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About The morning Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1899-1930 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1908)
THE MOItNlNG ASTRIAN, ASTORIA, at the census of 1900, and reaches the conclusion that the tendency to re main in thte Government service after reaching advanced age is not unusual) except, perhaps, 'among the male em ployees In the District of Columbia. ' GET INTO THOSE OXFORDS Statistic of Employes In tho Ex ecutive Clvil.Servlce, SOLD' BY bROWN " ! ? Wednesday, April is, itos. PUBLIC SERVANTS I! i,.t.'.ifi;iw.t ( t THE ADVANCED AGE PERIODS The Figures Show That the Govern ment Employe In thVCivil Service 4i64 Person From (5S to 69 Yeere of Age end 137 at Least 80 Years. WASHINGTON, D. C, April 14. The employees in the executive civil service Are the subjects of a statistical Inquiry which has jutt been com pleted by the Bureau of the Census. The result of this inquiry are pub lished in Census Bulletin 94, which was prepared by Lewis Mcriam, act ln( chief of the division of revision and results. , ( ; , On July 1, 1907, according to this bulletin, the total number of em ployee in the executive civil service, exclusive of persons in .the consular and diplomatic service, was 286,902; , and of this number 29,103 practically one tenthwere employed at the nat ional capital. In the detailed statistical tables it , was considered impracticable to in clude all thctte employees, In a few cases because the returns were too i incomplete, but more often because 1 t certain clauses arc so peculiar In re spect to the way they are appointed, or the basis on which they are paid,' that their inclusion would have Im paired the value of the statistics for the remaining classes. The most im portant classes omitted for this latter reason include 62,663 postmasters, 18,- NEED OF MORE RAILROADS. '.' ' t The country's need of more rail roads, of the double-tracking of pres ent lines, of more rolling stock, is in no wise changed by present financial conditions, Even if there should be a slight let up in traffic, this would not change the fact that our. trans portation facilities 'are wholly inade quate to the volume of our trade and that the country is rapidly growing while the railroads are not. The late Senator Gorman of Maryland, 10 or IS years ago, very wisely said that "the greatest problem before the peo- pie or America is tnat oi intrtuu tion." Distribution, of course, im plies transportation. Every day since then has emphasized the correctness of Senator Gorman's judgment, Un der such conditions the cost of tran:, portation is of far less importance, than the question of securing theft facilities needed. We already have by far the cheapest railroad frcightf rates in the worldrates that are the, marvel of the people of European countries. , What we need now is not low rates, freight or passenger, but 4 vast increase in facilities for handling business. Of all the absurd move merits of the last 12 months in the railroad and political worlds nothing else quite equals the effort to force down railroad rates. It Is almost puerile in its shortsightedness. It has cost our country billions of dollars without redeeming thing tc the credit side. Money for railroad ex pansion cannot possibly be had un der present conditions, Infinitely better would it be for the whole country if the people would recognize that, instead of reducing rates, the railroads must be given full authority to make a general advance in rates 376 mechanics and laborer in navy tcommensural with the increased cost yards and naval stations 12.850 clerks in post offices not having free de livery, and 1,031 occasional employees of the Weather Bureau. Data for 4.584 employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission employed on the Isthmus were too incomplete- to be included.' As the net "results of all omissions, the total number of per sons treated by the Bureau of the Census as employees in tthc execu tive civil service is 185,874, of doing business. The railroad busi ness must be given an opportunity to make profits large enough tof tempt capital from everywhere to seek investment in railroad securities Men arc not going to put their money into such enterprises subject to the dangers of legislation and they would be foolish if they did so un less the profit is great enough to justify such risks. To attempt to limit the earnings to 6 per cent., or even .i . toe on . it 1CI UI mesc tow. pcr.on., .