STATEMENT OF HON. CLIFTON N. MCARTHUR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON.

Mr. MCARTHUR. Mr. Chairman, I am heartily in favor of legisla-. of this character, and the thought has occurred to me that the men in the various branches of the Postal Service are of the very highest type of Government employees, but there is this distinction between men in the Postal Service as against men in other branches of the . Government service: Men in practically all of the great departments or offices of the Government are under a strain mentally. The men in the Postal Service are not only under a strain mentally during their hours of work, but they are practically all called upon for very great physical effort in the matter of carrying heavy pouches and packages, and when these men get well along in years this physical strain tells on them. I believe that the Government ought to make some provision to look out for those men in their old age-men who give the best efforts of their vigorous manhood to the service in which we are all interested and in which every person comes more in contact than it does with any other branch of the Government. I believe it to be in the interest of good morals, good health, and general efficiency to pass legislation of this character, and I hope I may have the opportunity of voting for this or a similar bill on the floor of the House.

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES S. DAVENPORT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

Mr. DAVENPORT. Mr. Chairman, all I desire to say to the committee is that I am in favor of this bill or a bill carrying similar provisions, and I believe that after the men have gone through their entire life, or the useful part of their life, in that occupation they ought to be provided for by that government that they have been serving. I am heartily in favor of the bill and hope the committee will report a bill carrying these provisions or similar provisions. Judging from the number of Congressmen here I think it will be difficult for the subcommittee to fail to report it or refuse to report it when it is evident by the appearance of so many Members of the House and the Senate that there is such a large number in favor of the passage of the bill.

STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE HUDDLESTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Mr. Chairman, I have the idea that every fair system of wages contemplate one of two things-that the worker shall save himself enough out of his wages to take care of himself and his family in his old age or that his employer or the Government shall look out after that end of the game. A man must be cared for in his old age. We do not turn horses out when they get old in the fields to starve. Why should we turn men out to starve? The Government has not pursued the policy heretofore of paying these postal employees sufficient to save up something for old age. The pay has been increased in recent years, but until very recently it was quite meager, and I doubt if any postal employee has been able

to make any substantial savings on account of the increase. It seems to me that right now is the time when we should put in force some system of civil pensions for Government employees, and I do not know of a better place to start than with the postal employees.

STATEMENT OF HON. ALLEN T. TREADWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. TREADWAY. Mr. Chairman, I have been asked by the postal employees throughout my district to appear this morning and report myself in favor of a postal retirement plan, such as is contained in the Griffin bill (H. R. 6915). There is an association in Holyoke, Mass., two associations there, in fact. There are three letters from Holyoke; there has been one from Greenfield, Mass.; and three from Pittsfield, Mass. I have been personally very much interested in some form of retirement pay or remuneration for our mail carriers in the Free Delivery Service. Nothing has shown better than the climate of New England this winter what ought to be done for such a service as that. They are underpaid. I do not think that there should be any contributing features, so far as I conceive, on their part. It seems to me right and proper that the Government, after a faithful service, should in some way care for employees of this character just the same as any business concern or the same as many States do, and in this connection I wish to call attention to the method that has been pursued in Massachusetts. You have before you, perhaps not for hearing at this moment, but you have before your committee a bill, I understand, based on the method of retirement in Massachusetts, introduced by Representative Tague. It has worked well in our State, and I commend it to your atention in making up some form of bill fair both to the employees and to the interests of the Government. I heartily commend the principle involved, although, of course, I am not in a position to express a definite opinion as to the merit of the bill before you. I will not do that, of course, but will leave that to the good judgment of such representatives of the committee as are handling the matter.

STATEMENT OF HON. ISAAC R. SHERWOOD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO.

