transferred trans-ferred from one department to another at a raise ir ealai-y. The unfairness of this is illustrated lust now in the IntcrnoJ revenue serviee. where expert accountants are needed. There are scores of expert accounta nts already ln government servico who could bo shifted to this bureau from other bureaus whre work is slack, and thus obtain the hiirlr rate of pyy offered of-fered by Internal revenue. Instead, tile government must spend money and un.sie time giving exnminafions and training nw accnuntan's. and t'lese new employees em-ployees will rcelve higher salaries than those already in s.-rvice. Anotlv-r wea snot ir the law is the ue of the same kind, of examination for all kinds c-f so-called eieriua.1 work. Girls with hlrrh school or cc-lbge diplomas take the clerical examination and are put to work sealinc envelopes or sorting cards. At th" upper end of the scale there Is. In the opinion of m.anv, room for Improvement. Improve-ment. Tlie hi:rh official Is usually appointed ap-pointed to offin, without the e mba crass - in-rit of bin!r asked whore Kamchatka la. or t, .1. -.prnho '."-icily the administration of t-pch pivsidf-nt of th.- United S'tates. t'm irenerai n. alters of this sort his knowledge knowl-edge is vr-r- properh- lal.en for erarod hut most people think he might bo asked to stale hi )utttlo: ad ins experience, and poss'.hly to write a short essay on the subject of the work he is to cp.-ry on. This informal test of his ability, thev claim, vr.ulp- not bo any strain on the competent applicant, and it might save us from hearts of bureaus who ha'-e to be taught the business from the ground up by assistants, who remain assisuiiila. |