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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1911)
FOR RGEDEMPLDYES Plan for Retirement Now Being Worked Out by Board. (tiring Fund Suggested Which Is In Effect a Compulsory 8avlng ' Scheme Mall Cost to Roads Being Investigated. ' Washington. It looks as if the gov irnment would make a desperate. If not a final effort at this session of con gress to have passed some kind of bill lor the retirement of aged civil service employes. Economy and Improvement boards have been holding almost daily meetings. The presence in every department of scores of men and women sixty, seventy and eighty years old, has been a great obstacle to the adoption of the progressive plans which the investiga tors are working on. Not all these aged clerks are inefficient, to be sure, but as a rule a person's abilities do not expand much after the age of six ty, and It is a fact that hundreds of venerable men and women are carried on the pay rolls who not only are worth nothing, but' are a positive det- of them without causing hardship is a very serious problem and one to which the best brains in the departments and in congress are giving attention. Merritt C. Chance, auditor for the post office department, has touched on this Important problem in his annual report and has helped to put the sub ject into concrete shape for discussion by recommending with a trifling amendment, the passage of the bill Introduced last April in the house oy Frederick C. Oillett of Massachusetts, and in the senate by Mr. Perkins of California. This bill makes provision m i J l Amninvaa nn Annul- jor rttiiriug o"y"jv. ties purchased by themselves by means of monthly deductions in salaries. It Is in effect a compulsory saving i scheme, the government merely to stand back of it by guaranteeing a rate of interest at -3 per cent., ta king care of the small expense of ad ministration and providing the annui ties for services rendered up to the passage of the bill. The annuity would be payable quarterly throughout life and would be equal to 1 per cent of the annual salary for every full year of service or major fraction thereof between the date of the passage of the act and the arrival of the employe at the age of retirement. The bill di vides the employes, for retirement pur poses, into three groups, two of sixty live years ' and one of seventy years each. It empowers the president to designate the branches of the service to be included in each group. The bill permits employment after reaching the age of retirement, but provides for a deduction of ten per cent of the pay, the same to be treat ed as a savings account and interest paid thereon and returned to the em ploye when he leaves the service. Three options are allowed on retire ment: The first an annuity payable quarterly throughout lite, the second the same, with the provision that in ease of the death of the annuitant be fore he haa received in annuities the amount of his savings with Interest, the balance shall be paid to his legal heirs, and the third that he may draw his money In a lump sum. If, after retirement, the employe doe not avail hemself of one of the foregoing options, but leaves the amount due him on deposit, interest at the rate of two per cent, on the original sum left on deposit shall be credited for 20 years. If the money Is not then withdrawn, It goes to the treasury. Mr. Chance suggests as an amendment that the retirement pay of honorably discharged veterans of the Mexican and Civil wars shall be not less than 50 per cent, of the aver age annual compensation during the entire period of employment In the civil service. The auditor says this plan, compared with a straight civil pension paid out of the federal treas ury, presents many advantages both tor the government and for the em ployes. ' Simple and Businesslike. Mr. Chance, himself, in a report to the secretary of the treasury, made last February, showed how relatively simple and businesslike th civil serv ice retirement Idea is If the govern ment would got down to brass tacks and put It Into operation. He showed that In bis own office, where more than 700 persons are employed, there were 42 persons, seventy years of age and over, receiving salaries aggrega ting 154,680. Three of these persons were more than eighty years and ten were over seventy-five. The average age, In tact, was seventy-three and two-thirds years and the average sal ary $1,300. Under the Oillett bill these 42 em ployes would receive annuities aggre gating $27,096. Mr. Chance recom mended ttfat without changing his ap propriation at all a proviso be added authorising the secretary of the treas ury to retire all clerks who are seven ty years or over and who served under the civil service on an annuity equal to m per cent, or me annual pay multiplied by the number of year of service. This would give a total an nuity of $27,098. He then proposed that the difference, $27,484 be used for the employment of clerks selected from the civil service registers to fill their places. He suggested alto that inasmuch as the annuities would range In amount from under $200 to over $1,200, modification might be made fix ing the minimum at $240 and the max imum at $600, as the periods of service range from five years to forty-three years. ..' The aggregate sum to be paid with these limitations would leave $33,542 available for employment of