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REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT
BY THE
U.^, COMMITTEE ON DEPARTMENT METHODS.
Classification of Positions and Gradation of Salaries
for Employees of the Executive Departments
and
Independent Establishments in Washington.
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AUG 8 1907
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Treasury Department,
Washington^ January ^, igo"/.
To the President:
We have the honor to submit herewith a schedule of classiiication of positions
and of gradation of salaries for employees of the Executive Departments and inde-
pendent establishments in Washington, or directly on detail therefrom, with certain
recommendations for giving effect to the same.
In this schedule the grades and salaries have been arranged with the following
purposes especially in view:
1. The lower salaries sufficiently high to attract competent persons to the
service.
2. Salaries sufficiently graded to assure frequent promotion, as a stimulus to
the best efforts.
3. The higher salaries sufficiently high to develop and retain the best executive
and expert service.
4. The gradation and equalization of salaries in all Departments according to
the character and the responsibility of the work performed.
SCHEDULE.
SUBCLERICAL GRADES.
Employees whose work occupies onl}' part of the time each daj', as charwomen,
Salaries.
[ $240
jamtors, etc [ ^^^
Emploj'ees who enter the service at an earl}' age (14 to 18 years), and are
engaged in light work, as messenger boys
Employees engaged in rough and unskilled work, as laborers generally .
Employees whose duties are not clerical or mechanical, but require some special
skill or involve personal responsibility, as messengers, watchmen, classified
laborers, sorters, counters, etc ,
No person whose principal duties are as above shall be paid over $840.
(3)
300
360
420
480
606
660
660
720
780
840
CLERICAL GRADES.
Under clerks. — Employees who are assigned to clerical work of a simple or routine
character requiring care, accuracy, and skill
Examples of such work are mere copying and typewriting; simple index-
ing; filing cards and papers; briefing contents of letters or documents on back;
preparing letters by filling blank forms for official signature; mailing or
dispatching; easier stenograph}-; simple bookkeeping, requiring but little
knowledge of the theory of accounts.
Junior clerks. — Emploj-ees who are assigned to clerical work of a routine char-
acter requiring but little original thought or consideration, but requiring
judgment, responsibility, and special skill
Examples of such work are preparing briefs of papers in a case for
recording ; expert filing ; examining property returns ; ptoof reading ;
issuance and distribution of supplies ; examining vouchers and disbursing
accounts, under the application of simple standards or requirements ; record-
ing cases and tran.sactions where considerable judgment is required to
determine the relative importance of factors, and preparing an adequate
index thereof ; the ascertaining of facts independently and drafting action
on average cases ; composing and preparing letters for official signature ;
stenography requiring skill and practice ; bookkeeping involving a knowl-
edge of the theory of accounts and departmental records and precedents.
Clerks. — Emploj-ees who are assigned to work more or less routine, involving
responsibility, special ability, and original thought, consideration, and inves-
tigation
Examples of such work are directing and instructing clerks of lower
grades; expert stenography; editing; the a,scertaining of facts independently
in complicated cases, and drafting action thereon; serving as confidential
clerk to head of department or bureau; bookkeeping involving an extended
knowledge of Department records and precedents and the handling of intri-
cate accounts; recording complex and difficult cases and properly indexing
the same; service in purchasing and issuing supplies; service as paying teller;
examining mone}' accounts requiring familiaritj' with the laws and with
regulations and requirements of the Treasury Department.
Senior clerks. — Employees who are assigned to work largely supervisory, or
requiring the highest order of clerical ability, involving much original
thought, consideration, and investigation
Examples of stich work are the investigation of large and intricate cases,
requiring familiarity with the laws and decisions of courts and with Depart-
ment practice and policy, and the drafting of action thereon; the conduct of
such investigations with the aid of assistants, whose work must be directed
and correlated; service as paying teller with large responsibility; acting as
chiefs of sections or divisions, and preparing or laying out work for others.
Salaries.
$900
960
020
080
200
260
320
380
1,500
I, 620
1.740
860
980
100
SUPERVISORY GRADE.
