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building who has enlisted; a young man at a $1,400 salary has enlisted in the District Guard.

The CHAIRMAN. Do their salaries continue or do they go out?

Mr. WARWICK. Their salaries stop. This man will go on a salary of $30 a month, of course, and he has no provision for being returned to the service. The law has provided that members of the Officers' Reserve Corps going on active duty shall have their places back when they return, but nothing has been provided for enlisted men; but, of course, this particular man, if he comes back, we will want, because he is a fine stenographer. Then we have the difficulty that is always met of other departments wanting our men, and it is difficult in these times to refuse where it is the War and Navy Departments wanting experienced men for their work. Two of our law clerks have gone to the Navy Department.

Mr. GILLETT. At a higher salary?

Mr. WARWICK. Yes, sir; at a higher salary; $2,500. Of the nine law clerks four are left.

Mr. GILLETT. Did they go into the regular force of the Navy Department or some emergency force?

Mr. WARWICK. The extra force provided for the department.

Mr. GILLETT. Under which the compensation is fixed by the Secretary of the Navy and not by law?

Mr. WARWICK. It is fixed by the Secretary of the Navy. The salary of law clerks in the Comptroller's office has been $2,000 for some 22 years. The other departments have greatly increased the rate of pay so that they can take the men away. It is impossible to hold a man at $2,000 when another department of the Government offers him $2,500 on the statutory roll. The pay of law clerks runs up to $3,250 in the Agricultural Department, and the assistant attorneys in the Interior Department receive $3,250, the same as the law clerks.

The CHAIRMAN. It is proposed to promote four men?

Mr. WARWICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Four hundred dollars each?

Mr. WARWICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You ask for five additional law clerks. You now have nine. You also ask for seven additional other clerks.

Mr. WARWICK. Seven other clerks and a messenger. That is on account of the clerical work done by the office. For instance, five bookkeepers who have handled the warrants in the past, I doubt if they can continue to handle them. It will take another man during these times of large appropriations.

Mr. GILLETT. How do you make the decisions? You are not able, personally, I suppose, to really render all the decisions?

Mr. WARWICK. The law clerks draft the decisions or briefs then, and I pass on every one.

Mr. GILLETT. You pass on every decision?

Mr. WARWICK. Yes, sir. I do that work at night. The visitors I have during the day take about all the daytime, from 9 until 5 o'clock, and after 5 o'clock and at nights I decide the cases. I am satisfied that I do not decide them as well as if I had a more experienced force. The situation right now of getting in new men makes it impossible for those men to be of great value for at least a year.

Mr. GILLETT. The visitors discuss the cases before you, mainly? Mr. WARWICK. Not only that, but they come from all the departments to make inquiries. They will ask, for instance, in reference to a certain question, and I tell them that it has been decided in another case and that they need not submit it. That could be done by the law clerks, but the heads of bureaus and others do not care to go to anyone except the head of the bureau. I am expected to know all the decisions of the office for 20 years back, and to tell them what the rule is. As I said before, it is an office that is jumped on all the time.

Mr. GILLETT. How long have you been there?

Mr. WARWICK. Under this administration-four years. I was a law clerk in the office during the Cleveland administration. I have been connected with the Government out of the last 25 years about 15 years, off and on.

Mr. GILLETT. What were you before you came to this position?

Mr. WARWICK. I was the auditor for the Panama Canal and then on the President's Economy Commission. The necessity for the increase of force is for the same reason as applies to the force given to the Auditor for the War Department and the Auditor for the Navy Department. The claims for the pay of enlisted men are going to come along in great numbers very soon and they must be settled right, because they will establish precedents for the guidance of the auditors. It would be very unfortunate if we lost all the law clerks in the office, and they can leave when they want to.

Mr. GILLETT. If the War and Navy Departments with these emergency funds are going to take away the best men from the other departments with higher salaries, I do not see how you can keep them. Mr. WARWICK. They would stay in the office they are in for less than they can get in the War or Navy Departments.

FIVE AND TEN PER CENT INCREASE IN PAY.

The CHAIRMAN. There have been a number of decisions on the 5 and 10 per cent increase provisions which have been carried in all the appropriation bills. My understanding is that they are based upon the fact that it makes no difference how much money a man receives in the year, if the rate of compensation is a per diem one it would result in him receiving certain sums by being paid for all but the four holidays?

Mr. WARWICK. Seven holidays.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that the basis?

Mr. WARWICK. The basis is that the increased compensation has no reference to what a man received last year or what he may receive the coming year. It has to be paid to him on each day commencing the 1st of July. It has to be paid at the rate fixed by the law. It refers only to the rate of $1,200 per annum and the rate of $1,800 per annum. The rate of $1,200 per annum is reduced under the salary table to $100 a month, or $3.33 a day. That is fixed as the equivalent of $1,200 per annum in the law of 1906, the salary table. We found it impossible to take the case of a per diem man and build up from the per diem to an annual rate, because the law fixes the annual rate as the basis. If you start to build up from what a man earns a day you would have to take each man's case separately,

as to how many days he is expected to work during the coming year. It is 312 days during the present year, because there are 53 Sundays this year. He gets, of course, 30 days vacation-that is, the employees in the navy yards, arsenals, and so on-and he also gets the seven holidays and the half holidays in summer, the equivalent of about 43 working days, which he is paid for as vacation. To say that he works 312 days is equivalent to saying that he expects to be in a pay status at least 312 days. There are a great many now working on Sundays. So you have to work on 365 days this year. There is no other basis on which you can calculate unless it were fixed by law. A great many Government employees get the equivalent to pay for every day in the year, 365 days, such as internal revenue inspectors and agents.

The CHAIRMAN. Are they paid extra for Sunday work-any increased compensation?