persons who would take the places of the clerks retired. This sum would be enough to etlploy almost as many clerks as would be retired. If the sal aries were fixed at the lower grades, that is $1,000 and $1,200. However, to prevent any reduction in the higher clerical grades and consequent over population of the lower clerical grades, Mr. Chance suggested a provision in the law directing that the relative ratio of theseveral clerical grades should be maintained. , Here was a proposition which in volved no increase of appropriation, no undue hardship to the government clerk and would have more than doubled the efficiency in the office. Senator Hale of Maine vetoed the'ldea, as he has every other looking to the benefit of the government clerk, and the plan was abandoned. The same system could be pursued no doubt In every other department of the govern ment. In fact, investigation disclosed another division in the same building where conditions were worse and bet ter results could have been gained than in the auditor's division. In the past the civil service retire ment idea has suffered in the halls and committee rooms of congress be cause evidence has been adduced to show that the annuity plan would real ly be a money maker for the govern ment instead of a loser. Many con gressmen have declared their opposi tion to any scheme of retirement that would cost the government money, but they never have been shown that while spending money at first to aid the scheme the government really would be saving as much if not more than it put out Data covering this point are now being compiled by de partment committees and the account ants who have been called in to sug gest administrative reforms, and when the matter comes up again the states men will be shown that civil service retirement, conceived and executed on the right lines, means economy and not extravagance. The Time to Be Too Lale By LA VINA MAY BROWN Studying Mail-Carrying. Postmaster General Hitchcock 1 engaged In an effort to find out to the fast cent how much it actually costs the railroads of the United States to carry the malls. Mr. Hitchcock wants to cut further his department deficit. When the postmaster general gets his information it may be that means will be found to save the people of the oountry a large sum of money, and that they will get the benefit of It through reduced postage rates, an ex tension of the rural route service or through something more profitable to the purse and the convenience of the American citizen. The department em ployes, under the direction of the chief, are engaged in the giant task of finding out definitely how much it costs the railroads to carry the malls and whether or not they are making the enormous profits that have been more than hinted at In congress and elsewhere. The magnitude of the work in hand may be known when it is said that a large part of the clerical force of the service is engaged in it The returns which the railroads make to the Inter state commerce commission are under study, and to these have been added reports direct from the railroads to the department. More than this, the entire inspector force of the service is lending its aid to enable the of ficials to get figures which they can be sure are right. " The country has been divided into zones, and each one Is considered sep arately. It is more costly to carry the mail in some places than It is In other places, and all this has to be taken into consideration. Defore the depart ment gets through with its work it will show what part of the expense of operating the railroads falls to the pas senger service, what part to freight service, what part to express service and what part to the mail service. Ad mittedly, the problem to be solved is as hard a thing as ever came out of analytical geometry. It has been charged in congress and In the press frequently that the rail roads were making too much money out of their contracts for carrying the mails. There have been frequent at tempts in the past to find just how much It did cost but there was lack of proper Information. Today the post office department Is at the work in earnest It may be that lt will find that the railroads have not been overpaid for the carrying service, and It may be also that It will be found that the profit Is so great that the carriers must be forced to share all but "a reasonable part of It" with the people. The passage of laws In the last four or five years which give easier access to the records of corporations has made it somewhat easier than It was In the past for the department to get at facta which are of service in this work. It the present investigation shows that the government can save money on its mall-carrying contracts, the money Is going to be saved. If the re ports of the present department of ficials have any weight It Is not at all unlikely, however, . mat one-cent postage win come as a ; result of the saving. If saving there ' be, but it will be something if the de- partment deficit can be decreased a I tew more millions, and It will be I something more It It can be decreased to the vanishing point (Copyright, iflio, by Auociattd Literary Prau.) "Now, whoever in the world " Mrs. Rose began. . Her gossip Mrs. Brant checked with a gesture. "Don't you say a word, Sarah," she Interjected. "You've got no room not after what has happened right in your own house." "If Phoebe did run away