Chiefs of divisions and chief clerks. — Eniplo3-ees who
executive, and administrative duties
perform supervisory,
PROFESSIONAI,, SCIENTIFIC, AND TECHNICAI,, AND MISCELI^ANEOUS
EMPLOYEES.
The salaries of these shall be assimilated, as far as practicable, to the scale
established for clerical and higher grades. The number and variety of
designations shall be as small as practicable; and the duties assigned to such
employees shall be confined as far as possible within the lines indicated by
their titles and for which they may have passed examinations.
Any Hue of work not herein mentioned should be assigned to the grade
to which, on careful comparison, it seems most nearly related.
SKILLED TRADES EMPLOYEES.
No fixed scale of compensation is recommended, but whatever salaries
are determined upon should conform to the grades fixed in the schedule.
EXPLANATION OF SCHEDULE.
The number of titles has been reduced, and at the same time the number of
different salary grades has been increased. The interval between salaries in the
lower grades is small ($60), while that between the higher grades offers the
opportunity for a greater promotion ($120). The salaries of $480, $600, and
$720 for clerical work are eliminated, and several classes above $1,800 are added.
For professional, scientific, technical, skilled trades, and miscellaneous employees,
no graded scale is submitted. So great is the diversity among such employees that
each establishment emplo3dng them can best determine their proper gradation. It
is only required that their salaries be, so far as possible, adjusted to the scale fixed
in the schedule,' and that they be given corresponding grades and titles whenever
these are applicable. The designations "under," "junior," and "senior," are
proposed as preferable to "aid," "assistant," etc.; for example:
Junior biologist. Junior topographer. Junior geologist.
Biologist. Topographer. Geologist.
Senior biologist. Senior topographer. Senior geologist.
Chief biologist. Chief topographer. Chief geologist.
All the salaries proposed, it will be observed, are multiples of 12. The sundry
civil act for the fiscal year 1905 requires that the annual compensation of employees
of the United States shall be divided into 12 equal installments, one of which
shall be paid for each calendar month. The inconvenience of applying this rule to
salaries not divisible by 12 has proved to be very considerable, and indicates that in
any rearrangement that may be effected every annual salary ought to be a sum
which, when divided by 12, will give a convenient quotient of even dollars, avoiding
the occurrence of cents or of repetends.
The adoption of the schedule proposed in this report would make an important,
and we think very desirable, change in the departmental practice relating to promo-
tions. The clerical force, under the plan proposed, is divided into four main divi-
sions — under clerks, junior clerks, clerks, and senior clerks — but fourteen different
rates of compensation are provided for. For example, under the head of junior
clerks four different rates of compensation are provided, namely, $1,200, $1,260,
$1,320, and $1,380; and the general character of the duties of a junior clerk is defined
in the schedule. Sixty-dollar promotions within the range from $1,200 to $1,380
are therefore made possible, and in making such promotions it is expected that
length of service and the quality and quantity of work done will form the guiding
considerations. When a junior clerk is receiving $1,380, the highest rate of com-
pensation provided for the class of work which he or she is doing, the next promotion
will involve an increase of $120 a j^ear and a change of designation from junior clerk
to clerk. It is not expected that a promotion of this kind will take place without a
change in the character of the work done. A clerk receiving such a promotion must
have demonstratedj by his general intelligence and- ability, his capacity to perform a
higher grade of work than that which he has been doing, and the promotion will
involve a change of occupation.
It is a well-known fact that through all the Departments people are sitting
side by side doing the same class of work and receiving very different compen-
sation. Some clerks doing the simplest kind of work are, by reason of length of
service, receiving high salaries, while young men only recently certified by the
Civil Service Commission, whose general intelligence and ability soon cause them
to be assigned to the most difficult work in the office, have to wait many years
before they receive the recognition in salary that the character of their work
justifies. A large proportion of the injustice and favoritism in the Government
service springs from this cause; aud while no system can be made to fit every
individual case, the adoption of the general principle involved in the schedule at
the beginning of this report will very largely reduce injustice of this kind now
existing.
PRESENT SYSTEM AND NEED OF RECLASSIFICATION.