-'10 per cent( 0r ,0 any f)xcd amount, are employed tn the District of Co- ... . ... , .... .. . ... tumbia, while 160,523 are employed elsewhere. Although the total num ber of employees in the District is thus less than one-sixth of the total number elsewhere, the number of women in the District exceeds the number elsewhere by 895. Of the employees in the District 7,358 arc women, or almost 3 to 10, while of the employees elsewhere but 6,463 women, or I in 25. This difference is mainly to be attributed to the fact that in the District a far larger pro- I .i .i . . . . men with bulging bank accounts I'M T I'llll l ill II 10 S tl. V V lV II S I V I i Of the total number of Govern ment employees, 156,021, or 83.9 per cent, arc native whites; 18,525, or 10 j per cent, foreign born whites; and j 11,328," or 6.1 per cent, colored. Of the colored, 8,352 arc .negroes, 1,725 Indians, 1,047 Filipinos, 142 Chinese, and 62 Japanese. In the District of Colutnhin. 2.785 nf thp pmnlovpp arc negroes. t That is to say, at the nnional capital 1 Government em ployee in 9 is a negro. One of the most interesting ques tions considered in the bulletin is that of the age of the employees. One half of thriii are under 36,5 years of age. In the District the median age 'is -slightly higher, being 38,8 years, while elsewhere it is but 36.2. The advanced nge periods are, how- ever, more interesting than the med ians. The figures show that the Gov ernment employs in the civil service 4,364 persons from 65' to 69 years of age; 1,557 from 70. to 74 years; 465 from 75 to 79 years; and 137 at least "80 years of age. These figures give a total of 6,523 employees in the ex ecutive civil service who are 65 years or over. Of this number, 1852 are -employed in the District of Columbia and 4,071 elsewhere. Although less numerous , in the District than else where, employees of advanced age iWIIW IJIIIVrll ICllfSlI JMUJ'UJ uui ui (llv force in the District than thev do of the force elsewhere. In the District practically 1 Government employee in 14 is at least 65 years of 'age, while elsewhere tthe corresponding: figures are but about 1 in 34. In an effort to determine whether these figures represent . any special tendency for Government employees the disastrous railroad wrecks,' but is not. only absurd, but economically false, for any attempt to limit tlu earnings of legitimate business under takings will inevitably react and cost the country far more than the differ ence between a fixed income and the profit which might otherwise be made There own preservation would neces sarily require of the railroads as fav orable rates as could be given with safety for themselves and their, future. - :j Of recent years the public seems i to have come to the conclusion that arc waiting eagerly for an opportunity to put money into railroad securities, though the control of the railroad is taken from them, and though other people who hav no interest in them arc given authority to fix the rates at which they can do business. The idea is very fallacious. Thd tapital needed for railroad expansion l hot going to seek railroad investment, but railroad men must seek the capi tal with diligence, It must be pre sented in such a way as to indicate profits large enough to justify the risk, or otherwise those who have the bulging bank accounts will keep their money themselves or else put it in securities over which they do have sonic control. As a field for invest ment the railroad is no longer an at tractive proposition, land this, too, conies at a time when never in our history do we so much need money tor railroad expansion. It is quite within bounds to say that during the next five or six years this country ought to spend. $1,500,000,000 a year in the enlargment of railroad facilities, We ought within the next five or ten years to put one-half as much money into1 the enlargment of railroad facili ties as the total amount now repre sented in all the stocks and bonds of the railroad of country." Where is so vast a sum to come from? If It should not come, then business will be halt ed, railroad facilities will grow stead: ily worse instead of better, and the country will suffer as it has suffered for the 3as4 few years because the railroads are unequal to the volumne of traffic. - The country holds- ' its hands up in horror, and justly so, at ! r.