with old Boyer it was In broad daylight" Mrs. Rose retorted. "Because nobody was at home and Ned might have come and married her right in the parlor if he'd a-had the spirit of a mouse." Mrs. Brant flung back: "As for Mllly Gray and Jimmy Hlnton, I say It's a shame they got caught Not that I approve of runaway matches but with a daddy like the squire. It's air the sort of match Milly ever can make." "That's all you know spite o' thinking you know everything," Mrs. Rose said huffily. "Mllly can have the biggest sort of wedding, and four new silk dresses, any time she'll say yes to Steve Murray. Squire thinks the sun rises and sets in Steve " , "Because nobody else does, I reck on," Mrs. Brant broke In, with spirit. "My land! If that's how the wind blows " stopping as though furth er speech would be an Impertinence. "You're wrong again,", Mrs. Rose said acidly. "At least, according to my guess. Squire wants Mllly to mar ry Steve partly because Steve's so driving and thriving, but more be cause be thinks, with Steve clean out of the county Widow McBee might change her name to Grey as it is, she won't hear to it" "Won't, eh? That is news," -Mrs. Brant chuckled. "She's a sight young er than the squire not so much more'n Mllly's age. But there's no fool like an old one all of us know that. I'm glad you told me, Sarah. All along I've wanted to help Milly now I'm just bent and bound to do it some wayt somehow." Mrs. Brant was an ally worth hav ingshrewd, bold, a person of conse quence in the neighborhood, also a person of substance and all powerful more than Is true," Mrs. McBee broke in. "If I thought you were telling truth I'd never have another minute's peace until things were straightened." "Then get to work right off,", Mrs. Brant demanded. "How can I?" her hostess asked. Mrs. Brant turned scornful eyes on her. "You, a woman and a widow, ask me that?" she said. "When you ANNOYING FRUITS OF FAME Bachelor Maid Who Wrote Successful Novel Is Bombarded With Adver tisements of Cigars and Liquors. " CAIP and The bachelor maid whose first novel had made something of a hit held up a handful of circulars. ' I "All than name, In the first mail know better than anybody, all you've thls mornm8(.. Bne ald tn a tone of got to do is to tell Asa Gray unless he exaaperatlon. -Here's one offering me treats niS aaugnier JifcUL, uu u Buy yes to Steve Murray- "I never named him you can't say I did," Mrs. McBee cried, flushing s deeply. ! In truth, Mrs. Brant had come to i her at the psychological moment , oJa , mj iier oil. These Steve Murray had all but rejected the j only a few of tn, hundreds I re McBee farm and its mistress only the ! eelve j never receive,i guch mall un evening before. Both had been offer-1 tll h'out . var aro I suppose I de- a choice brand of cigars; another is a card of well-known whiskies. This one advises me to drink stout I weigh a hundred and sixty pounds now and here Is one urging me to sustain mt fain tine strength on a The Main Lose. Did the specialists remote anything when they operated on MMyuns?" "Oh, yea. About bait of his income." "Don't You Say a Word, Sarah." with her husband. She went straight to see Mllly; thence on to the Widow McBee, a person rather vague as to everything save a sense that she was entitled always to have her own way. "It ought to be the minister, not me, come to talk to you, Maria," Mrs. Brant began without preamble as she sat down in the second best McBee rocker. "At your time of life, a widow, too, and a church member, the idee of keeping two men dangling, not knowing where they stand I say it's shameful." "Whatever do you mean?" Mrs. Mc Bee demanded, bridling with delight. She had married her only chance his death had left her well endowed, but so far she had so few beaux, the Imputation of coquetry was Incense to her starved vanity. "I'll name no names, right out,' Mrs. Brant said diplomatically. "But It's all over the neighborhood that two of the best chances in it are just plum off their heads on account of you. No, j won t ten you wno out u you ask my advice I might say which and let you guess the other." "You always would tease, Julia Brant," Mrs. McBee simpered. "Now, 1 don't know one bit what you're drlv ing at but go ahead and pick out a good husband for me seeing you make out I can get one for the tak ing." "Asa Gray Is as cranky aa a ram's horn, most ways but his wife was a queen to him what wouldn't a sec ond wife be?" Mrs. Brant demanded "Nobody needn't hang back over the daughter, neither Milly's going into a decline, If ever I saw anybody that war this morning, when I went there, she sat looking over her moth ers jewelry you snow airs, uray had diamonds and a ruby, ring, and the cunningest watch, blue enamel all over and she said to me right piti ful: 'I hope daddy will get some nice, pretty woman to wear all these. He must have somebody when I'm gone. M ,'The poor child!" Mrs. McBee ejaculatetd. "How can her pa cross her and she In such a stater "Men are cruel when they're jeal ous," Mrs. Brant pronounced oracular ly. "Squire used to think Milly couldnt do a wrong thing but since he fell In love and you torment him so "Now, Julia, you're making out a lot ed tentatively, but in a way he could not choose but understand. He had been brutal In a seeming of misunder standing Judge, then, what balm Mrs. McBee found in her friend's assump tions. Mrs. Brant pursed her lips. "I reckon nobody needs to name him not as long as they've got eyes to see," she said. "It'll serve him out fine, you taking the squire. Steve's made his brags all along; he' had just to say the word, and any woman would marry him." "He is a conceited thing," Mrs. McBee admitted. "But I can't think ab'cmt my own concerns I'm going right straight off to see poor little Milly.