A reclassification of jDositions, with a readjxistment of salaries graded so that the
differences in salary shall represent actual differences in character of work and
responsibility, has long been needed in the interest of efficient and economical admin-
istration. The salaries now paid in the departmental service in Washington are
based upon a classification of the clerks made in acts of Congress of 1853 and 1854,
both being effective from July i, 1853. These acts graded the entire clerical force
(except the Departments of State and Justice) into four classes, designated as first,
second, third, and fourth class clerks, and fixed the compensation of these classes at
$1,200, $1,400, $1,600, and $1,800, respectively. The average salary of the 700
clerks provided for in these acts was $1,446. The Departments and ■bureaus of
1853 were small. The organization was thus compact and comparatively simple,
and the work of direction and supervision not especially exacting. The four
grades, it ma}' be assumed, established distinctions fairly sufficient to mark the
grades of work and responsibility among the classes of clerks as the departmental
service was then organized.
Since 1853, as the country has grown and the needs of the Government have
called for a larger force for the transaction of its business, from time to time addi-
tional positions have been created, divisions have been added, and new bureaus have
been established, until at the present time the departmental service in Washington
employs in clerical and professional, scientific, and technical positions approximately
13,000 persons, and the service administered by these employees numbers in Wash-
ington and elsewhere over 150,000 persons. There are now individual bureaus
that have more employees than the entire departmental service in 1853. There
are to-day division chiefs who are' required to pass upon questions of greater com-
plexity and involving greater responsibility than were the bureau chiefs of fifty
years ago.
Despite this enormous growth in the departmental service no consistent plan
has ever been followed in making the additions, nor has au}^ effort ever been made
to reclassify the^i^ositions or to adjust the salaries with any reference to the class of
duties performed or the responsibilities borne. The four classes of salaries estab-
lished in 1853 have been accepted as still furnishing a proper basis of compensation,
and other classes have been added from time to time by appropriation acts and by
administrative officers in handling lump funds. As a result there is now general
confusion in the salary grades of emploj-ees. Not only is there great diversity of
compensation for the same kinds of work, but persons receiving the higher salaries
may be found performing the simplest routine work, while others in the lowest
grades are performing work of the most exacting character. Professional, technical,
and scientific work especially are notoriously underpaid as compared with clerical
work, and a comparison of salaries for such work shows the greatest inequali-
ties. Throughout the entire service the relation of the easier position, the more
difficult position, and the responsible supervisory position has not for many years
been adequately distinguished by the salary grades.
From j^ear to year, and especially within a period of two or three years, some
reorganization and revision of method, tending toward a systematization of the work,
have gone on in the different bureaus and offices. This has been done after a care-
ful study of the work in outside business establishments and a comparison of office
with office, and has been accomplished quietly, without the knowledge of the public,
and in the ordinary way of readjustment of the work of a well-conducted office. So
far as a reclassification of the entire service and a grading of the salaries in propor-
tion to the work and responsibility are concerned, nothing has been done -within a
half century.
PRINCIPLES FOR RECLASSIFICATION.
Any plan for a reclassification of tlie departmental service and a grading of
salaries should have for its primary purpose the betterment of the service, and such
a plan will in the end secure more economical administration. So far as possible
the same principles should be applied to the Government service as are employed in
all successful business establishments. These principles may be briefly stated as
follows :
1. Salaries sufficiently high to attract competent persons to the service.
2. Frequent promotions, strictly according to merit, as a stimulus 'to the best
efforts.
3. Security of tenure during loyal and efficient service.
The highest efficiency of the personnel depends upon these principles. Their
faithful application will make for efficiency in the public service in the same measure
as in the business world.
SALARIES IN COVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SERVICE.
A systematic effort has been made to obtain information from business estab-
lishments of various kinds respecting the gradation and salaries of their employees,
and returns were received from about fifty, including municipalities, railroads,
insurance companies, large stores, and manufacturing establishments. These have
been compared with similar returns in regard to the classes and salaries in the Depart-
ments. It is difficult to make a reliable comparison respecting the great mass of
positions, because of the impossibility of comparing the value and effectiveness of
services rendered. In general it is found that directive and supervisory agents and
those using technical skill or expert knowledge are much better paid in private and
corporate employ than under the Government, that the better grades of efficient and
well-qualified clerical employees are somewhat better paid than are those in similar
positions in the Departments, and that the lower grades of clerks, stenographers,
and typewriters are better paid in the public service than in private employ.
