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Show Aged U. S. Workers io Be Retired on Pay A campaign which has lasted more than twenty years on the part of government gov-ernment workers and numerous outside out-side supporting organizations, seeking the passage of a bill for the retirement , of federal civil service employes, hasj been brought to a victorous close.! With tho passage by tho House of representatives by a vote of 273 to-53; of the Sterling-Lehlbach bill the retirement re-tirement feature is assured, accordipg to word received in Ogden today. Its enactment will mean, it is estimated, esti-mated, tho immediate retirement of about 7,000 aged men and women, some of them so feeble they have had fro years to be taken to their desks in wheel chairs. Existing conditions, it is argued, which retain tho aged employes em-ployes on the rolls beyond the .period of their usefullness, .represent the most expensive and unsatisfactory I pension system in tho world. Tho StorllngLchlbach bill provides for the retirement of the superannuated superannu-ated employes of 'the United States civil service upon an annuity of 5720 a year for those -whose salary has averaged av-eraged $200 a year or more, and who have been in the service not less than 30 years. For shorter service at lower salary tho annuity ranges downward to a, minimum of $180 a year, and the bill contains a provision also for the payment of a greater annuity than 720 to thoso employes whose contributions con-tributions to the retirement fund would purchase more. Tho age of retirement, as the bill passed tho house, Is 65, except that mechanics, letter carriers and postal clerks aro -o be retired at 62, and railway mail clerks at 60. In the Senate amendment was attached, on motion of Senator Smoot of Utah, making the age of retirement for all employs 70 years. This difference in the ago provision will have to be reconciled re-conciled in conference. The cost of the annuity to the cm ployes will be borne partly by the government gov-ernment and .partly by the employes, tho latter to be assessed 2 per cent, of their salaries. An amendment to increase this assessment to 6 per cent, so that the , employes would bear the whole cost, was offered by Representative Represen-tative Black of Texas, but was defeated de-feated by a vote of 80 to 40. oo |