- And if I get the chance, her pa'U get one good talking to I'm go ing to tell him to let her marry Jim my Hlnton right off, and send them out to California, where Mllly can get strong again. Patience knows, he's got the money to do it and if he hasn't " "You have. And you can't put It to better use," Mrs. Brant said heartily. "Maria, you talk like a mother and a Christian I love you better than J ever did before." The very next afternoon Mrs. Mo Bee drove away from the Gray place, her face wreathed in smiles. Mllly had clung to her, weeping tears of joy as they parted, and the squire had handed her into her buggy, with an air of devotion wonderful to see. "You say I may come over tomorrow morn ing?" he had asked. "Good! We'll settle everything. And I can't thank you enough for making me see the right" He was not so old, not yet fifty, moreover fine-looking and of a good presence, much more personable than Steve Murray at his best, she decided. And the Gray place was certainly a home any woman might be proud of. She could queen It there as she had never done in her own small house the late Silas McBee had held that money was to be kept, not spent To do her Justice, her heart warmed more at the memory of Milly's face than at the thought of all the material gain such a marriage meant to her. She was radiant with a radiance that went far to making her hand some. Steve Murray realized it sud denly they met In the road a little way off his own gate. '.'. "Howdy. Miss Marie. I guess I'll come over tonight" he said off-hand-edly. "Seems like I recollect some thing you said when I was there last that I didn't answer right" "Now wonder what It could a-been!" Mrs. McBee said reflectively. "Oh! 1 remember now it was about the Blue Games. You forgot to tell me wheth er or not you wanted them If you do want them you're just in time to bt. too late Squire Gray 'has spoke for all I've got as well as everything else on the place. A 'meaning droop of lids carired home the last words. Steve wheeled his horse and galloped angrily away. Manlike, he had found out that he wanted the widow badly in the mo ment he knew her to be beyond reach. TOO Indulges In Soda, "Penny Dip" Church Social and Stayed Out Until Nine O'Clock. - MUCH at j t trnstw hrtixr It am a ADO 111. After my book appeared and had some MAN DISSIPATED press notice I was approached oy me reBresentatives of a social directory and urged to allow the publishers to Insert my name and address, together with a hriAf hut coeent history oi my hi-nnant career. Of course I was flat- "Yes, I'm dissipating too : much, tered Immediately and yielded at once gald the red-faced rustic, as he rubbed to the intoxication of this first draught his head despondently. of farm I eave him all the lnforma- "Dissipating?" gasped bis friend. tion he asked except, my age, of "That's the word I used. You've course and slraed a contract to buy heard that expression about 'burning a copy of the directory when it should the candle at both ends?' Well, that's u - ll.t T us, arnt O I nnaa nvitlv Tn tell th A t mth T appear, x cu t uim si - - uij wood mwvw., - - - v--. . - J ... rf It Knt kn vaa hovlnc trtrt ffflV. ft tlTYlA I .RHf I have been buried under whisky ad- night I went down to the Blue Moon' vertisements and others of like sort. land drank a soda.' Then some travel- uiv nam la a distinctively feminine hna: man offered me a cigar. Of course one. but I suppose advertisers tnina had to take it. . "You don't mean itr "I mean Just what I say. Then I bought a ham sandwich. I ate It and , actually forgot myself and took an- nthr On mv wav home I droDDed SAUSAGE MAKING IS ANCIENT into the church social for a few min utes. Some of the young ladles made industry Dates Back to the Tenth Cerv me try the 'penny-dip,' and I drew a blans. Such extravagance!" That's exactly it Extravagance and dissipation will kill me. 'It was nine o'clock before I reached home, "Nine O'clock!" "Yes. I must be sowing my' wild oats. - Well, I've finished now. Night are before last I called on my girl., She wouldn't let me leave until I had ta We're happy and contented when wine jren her out and ' bought chocolate) and musio now, creams. Talk about pleasure hunting! ' vanrn nral It was In the" tenth century that the of wasteful debauchery." tasty pork sausage was given to a de- all nrrltarn are Bohemian. I Wlsn 1 never had heard of that social dire tory.' tury and. Was Formerly Consid ered a Queen's Recreation. ; Hail to the sausage! exclaims the Mobile Register. The luscious fruit of a combination of pork, spices and meat chopper Is now celebrating its one thousandth birthday. And In Aus trla and Germany happy folks singing serving humanity, and it was not un til 600 years later that Germany be gan introducing spices Into the sau sage, which immediately gave the Droduct of that country a world-wide reputation that time can never erase. A few years ago a sausage exhibi tion was held in Switzerland and over 1,700 varieties of sausages were on view more than half coming from