That the lower grades of clerical employees in the Government service are better
paid than persons in similar work in private employ has long been generally recog-
nized. But the experience of administrative officers and of the Civil Service Com-
mission in securing competent eligibles to fill the lower positions proves conclusively
that the lower salaries are not sufficient to attract competent persons to the service.
These positions have been found the hardest of all to fill with persons actually com-
petent, under the standard maintained by the Commission and the Executive Depart-
ments. Thus, in the last fiscal year, 1,462 persons were offered positions at less than
$900 in the Departments at Washington. Of these, 442, or 30.23 per cent, declined.
Positions at $900 or more were offered to 762 persons, and 202, or 26.51 per cent,
declined. Under the War Department the declinations of positions in Washington
rose to 32 per cent, while the declinations of field positions reached 53 per cent. Of
the 860 male eligibles on the clerical register of the Civil Service Commission, 445,
or 51.73 per cent, have stated that they would not accept positions at a salary lower
than $840.
EFFICIENCY AND PERMANENCY IN SERVICE.
The very serious consequence of these declinations is that the most competent
and desirable eligibles decline the salaries that can be offered, and it is necessary to
appoint in their stead persons distinctly inferior in qualifications. This is a matter
seriously affecting the quality of the personnel since it is by promotion from the
lower grades that the service is built up.
It is plain that such salaries as $480, $600, and $720 a year, "which have become
quite common in several Departments of late, are entirely too low for any person
who has passed creditably a civil-service examination for the clerical grades, and that
they tend to the deterioration of the service.
Although frequent examinations at numerous points are held for the purpose it
is extremely difficult to secure properly qualified persons for many positions paying
from $720 to $1,500 a year. This fact, together with the large number of resigna-
tions which take place in these grades, clearly indicates that the same character of
service commands a higher compensation in private than in public employ, or that
the public service does not offer adequate promise of advancement.
In 1906 there were 569 resignations of positions below $900 in Washington,
compared with 1,020 acceptances of similar places, and 664 resignations at $900 or
more, compared with 560 acceptances. The total resignations were 1,233- and the
total acceptances 1,580. In less than six years 676 persons have retired from the
force of the War Department employed in Washington. Of this number 2 28, or
33.75 per cent, usually the more efficient young men with salaries averaging $1,051
a year, left the service voluntarily to better their condition.
CONDITIONS FOR FAIR COMPARISON.
Several important conditions must be borne in mind when a comparison is
urged between the small wages paid in certain lines by corporations and private
employers and the alleged high salaries under the Government. Applicants for
appointment in the Departments must prove a high standard of character, and must
pass a rigid examination to test their qualifications. Furthermore, the law apportion-
ing positions among the States and Territories requires that many eligibles entering
the service shall leave homes far distant from Washington and take up their resi-
dence in a strange city under conditions of life generally more expensive than
those to which they have been accustomed.
lO
On the other hand, most of the positions which constitute the entrance to
private and corporate employ are recruited from girls and boys of the teeming
population in the mill towns and commercial centers, who compete for employment
as soon as they possess the rudiments of common school education or even without
that qualification, and who generallj' live at home, contributing to and deriving their
support from the common fund. They afford no criterion for a scale of salaries for
persons possessing the high degree of general education or special training now
required for entrance into the Government service — a degree of education and
training necessary for the proper conduct of the public business in any of its
branches.
It must be borne in mind that the requirements of the |)ublic business are
widely different from those of a private office or commercial firm. The object of the
latter is gain merely. Its directive power and responsibilities are within itself.
Its employees are supervised by the owners and beneficiaries of the business. On
the other hand, the employee of the Government is responsible to a line of superior
officers, and finally to Congress and the people of the United States. He must
transact his business in accordance with numerous statutes. His records must be
perfectly kept, every transaction must be completely set forth, every letter must be
correct in form and substance, so that a full account may be rendered at any moment.