&rX' k T7 n n nil n n n Vf" n ,V 1 i'1"!.. imiiiii i iirii iiiiiniii iiu mi in 1 f y u; ia And Ladies's and Gentlemen's Footwear is in damahd.. The styles afe more handsome and more varied this spring than ever. Every correct shoe is here from the lightest and daintiest house and dress shoe to the heavier shoes for outdoor wear LADIES' PATENT LEATHERS What looks sweller, richer or more dainty peeping out from under a woman's skirts than a handsome Patent Leather Shoe or Slipper? There are leathers and leathers, but Patent Leather is the leather for dress wear. J We Have the Prettiest Patent Leather Shoes That I Ever Clasped a Pretty Ankle. We have Ladies' Patent Leather Footwear in Dress Shoes, Oxfords, Colonials and Slippers; Military 'and .Steeple Heels; Perforated Tips, Etc. No extravagant piices. Shoes bought at Brown's are always right. LOOK AT BROWN'S WINDOWS AND BE CONVINCED V. ROW 'X The Family Shoe Man ASTORIA :: OREGO Fisher Brothers Company SOLE AGENTS . '' Barbour and Finlayson Salmon Twins and Netting McCormick Harvesting Machines Oliver Chilled Ploughs ' j Malthoid Roofing Sharpies Cream Separators Raecolith Flooring ' , Storretfi Tooli .. I Hardware, Groceries, Ship ! , Chandlery j Tan fiatk, Blue tone, MuHtttie Acid', Welch Coai, Tarj Ash Oars, Oak Lumbci1, Pipt and FitUngs, Brass j Goods, Paints, Oils arid Glass . . i Fishermen's Pure Manilla Rope, Cotton Twirls ghd Seine Web We Wont Your Trade ! FISH BR BROS. ' BOND STREET The I'Jeber Uapn For either one horse, or two horses. A good, strong, light wagon. I The Foard & Stokes Hardware Go ! Incornoratad Successors to Fo-.rd & Stokes Ca the last few years to sect to get as much as possible and gave as little of faithful work in return as possible. While railroad employes generally are faithful to their trust, some ineffic ient men, without a sense of their re sponsibility, have eagerly grasped at tlfis ' teaching and feel that the rail roads and the world at large owe them a living whether they earn it or not, and the anti-railroad agitation is nition of this condition of affairs, for Until they do there can be no thor ough marked revival in railroad con struction ori a scale commensurate witfj tne needs of the country. Peo pie may theorize as much as they please? they may say that railroads must be' forced to- expand, that they must be capitalized at exact cost; that the promoter's and1 the banker's pro fits must be1 eliminated';: but they will wait till docmistiaybfcfoi'e' they sc- oAvt A UUL1UK BILL to remain m service after persons in other walks of life would have retired the Census bulletin compares the ages r . i . r & i . . , oi me uovcrnmcm employees, witn the ages of all breadwinners railroad wrecks happen to a consid erable extent because the volume of traffic is large beyond the facilities of the railroads, and partly,' too; be cause men have been taught during largely responsible for Uiis. Until , cure railroads on 'these1 conditions, these two things have been changed lne only Possible' chance' for' railroad the railroads must labor under tre-1 construction on' a large' scale' is to mendons disadvantatres. Railroads , make investment iii railroad- enter- must be enabled by laree earnings to Pr'ses and railroad securities1 more at- practically rebuild the whole railroad tratcive than can be' found' by ikr'ge system of the country. They must be capitalists anywhere els iri the world, made' so profitable that money will Manufacturers' Record December find fit railroad construction a most i - attractive field for investment, for i until this condition prevails it will be impossible fo secure the capital need ed for the' expansion of railroad fa cilities', so essential, so supremely BABYLON'S GARDENS The hanging -gardens of Babylon essential', fo the best' interests of the were terraces on columns. The gar- coanry. . dens were 400 feet square and over The" politicians and' the agitators, 400 feet high. The ascent from ter- as well as1 the" people of the country race to terrace was by flights of mar- at large; may as well' fee the situation ble steps, and on the highest "was a and; meet if squarely with full recog- large reservoir. - BY DRINKING BASS' ALE AND ; GUINESS STOUT WITH YOUR DINNER PUT UP IN NIPS. IT IS A SYSTEM BUILDER. RECOM MENDED BY ALL FHYSICIANS. PRICE, $1.50 PER DOZEN. AMERICAN IMPORTING Cii J J U U t, r ; ooy Uomraercial Street Glkssificd Ads. in the Astorian Give Best Results