Mr. WARWICK. The per diem employee who is paid only for working days gets paid extra for Sundays and for overtime work. We count that overtime as a separate day. So if a man receives $3 a day regularly he would get, if he worked overtime, 10 per cent on that. Considering $1,200 per annum as the equivalent of $3.331 a day, it has reference to his regular work and not to this unusual compensation, such as Sundays and overtime. The rulings are not quite as bad as has been stated, because when you consider the overtime as not a part of his day's compensation it gives him the 10 per cent or 5 per cent when otherwise he would not receive it. A man might draw $6 in one day from the Government and still get two 10 per cents on it, but it is impossible to fix a standard rate per day and then multiply that.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you given a number of decisions on these laws already?

Mr. WARWICK. Quite a number.

The CHAIRMAN. Please send us copies of the decisions. There are a great many inquiries in regard to them.

Mr. WARWICK. We have the printed decisions for May and June and I will send them to you.

MONDAY, JULY 16, 1917.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

STATEMENTS OF MR. B. R. NEWTON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; MR. JAMES A. WETMORE, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SUPERVISING ARCHITECT'S OFFICE; AND MR. L. A. SIMON.

EVANSVILLE, IND.-RENT.

The CHAIRMAN. The first item under "Public buildings" is "Evansville, Ind., rent of building. For additional for rent of temporary quarters for Government officials and moving expenses incident thereto, $3,500." What is the necessity for this?

Mr. NEWTON. That is an ordinary charge, where it is necessary to have an amount for rent covering a longer period than we estimated for.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you pay now; what is the annual payment?

Mr. NEWTON. I do not know.

The CHAIRMAN. You were given $8,000 about a year ago.

Mr. NEWTON. I do not remember about that. At any rate, this is the amount that is necessary to carry it ahead.

The CHAIRMAN. We should like to know what it is.

Mr. NEWTON. If the amount appropriated is not sufficient to carry through

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Suppose we think you are paying too much rent, we can never tell unless we know how much you are actually paying. Please send us a statement of the terms of the arrangement you have for facilities there, with the payments to be made, and the accommodations received.

Mr. NEWTON. Very well.

•MILLERSBURG, OHIO, POST OFFICE.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is:

Millersburg, Ohio, post office (site): For completion under the present limit of cost, $500.

Mr. NEWTON. The amount is insufficient to secure the site there. The CHAIRMAN. This is the price agreed on, and is within the limit, is it not?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes, sir; in most cases we have obtained sites within the limit.

The CHAIRMAN. This is to make up the balance of an agreed price, which is within the authority?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes, sir.

NEW YORK, N. Y., CUSTOM HOUSE, REMODELING.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is:

New York, N. Y., customhouse: For changes, remodeling, repairs, new vaults, etc., $35,000.

Mr. NEWTON. The New York customhouse has always been rather badly arranged, so far as space is concerned. There has not been an economical arrangement of the space. By a careful study of all the conditions, we have worked out a plan whereby we can save or release a great deal of additional space and make room for the additional force that must be put to work there in the different departments. It affects a saving amounting to about $60,000 a year; that is, in additional space. In the Internal Revenue Bureau we have got to put a very large number of clerks at work on account of the revenue bill. These changes give a more economical grouping of the clerks. For example, in the customs service, a man coming in from the outside to do business must start on the first floor, go up to the top floor, and then come down again, etc. We are effecting a better grouping of the activities by making changes on the various floors, particularly the first floor.

The CHAIRMAN. Tell us what you will do to supply space for 300 additional employees.

Mr. NEWTON. They are consolidated.

The CHAIRMAN. I know. What changes are to be made to make it possible to provide accommodations for 300 additional employees? Mr. NEWTON. I do not know as to the detailed physical changes. Mr. SIMON. The pivotal point in the whole thing is the InternalRevenue Bureau, which is very short of space. We are going to take them from the first floor up to the sixth floor and throw in the corridors up there so that they may be used for the public to transact business.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any of the details of this plan here?
Mr. SIMON. Yes, sir; I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. Here is a building that cost over $3,000,000, and you say for $35,000 you can provide room for 300 additional employees. We should like to know something about that.

Mr. SIMON. Here is the pivotal point. This space, from there [indicating] down to there [indicating]

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). On what floor?

Mr. SIMON. The sixth floor. The idea is by making this change and removing this screen work the public does not have to come in there [indicating]. At present they use the doors of the various offices. There is a screen which takes up 6 or 7 or 8 feet of public space inside here [indicating]. The idea is to give the clerks all this space [indicating] by puncturing the walls and simply making that screen work. That provides very much space for the employees. That is one thing.

The CHAIRMAN. How much additional space will that provide?

Mr. SIMON. I can not state accurately in square feet, but quite a little. The other points were these: That with the consolidation of the various customs bureaus that is proposed and of other bureaus in the building, so that the varicus customs people will get together and the various internal-revenue people will get together, you do not, as Mr. Newton has said, have to go from one place to another, intermingling in a way.

The CHAIRMAN. A few years ago when Congress was asked for money to rent certain offices it was stated that it was not possible to provide any space in this building at all. Now it is stated that space for 300 additional employees can be provided. We should have some very definite information about that. Three hundred people is an army of employees. We will have to have some information.

Mr. SIMON. It is because of the consolidation that is possible when you correlate these different bureaus, that is the vital thing, and get the proper bureaus close to each other so that they can work with some advantage and conserve the space that they have. Now, they have space here [indicating], here [indicating], and there [indicating].

Mr. NEWTON. The arrangement of the old building was not economical.

The CHAIRMAN. It is a new building-do not call it an old building.

Mr. NEWTON. A new building. Like a good many of the old buildings, perhaps, as much attention was given to its architectural appearance as to the economy of space. As I understand, there are some very important changes on the first floor to economize space.

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