Mr. SHERWOOD. Gentlemen, I am in favor of this bill, because I believe it is a kind of benevolent paternalism. I was on the floor when the seed bill passed last year, I think, calling for $17,000,000. A few years ago it was $3,000,000, and I have made inquiries from farmers, and I can not see any more benefit from the bill than they had when it was $3,000,000. Take seeds, for instance, that you buy in the feed store for 10 cents a package it costs the Government to deliver 50 cents a package. On the floor of the House there was an appropriation made of $400,000 to suppress the hog cholera, and I think that a good man, with his head and heart above his belly, is entitled to more consideration than the unthinking hog, whose head and heart are on a level with his belly. I believe the postal employees give the best service to the Government and work more hours and are entitled to more consideration than an unthinking hog or seed for farmers. I have introduced a bill in the interests of

paternalism myself. I introduced and helped to put through the $1-a-day pension bill for old soldiers, and I have introduced a bill for old-age pensions on the style of Germany and England and countries of the Old World, and I am sincerely for this bill and I hope the committee will report it and that it will pass; and if you do pass it, God Almighty ought to bless you, and I will agree that the 400 employees in the Toledo post office will all bless you.

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM H. COLEMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Mr. COLEMAN. I wish to commend this bill to the committee because of its extreme conservatism. It is not asking the Government to accept a new standard in the way of old-age pensions, but only to follow a long way after the standard that has been set by private corporations. Nor do I look upon it as a benevolent paternalism; but I think it makes for efficiency and that it will be to the interests of the Government to pass such a bill, thus encouraging the young men and the middle-aged men in the service as they look forward to the time when, after long years of faithful service, they can retire with a living salary, and it is because of the conservatism of the bill that I say this committee ought not to hesitate to report it favorably to the House.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH TAGGART, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KANSAS.

Mr. TAGGART. I wish briefly, but most earnestly, to. urge the committee to recommend this bill favorably. It has other grounds on which it can be based, besides paternalism and humanity, grounds of far-reaching and farsighted public policy. The beginner may take the place of the superannuated, and the difference in the cost of employing the beginner and the cost of continuing the superannuated in office will largely compensate for any expense of the bill. We pass this way but once, and in passing there is not anything so wise in government as to convince the human being who is discharging public service every day that other men are quite as good as he is. If the men in Congress have a heart, and if the Government is the expression of the united will of the American people, their benevolence, their generosity, their patriotism, their trust in each other, because this Government is founded absolutely upon the trust of one citizen placed in another, and the more men are trusted the more they will rise to the duty of discharging that trust faithfully, honestly, and with enthusiasm, I am for this bill because the United States should be a model employer. We should not be put to shame by those corporations that we have abused so loudly on platforms throughout the Union. We see the superannuated employee of the railroad company that we are chiseling sitting on the front porch, waiting for the sunset, and receiving a pension from the railroad company that is so roundly abused. We see the former and superannuated employee of every form of industry in our great cities treated with that humanity that is not only a kindness to him but is a far-reaching and wise measure for the corporation. This Government must be wise; it must cultivate the patriotism, the

enthusiasm, and the absolute faithfulness of every man who serves it. It is the greatest of all experiments.

We have our boys in Mexico, trying to correct evils that arise in a Government where self-government would seem to be an impossibility, and we maintain the greatest thing that man ever did, and that is self-government. Let us be wise, let us be generous, and let us be fair, as fair as citizens are to their employees. I believe the cost of this bill will be comparatively insignificant compared to the value of it. We shut our eyes and vote a battleship worth $16,000,000 that lasts 16 minutes with a 10-foot hole in it, made by some lowbrowed operator of a submarine. That would be ten times what this bill would ever cost. We do that, and go home, and the folks do not know we did it, but if we knock a $900 clerk off the roll, somebody will applaud, and stamp his great plow shoes on the floor, because we practice economy. We take great pains sometimes to strain out an act, as Talmadge read that particular text, and then pleasantly worry down a camel, and look as wise as a frog after we do it. This is a mere trifle compared to the value of it in the public service. We need a spirit in that service that we haven't in it now. We have paid our armies, we have paid our navies, we retire the officer who sat around when he was not dancing the tango, for 40 years, on a prince's salary, and turn the poor stooped, worn-out letter carrier out of the service of the Government to die in poverty. It is not fair, and I am for this bill.