To this end system and method must everywhere prevail, requiring the constant
service of trained and loyal eniplo37ees. A very slight inspection of the correspond-
ence, methods, and administrative details of the vast majoritj^ of business establish-
ments will prove that the}? are far below any standard which would be tolerated in
a public office.
MINIMUM SALARY AND PROMOTIONS.
The foregoing considerations make it clear that no salary lower than $900
a year should be paid as compensation for clerical work in the departmental
service. No lower salary can be paid if the standard of character and ability in
the personnel of the Departments is to be maintained.
The principles recognized in business of whatever kind require that promo-
tions be sufficiently frequent to encourage the employee to put forth his best efforts.
That a reclassification of salaries in the departmental service into grades and classes
which will permit more freqitent promotions would be in accord with the best
business practice, and would increase the efficiency of the Government service, is
the opinion of all who are familiar with the work and the personnel of the
service.
There seems to be no good reason why the established difference between all
salary classes should be as great as $200. It is believed that a difference of $60
a year would have the advantage of permitting more frequent promotions and would
II
be a reasonable interval between the lower classes, and that between the intermediate
and higher classes a difference of $120 would make a reasonable advance. The
grades should be distinctly marked by titles indicating the increasing importance of
the higher positions as well as the higher character of the work and the greater
increase in compensation.
The salary classes for the clerical force should not only be numerous enough
to promise frequent promotion, but the salaries for the positions involving the
more responsible- work should be sufficiently high to induce those of capacity and
education in the service to fit themselves for the highest class of work and
furthermore sufficiently high to retain such persons in the service. For such a
purpose the differences between the higher clerical grades and the supervisory
grades and technical positions should be fixed more in accordance with the value
placed upon such training and abilities in the business world. That the salaries
of the higher positions in the Departments have never been adjusted to a proper
proportion with the clerical grades is familiar knowledge, for it is in these positions
that the greatest inconsistencies and inequalities exist.
SUPERVISORY, TECHNICAL, AND PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS.
The strong attraction of the opportunities and unlimited possibilities of
the business world has been especiall}^ emphasized within a recent period by the
numerous resignations from supervisory, technical, and professional positions in the
Government service. The inadequate compensation for the higher positions and
the limited opportunities for advancement result in mau}^ resignations from clerical
positions of j^oung men of ability and force of character. If an early readjustment
does not offer proper recognition of executive ability and adequate compensation
for executive and supervisory work and for the various classes of technical and
professional work, the standard of Government work will suffer as regards both
the quality and cost of the -work.
That the salaries in the departmental service should be graded with regard to
the work and responsibility attached to the various positions is a proposition that
would seem to require no argument. But under the system at present in effect there
are no uniform or fixed requirements for each grade, and persons who are never
called upon to perform the higher classes of work and who are without the capacity
to perform such work may have reached the higher grades merel}' on account
of seniorit}/ or faithful service. A scheme of salaries devised to secure efficient
and economical administration should make it impossible in the future for persons
to be promoted to the higher grades without the capacity to perform the work of such
grades.
12
A careful study of all the conditions surrounding tlie work in tlie departmental
service and of the considerations set forth in the foregoing pages has resulted in the
schedule presented at the beginning of this report.
READJTJSTMENT OF SALARIES.
The results of the application of the proposed schedule according to the princi-
ples set down therein would then be —
1. The raising of salaries of all clerical positions below $900 a year to $900.
2. The readjusting of salaries of the directive and supervisory positions and
professional, technical, and scientific positions, according to the character of work
and responsibilit}^, which would bring about an increase of salary for many, but not
by any means for all such positions.
3. The readjusting of salaries for the intermediate positions between $900 and
the supervisory grades, now distributed into a few regular and many irregular
classes, so as to distribute them into fourteen regular classes. The plan of the read-
justment in these classes, which include the great mass of clerical employees, does
not contemplate any increase all along the line, but merely the creation of several
higher classes for those positions involving the more exacting and responsible work
below the supervisory grade, and more frequent classes in the grades still lower down.
The readjustment of these classes would effect some individual reductions in the
compensation of those persons who are receiving salaries out of proportion to the
work they are performing, as well as some promotions for those whose work merits
it. The smaller differences between salary grades will help to make these readjust-
ments easier.