Germany, . Why He Didn't Dare. The pretty sales girl in the depart ment store was standing before a mir ror. - "There," she said as she wiped a tiny smudge of soot from her cheek, "my face is all right again." - The solemn looking floorwalker overheard her. - . "I see It is, Miss Pearl," he said, Making sausages was In the good In a low tone, "and it's very tempting, THE MANUFACTURE OF SODA mportant Chemical Industry to Exploited In East Africa Protectorate. Be The European powers have prett) well divided Africa between them, and it looks quite civilised on an up-to-date map, but apparently there are still big tracts which are terra incognita, Judging from the announcement that a company Is being formed to exploit a great lake of soda discovered last year In the East Africa Protectorate. If. as is said, it covers an area or some 40,000 square miles, it Is by far the biggest lake In Africa, exceeding by 14,000 square miles the area of the Victoria Nyansa, and being capable of accommodating the whole of Scot land within It as an island, with at least 10,000 square miles of soda to spare. The manufacture of soda Is one of the most Important of chemical Indus tries, and those engaged in it will old days of long ago a queen's recrea tion. A wife's ability to make good sausages counted tor more' man wealth and beauty combined. To anoreciate sausages one must have been born and reared "back on the farm" where dad was getting the winter's meat ready on "butchering" day such a day of days to the "bare footed boy" on the farm! No, you cant get those sausages at the corner butcher shop. There is only one place where you can get them, and that Is "back on the farm. but some of the other girls are looking this way," "You wretch!" Memory. as backward files my memory from nanhood's proud estate to when I swung my lover form upon my lady's gate, there rises In my throat a lump that will not get away a lover's recol lection of a little girl named May! As sweet a little maiden as was ever put on earth, whose freckled face was wrinkled in an ecstasy of mirth; who when she wept was wonderful entrancing when she sighed! How many thousand times I'd sworn that she should be my bride! But there's that lump! Ah, me, that lump that will not go away! I've had a photo from the girl I used to know as May. Her name Is Mrs. Sniggle fritz she's fat and frowsy, too! She still retains her freckles and her tilted nose is bme i She writes that seven children Is the reckoning to date, and they keep their mother worrying from early morn till late. And, by the way, the lump I've got It took Its form and shape with the gasp of glad thanks giving for my harrowing escape! An Uncharitable Division. "Teacher said charity begins at home. Do you know what that means mamma?" "Yes." 'Did you know it means that Aunt Jane is a wicked lady?" "Why, Georgle!" "Yes, it does. Aunt Jane has got a bucketful of hair an' three switches -an' Uncle Jim is most as bald as an egg." SURE THING. 7.: Mostly Hall. A New Yorker bought one of those fine old colonial places down in Vir ginia, principally on account of the glowing description of the real estate agent and on information from friends. When he went down to see his man sion he was much impressed by the great pillars, the spacious porch, and particularly the great hall running from the front to the back of the First Scissors Grinder How's bust hess? ,. - Second Scissors Grinder Dull. watch with Interest the opening up of , house. this lmnrense source of supply. Time He Inspected the place and. came was when ocean plants supplied the back to New York. raw material of soda, and It was the "What shall you name itr he was French revolution which effected the asked. Wrong Diagnosis. . "There goes a girl," remarked the) candy drummer, "who looks like she might lead a man heavenward." "You're entitled, to another guess." replied the grocery clerk. "Her spe cialty is steering a man up against an oyster dispensary. See?" first great revolution in the making j of that necessary article of everyday use. Th national convention, seeing France isolated from the rest of the world, entreated patriotio scientists to eave the country from a threatened "I think." he replied, T shall call.it "Mostly : HalL" Saturday Evening Post Get an Order. -"Did you call on Mrs. Styles V asked the manager of the girl solicitor. "Yes," replied the girl. . " , "And did you get an order r "Yes, she ordered me out of house!" Yonkers Statesman. the) Exceedingly Conscientious. Mr. Mokeby (the prospective groom soda famine, and as a result Leblanc Now, we'd like to git de knot tied Invented his process for the manufac- in youah own house, pahson,' if you ture of soda from coal, lime, salt and hah no objections. sulphuric acid. -Loudon Daily News. Popularity. "Are) tfey popular?" 1 should isy they axe. They own aa automobile, a summer cottage and a naphtha launch." I Parson Black Suttainly I habn . Mlstah Mokeby; what makes yon think I might hah? j Mr. Mokeby I done heerd so often dat marriage am a lottery, I thought p'raps you might hab scruples about conductin' dat kind ob gamblin' youah premises. on All the 8tyle. . "That dressmaker you recommend ed me to go to is really soaring in hr prices.", "I know stfe Is. I believe she must be trying for the altitude prise." About Due). "Something on your mind. 1 1 "Yes; lsnt it about time to bo get. ting no a benefit for King Hsnaalf"