STATEMENT OF HON. CARL E. MAPES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN.

Mr. MAPES. Mr. Chairman, I have been asked to appear here by several of the postal employees of my district, representing as they do all of the postal employees of the district, which I am very glad to do. I have always been in favor of some such legislation as proposed in this bill. I have been asked by the secretary of the Grand Rapids branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers and by the secretary of the Grand Rapids branch of the United Association of Post Office Clerks, especially, and in the language of one of those correspondents, after mentioning the names of the three members of this subcommittee that will conduct this hearing, he says: "Our measure is in the good hands of the three honorable gentlemen above mentioned, and they are all very zealous for its success," and understanding that to be the case, from my own personal knowledge, I simply want to add my indorsement of the legislation, and hope that some remedial relief of this kind will be passed at this session of Congress.

Mr. HASKELL, M. C., of New York. I desire to be recorded in favor of this bill, and would ask leave to file a memorandum.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN A. ELSTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

Mr. ELSTON. Mr. Chairman, I have always been in favor of retirement pensions, and I have declared myself along that line more than once, before I ever thought of going to Congress. I will not take up any time now, because I expect that I will have the op

portunity to express my views more fully. I would only say that I am in favor of this bill, because I believe it is just and humane and because I believe it makes in the interest of efficiency and economy. I believe further that it is a measure of preparedness that we have overlooked, and that we ought to press now as we have never done before. It is a kind of preparedness that I think is more fundamental than some of the others.

Mr. SMITH, M. C., of Minnesota. Mr. Chairman, I have received a request from my constituents that I appear this morning and express myself in favor of this legislation. I want to indorse everything that my colleague, Mr. Elston, has already said, and I would like to have the privilege of filing a brief.

STATEMENT OF HON. ISAAC SIEGEL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Mr. SIEGEL. I simply desire to say that I have always been in favor of a measure of this kind, and I file a statement showing that the press of New York is unanimously in favor of this measure, or a similar measure. I also file statistics showing that we have reached a time in this country, when in view of the fact that 19 out of every 100 men who reach the age of 60 or more are at the present dependent upon charitable institutions and their relatives for a livelihood, that the Government of the United States should at this time set an example for the other employers of labor throughout the country and retire employees when they do reach the age of 60 or above.

I also desire to say that Congressman Bennet asked me to state that he is in favor of this measure.

(The statement of Mr. Siegel is as follows:)

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I appear here in favor of this measure because I believe its enactment would result in justice being done to the employees of the Postal Service.

It is readily conceded that there are no more faithful, harder worked, and more conscientious employees in the service of the Government than are the men of the Postal Service.

Working at all hours, in winter and in summer, in snow and rain, in. wind and storm, day and night, and under the strictest of discipline, yet at all times they perform their work honestly and most thoroughly.

I do not know whether any of the members of the committee has ever visited New York City and seen some of the old men in the Postal Service. Decrepit, old, and bent over on account of age, feeble, barely keeping flesh and bones together, you see them each with a mail bag on his shoulders endeavoring, with the hardest kind of physical effort, to perform work that a younger man should be doing. If the carrier that I have described was working for a large corporation he would, at his age, be retired on a pension, or during his lifetime would have been in a position to save sufficient money with which to get along in the last few years of his life.

It is the theory of those who are interested in the welfare of humanity and of those who have made the subject a thorough study that the result of not paying a living wage is to necessitate the paying of a pension in old age.

When men reach old age they should be able to have the opportunity of quiet enjoyment of life, without the constant worry how to live, and where to obtain the means with which to live. Yet that is the condition which confronts the average employee in the service of the Government when he reaches old age.

One of the big life insurance companies of the United States has been collecting statistics on this very important subject. If you begin with 100 average healthy young Americans, each at the age of 25 years, and then trace the story of each through the next 40 years, what is it that we find? You will find that out of the hundred 64 will still be alive. You are naturally interested in know