COST OF RECLASSIFICATION AND REASONS THEREFOR.
To ascertain the cost of the reclassification of positions and the readjustment of
salaries, according to the principles and rates of the foregoing schedule, estimates
have been made for a number of offices differing as to the character of their work.
These estimates show that an increase in the appropriations for the payment of
salaries of approximately 10 per cent would be necessary to effect this readjustment.
A variation was found in the cost of applying the schedule to the different offices,
due partly to the diff'erence in size of the offices, partly to the differing character of
the work, and partly to the fact that some of the positions and offices of more recent
creation are upon a salary basis more nearly in accord with the value of the service
performed than are others.
The chief difficulty in the proposed reclassification of emplo3^ees will be to make
sure that the same importance be always given to certain lines of substantially similar
work performed in different bureaus and Departments. This may be assured by a
careful observance of the foregoing schedule in regard to the character of work
13
appropriate to the several clerical grades, or by the determination of a board of equal-
ization appointed by the head of each Department for the express purpose of securing
uniformity in making the change from the present to the proposed schedule.
The reasons which have been considered in examining the question of a reclassifi-
cation of the departmental service are reasons which strictly concern the good of the
service; that is to say, reasons which affect its organization and its efficient and
economical administration. As will have been observed, no consideration has been
given to the fact that the cost of living has enormously increased since 1853, due
(i) to the growth of Washington within that period from a straggling town of 40,000
to a great city of over 300,000, (2) to a very much higher standard of living, and (3)
to a marked increase within the last ten years in the prices of nearly all commodi-
ties. Nor has any mention been made of the fact that the compensation of labor
in all other industries and occupations has increased enormously in the last half
century, and especially within the last decade. The conclusion that there is urgent
need of a reclassification and regrading of the departmental service has been arrived
* at entirely apart from these considerations. Nevertheless, the question of a general
increase in salaries on account of -these changes can not be ignored. The single
fact of the growth of the capital from a town of. 40,000 to a great city of over
300,000, even without other causes, necessarily means a much higher expense for
the necessaries of life, and is in itself a powerful reason urging a readjustment of
the standard of compensation.
The strongest reason for a general increase in the salaries of Government
emplo3^ees is in the increased compensation of all other classes of workers, whether
in professional, commercial, or manufacturing pursuits. Since 1853, when Govern-
ment salaries were last classified, this increase has been fairly stead}', in spite of
some fluctuations. The report of the Senate Finance Committee on Wholesale
Prices, Wages, and Transportation, published in 1893, shows that between 1853 and
1890 daily wages of employees in 21 industries investigated increased 73.1 per cent.
WAGE.S AND COST OF LIVING.
Since 1S90 the course of wages in all occupations has been steadily upward.
The reports of the Bureau of Labor of the Department of Commerce and Labor
upon wages in 42 industries since 1890 show that in 1905 hourly wages in those
industries had increased 18.5 per cent over the year 1890. Reports covering the
same industries are of course not yet obtainable for the 5'ear 1906, but it is believed
that the increases during that year were greater and more general than in any other
single year.
While no figures are available to show earnings in professional and commercial
pursuits, it is not to be doubted that the increases since 1853 and since 1890 have
been as great as in the 21 industries covered by the report of the Senate Finance
14
Committee up to 1890, and in the 42 industries covered by the reports of the Bureau
of Labor from 1890 to 1905.
The marked increase in the prices of commodities since 1890, and especially
during the past decade, is shown in the reports on prices issued by the Bureau of
Labor. Bulletin No. 65 of that Bureau shows that the cost of the staple articles of
food throughout the United States was higher in 1905 than in any year since 1890,
and that the course of prices has been steadily upward since 1896. These figures
show that the cost of food (the several articles being weighted according to family
consumption) was 17.7 per cent higher in 1905 than in 1896.
CONDITIONS IN WASHINGTON.
