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[Telegram.]

CHICKASHA, OKLA., April 4, 1916.-

Hon. SCOTT FERRIS,

Member Congress, Washington, D. C.:

A hearing before the Post Office Committee of the House April 7 on H. R. 6915. The employees of the office urge you to say a word in favor of the bill. Thanking you for all favors, we are,

W. H. LABON,
For Clerks and Carriers.

[Telegram.]

SCOTT FERRIS, Washington, D. C.

LAWTON, OKLA., April 5, 1916.

DEAR SCOTT: We, the undersigned post-office employees of the Lawton office, sincerely urge you to be present at the hearing on the Griffin bill-H. R. 6915and speak a word in favor of the bill.

Sincerely,

GORDON, STEWART, HURT, TIMMONS,
RICE, GROUND, BAKER, LEEDOM, LIT-
TELL, WOODHOUSE, CARLIN, WYATT,
BROOKS, KLUCK, POKORNY No. 1,
SCHRAM.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Mr. FITZGERALD. I am heartily in favor of H. R. 6915, known as the Griffin bill. Its purpose is twofold, to increase the efficiency of the Postal Service and to provide for superannuated employees.

The tendency of this age is to provide for persons who have grown old in certain employments, and after years of faithful service are unable longer because of incapacity due to natural causes longer to render efficient service.

It is inhuman to turn such men adrift. To do so leaves them a burden upon those already sufficiently embarrassed, or else makes them a charge upon the community.

To retain them in active service renders the service less efficient than it would be if competent persons were discharging the duties to be performed.

The proposed legislation is not a universal pension scheme. It does not permit capable men to retire and enjoy the bounty of the Government.

On the contrary, it accomplishes a purpose of pronounced value to the service, while making modest provision for those whose energies and efforts were given in the interest of the service.

The bill has the approval of the Post Office Department; it is commended by the postal employees, and it merits the support of Congress. I sincerely trust that it will receive favorable consideration in this committee, and eventually be enacted into law.

STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS GALLAGHER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

Mr. GALLAGHER. I appear here to-day to register my approval of H. R. 6915, introduced by Representative Griffin, of New York, and I believe it to be a very important and worthy measure. I have read this bill carefully and realize that its purpose is for granting indefinite leaves of absence to the superannuated employees of the

Postal Service. I also understand that the Griffin bill has had the indorsement of the National Association of Letter Carriers, United National Association of Post Office Clerks, Railway Mail Association, National Rural Letter Carriers Association, and the great majority of all the other postal employees.

My experience in public life has long since caused me to recognize the fact that superannuation is an evil, particularly so in the Postal Service, which positively needs to be remedied. I was for many years a member of the Board of Education of Chicago, Ill., before which the question of superannuated teachers often came. I think we have a teaching force of about 7,000 teachers in the Chicago schools, and finally a pension law was passed by the legislature of the State making a provision for the retirement of these teachers who had grown gray in the service that met with the approval of the united teaching force of the city as well as the public, and it was considered a great improvement and it worked for the betterment of our schools. Just as it developed that this was for the general betterment of the schools so will the enactment of this bill into a law be for the betterment of the Postal Service of our country, as well as doing justice to our reliable, honorable, and worthy employees, many of whom are hanging on from day to day awaiting the word that Congress has seen fit to enact this much-needed law.

I am very glad to learn from the report of Mr. Miles Dawson, who submitted a statement of his findings to the committee, that he figures, and he is an experienced actuary, that it will only require an appropriation in the neighborhood of $360,000 to put this law in effect the first year. I am sure that the Government will save much more than this amount through the infusion of new blood into the service, the new employee will not be nearly as costly to the Government at the start nor will they require as many to fill the places of those retired, and the difference in salary will make up in a great measure the amount annually required for this purpose by the passage of this bill.

I am further satisfied that such a law will prove helpful and beneficial to all concerned, through a conversation I had with Mr. Frank Rogers, president of the United National Association of Post Office Clerks, and Mr. Edward J. Cantwell, of the National Association of Letter Carriers, who has shown great interest in this matter to my personal knowledge ever since the bill was introduced in Congress. It is a well-known fact that I have never missed an opportunity to raise my voice in behalf of legislation of this character, and I hope that the subcommittee will make a favorable report on this bill to the general committee, and that they will in turn report this bill to the House and recommend its passage; then this much-needed and beneficial legislation will prove its worth not only to the Postal Service but to the great business interests of the country as well.

I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity offered me to say these few words.

STATEMENT OF HON. N. E. MATTHEWS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO.

Mr. MATTHEWS. Referring to H. R. 6915, by Mr. Griffin, granting indefinite leave of absence to superannuated employees of the Postal Service.

After giving due consideration to the bill I am convinced that this bill or one along similar lines should be passed as a matter of economy on the part of the Government. Perhaps it would not be economy just at the present time, but there is no question but as the years go by and employees of the Government, especially of this branch, become old and incapacitated through long and faithful service, it is for the best interests of the Government and only justice to the employees to have them retired, and in doing so it is not more than right that a pension or pay, sufficient for them to live comfortably, should be granted them the remainder of their lives.

It has not been so very many years since the Rural Free Delivery branch of the Postal Service was introduced and put into effect, and I presume that the conditions are as favorable in my congressional district as in any other part of the United States for the operation of this branch of the service. I have had occasion during the past 10 or 12 years to come in touch very frequently with Rural Free Delivery carriers as well as the city carriers. I have watched with a great deal of interest the growth and development of this service, and I have noted that the employees have been faithful and, as a rule, efficient in rendering good service and very much interested in the upbuilding of the Rural Free Delivery Service.

These employees of the Government work under conditions that require them to be out in the discharge of their duties in all kinds of weather, and, as a rule, they do not hesitate to see that the mails are delivered promptly upon all occasions, no matter what the weather may be.

