11
President Urges Pay Increase and Unemployment Benefits
For Civil Service Employees
From G ood G o v ern m e n t
In his message to Congress of Septem
ber 6, 1945, President Trum an recom
mended extension o f unemployment
compensation benefits to government
employees, and salary increases for gov
ernment employees, for Congress and
for the Judiciary. He stated:
"T h e most important impediment to
obtaining efficient administrative o f
ficials in the federal government has
been the pitiful wage scale. During the
war many able and experienced men
were obtained for federal service on
purely patriotic grounds. Some o f these
meh who are unable to continue at the
present scales would be willing to re
main at adequate salaries.
"In most o f the various classifica
tions o f federal employees, the wage
scales, with few exceptions, are obso
lete and inadequate. This is particularly
true o f the federal judiciary. I sincerely
hope that the Congress will take early
steps to provide decent wage scales
for its members and for the executive
and judicial branches of the govern
ment.”
Senator Sheridan Downey of Cali
fornia, Chairman of the Senate Civil
Service Committee, has introduced a
bill which would increase by twenty
percent the salaries of some 1,500,000
white collar federal employees, Cabinet
members and their assistants, members
of boards and commissions whose salar
ies are fixed by Congress, and would
increase by ten percent the salaries of
legislative and judicial employees. Re
presentative Donald L. O ’Toole of New
York has sponsored a bill providing for
a 25 percent increase.
A t the time the recently enacted
pay act was under consideration last
spring Senator Downey warned that
the increases there provided would be
inadequate when the federal work-week
was reduced and over time was no
longer required; and stated that he
would then advocate a further increase
in pay.
Senator Kenneth Wherry and Repre
sentative Howard H . B u ffett, both of
Nebraska, have introduced resolutions
to set up a joint committee o f the
House and Senate to study the whole
federal employee wage structure.
terns in states and municipalities where
none now exist.
The development o f our economic
program during the post-war period
must, so far as our public agencies are
involved, be kept out of the hands of
incompetent, self-seeking politicians
and spoilsmen who may seek to use the
transition period under guise of a "new
emergency” as a pretext for exploiting
our public services.
Our public services everywhere must
be reorganized and readjusted so as
to cope with the demands of modern
economy. W e can no longer tolerate
unnecessarily cumbersome methods and
procedures in the administration o f our
public personnel systems.
Legislation has been passed increas
ing the Massachusetts state employee
war bond bonus from 15 to 20 per cent
with the minimum bonus established at
$J00 and the maximum at $420. Leg
islation was also passed providing for
the appointment o f a labor representa
tive to the Civil Service Commission.
Sometimes we may learn more from
a man’s errors than from his virtues.
— Longfellow.