The prices for i'9o6 for the entire country are not yet available, but from an
investigation covering prices in Washington, just completed, it was found that the
average cost of food in this city was 4.4 per cent higher during the year 1906 than
dtiring 1905. The course of prices throughout the year was steadily upward in
nearly all articles of food, and there is no indication that the limit has yet been
reached. The prices for December were the highest of the year, being 3.9 per cent
higher than the average prices for the year 1906. The prices for December were
therefore 8.5 per cent above the average for 1905. The prices for December, 1906,
in Washington, are thus shown to have been 27.67 per cent higher than the average
prices of 1896 covering the whole country.
An investigation in Washington of the retail prices of white-ash anthracite
stove coal has recently been made, covering a period of twenty-one years. The facts
disclosed by this inquiry show that the 1906 prices of coal were 25 per cent higher
than those of 1886 and 30 per cent higher than those of 1890.
In the matter of rents likewise there has been a gradual advance. The growth
and development of the city and the progress of public improvements have resulted
in the displacement of many houses of the older type. With the largely increased
cost of materials and labor the newer houses of corresponding size, but equipped
with sanitary improvements and modern conveniences, can be had only at consid-
erably higher rental. While many would be willing to dispense with some of the
modern improvements and actually seek for the older houses for the sake of lower
rental, the number of such houses is few in comparison with the demand, and the
average householder must take the newer house at the higher price.
It is not possible to give figures representing with exactness the increases
during recent years in the cost of clothing, furniture, life insurance, and the many
miscellaneous necessaries of the household. ' But in all of the articles enumerated
and in many others the increase in price has been large — as large, it may be safely
15
said, as tiie average for the classes of articles given where the increase is certainly
known.
The pressure of the increases in the prices of all the necessaries of life is familiar
to all. The Government emplo^^ee feels the increase the more keenly because of the
fact that those engaged in similar lines of business, by reason of their increased earn-
ings, have been able to maintain a higher standard of living and are now able to
meet the extremely high prices of the present time. For a period of years there
has been a steady upward movement toward a more liberal standard of living — a
movement which even the most penurious self-denial can not wholly resist. Salaries
which were formerly acceptable to men of ability, as enabling them to live and sup-
port their families on a fair scale of comfort, are now quite inadequate to meet the
social, educational, and other demands necessarily incident to their positions.
Because of the reasons which have been set forth in the foregoing pages this
committee submits the following recommendations :
REICOMMENDATIONS.
1. That Congress be asked to make an appropriation of a sum equivalent to lo
per cent of the total amount provided for in the pending appropriation bills for the
payment of salaries (whether statutory or paid from lump funds) of employees of
each of the bureaus and offices of the Executive Departments and independent
establishments in Washington, or directly on detail therefrom, for the fiscal j^ear
beginning July i, 1907, for the purpose of adapting the compensation of such
employees for that fiscal year to the schedule submitted.
2. That Congress be asked further to authorize and direct that the head of each
Bxecutive Department and independent establishment in Washington prepare a
classification of positions and salaries of employees in his office in Washington, or
on direct detail therefrom, in accordance with the schedule herewith submitted and
within the sums appropriated for the payment of such salaries for the fiscal year
beginning July i, 1907, including the increase provided for in recommendation i,
the said classification to provide for the same number of employees and, as near
as may be, with due regard to the principles of this schedule, following the same
relative distribution of classes as provided for in the pending appropriation bills
for the fiscal year beginning July i, 1907. That it be further provided by
Congress that such classification when formally' approved by the President shall be
followed in the payment of salaries in each office during the fiscal year beginning
July I, 1907, and that future estimates presented to Congress be based upon this
classification.
i6
3. That a committee be formed, composed of a representative of each Bxecutive
Department and independent establishment in Washington, designated by the head
thereof, whose duty it shall be to consider the character of the work performed in
the several bureaus and offices and the salaries paid therefor and to recommend such
further adjustments or other measures as will bring about a general uniformity of
compensation in all public offices, for the same kind of work, such recommendations
to be considered in the preparation of future estimates.
Respectfully submitted.
C. H. Keep,
Lawrence O. Murray,
JamEvS Rudolph Garfield,
GiFFORD PiNCHOT,
CoiiuniHee on Department Methods.
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^S^ INDIANA 46962