I know that in several instances in my district men have entered the service as comparatively young men and have served up to the present time for 12 or 14 years, with the result that they have been rendered practically unfit for any other kind of business; have lost touch, in fact, with everything else excepting the work they are engaged in and have devoted the best part of their lives thereto.

Practically all the greater corporations are providing for the retirement of their employees and granting them pensions, and it seems to me that it is altogether proper and fit for the Government to do likewise, and thereby make the service attractive and worth while to young men of ability. I am quite sure this would result in a greatly improved service, thereby benefiting the great rural communities of the country.

I sincerely hope you may see your way clear to report this bill, or one along similar lines, favorably.

STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY BRUCKNER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Mr. BRUCKNER. Mr. Chairman, I am taking a very active interest in this movement for the pensioning or the retirement of postal employees as proposed by the Griffin bill, H. R. 6915. My mail is flooded with letters and resolutions from representative business men, social and civic clubs, fraternal organizations, and thousands of citizens urging me to exert every effort toward the enactment into law of this very just measure for the relief of the most efficient and hard-working reliable class of Government servants.

This bill provides for leaves of absence to superannuated employees. of the Postal Service, with an allowance of $600 per annum to be paid monthly, thereby relieving those who have become incapacitated through old age and place them beyond want.

There is a rule in operation in the Post Office Department which has been in existence for many years, to the effect that when an employee has been absent from duty, due to sickness, for 150 days in any one year, the department requests his resignation irrespective of his 30, 40, or 50 years of faithful service, giving him no compensation whatever. The passage of the Griffin bill will end this gross injustice to our old men and will prove an incentive for the younger clerks to render good and efficient service to the public and the Government.

The

More than a thousand post-office employees residing in the Bronx Borough-New York City-will be benefited by this measure if the bill becomes a law. It is maintained that heretofore the main objection to the adoption of a pension plan of this kind was the cost of the system, but it is claimed that the "indefinite leave of absence plan,” as set out in this bill, would reduce the cost to a minimum. figures of a noted actuary show that the cost would not exceed $362,500 in the first year of its operation. This is, indeed, a very small amount when it is considered that it will provide a pension of $500 a year to the superannuated employees of the Postal Service, representing three-tenths of 1 per cent of the total salary list of this service.

The United States Government is the only one among the civilized nations of the world that does not provide for the retirement of its superannuated civil employees under some plan for a pension. The so-called "soulless corporations" and many railroads have created pension systems for their aged employees; hence I do not see why this great Government of ours should not follow the good example.

One of the strongest resolutions for the bill was passel at a meeting of the Democratic county committee of the Bronx, State of New York, urging upon all Members of Congress the necessity of enacting it into law. Copies of this resolution were forwarded to the four Members of Congress representing districts located in that county and copies were sent to the press so that the sentiment of the voters represented by this committee be made known to the public.

Preparedness seems to me to be one of the dominant topics of the day, and, Mr. Chairman, let me say that we can not prepare better than to begin to take care of our old and faithfud postal employees, which I trust you will do in favorably reporting such a measure as will fill this long-felt want.

I am for the bill and will vote and do anything that I think will promote its passage.

Thank you for the courtesy extended me to address the committee.

STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE HOLDEN TINKHAM, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. TINKHAM. Mr. Chairman, I desire to record myself as being absolutely in favor of a suitable form of retirement for all postal employees of the United States Government.

The letter carriers, post-office clerks, and railway mail clerks of this country are, as a class, respectable, faithful, and efficient public servants. Through the snows of winter and under the burning heat of summer the carriers travel their routes, while the post-office and railway-mail clerks perform their manual labors, which are ofttimes too little appreciated by those whom they serve. As the years roll on the ceaseless walking from door to door and the tedious indoor work of the clerks wears out the human machine, and when they feel their bodily vigor waning ask themselves the question, "What is to become of me when I can no longer perform active duty?"

For years past these employees, who have grown old in the service, have been knocking at the doors of Congress for some kind of relief in their old age in the form of a retirement law. It may be well asked, Why have not these men provided for the "rainy day" by saving some of their earnings from year to year so that when the time comes when they must give up their active labors they may retire from the service and live at ease? The answer is not difficult to find. It has only been in recent years that the Government has paid these men what may be called a living wage one that would enable them to live in comfortable surroundings and educate their children as they should be educated. Consequently, it has been impossible for these old men in the service to save from their meager earnings a sufficient amount to warrant them in giving up their positions in the service. Many of them would gladly retire to-day if by doing so they could live without being dependent upon relatives and friends for the food they must eat and the clothes they must wear.

The day is not far distant when the Congress of the United States must face this problem of superannuation and solve it satisfactorily in the interest of these faithful public servants, many of whom have served long years in painstaking, devoted service to the Government and the people of this country.

STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE W. LOFT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Mr. LOFT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, large corporations throughout the country are rapidly inaugurating pension systems for the benefit of the men and women who have grown old in their service. This great Government of ours, it seems to me, should be the leader in humanitarian matters of this kind instead of being the laggard. Men and women who have spent the best years of their activity in the service of the Government are ruthlessly dropped from the pay rolls when they become superannuated by reason of old age or physical infirmities and their places given to younger men and women. The wages paid to them during their long service have not been sufficient to enable them to set aside necessary funds to take care of them when this inevitable day must come, and they are, therefore, forced to look about for some means of employment at a time when, through the appreciation of a generous Government, they should be permitted to spend the remainder of their lives with a reasonable degree of comfort.

This bill giving a pension to those in the classified civil service of the postal division I consider to be a step in the right direction. There is no more worthy class of men and women to be found in the Government service than those in the postal division. This bill has

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