The case of Mr. Fouché was presented to the Department of Justice on July 9, 1926, and the department later stated in explanation why the facts had not been laid before a grand jury: It is not improbable that the United States attorney at Nashville was influenced in his decision by the fact that shortly before his consideration of the instant case a grand jury in his district refused to return a true bill in the J. Will Taylor case, involving almost identical charges. Upon request of the Secretary of the Navy the commission approved a 2-year extension, effective June 27, 1927, of permission granted in 1925 for employees of the Mare Island Navy Yard to participate in local elections in Vallejo, Calif. This permission was given under the Executive order of August 27, 1919, after an investigation by representatives of the commission. PERSONNEL RECORDS The civil service act of 1883 made necessary the creation and maintenance of a service record of each employee subject to that act. The value of these records to the Commissioner of Pensions in checking services and salaries reported to him as a basis of computation of annuities is recognized in the following provisions of the retirement act: The Civil Service Commission shall keep a record of appointments, transfers, changes in grade, separations from the service, reinstatements, loss of pay, and such other information concerning individual service as may be deemed essential to a proper determination of rights under this act; and shall furnish the Commissioner of Pensions such reports therefrom as he shall from time to time request as necessary to the proper adjustment of any claim for annuity hereunder; and shall prepare and keep all needful tables and records required for carrying out the provisions of this act, including data showing the mortality experience of the employees in the service and the percentage of withdrawals from such service, and any other information that may serve as a guide for future valuations and adjustments of the plan for the retirement of employees under this act. The provisions regarding mortality experience and percentage of withdrawals call for expansion of the records as does also inclusion under the retirement act of superintendents of national cemeteries, employees of the Architect of the Capitol, Library of Congress, Botanic Garden, recorder of deeds, register of wills, Panama Canal, municipal government of the District of Columbia, and postmasters of the first, second, and third class who have been promoted, appointed, or transferred from the classified civil service, none of whom are subject to the civil service act or rules. The commission is desirous of establishing a current record, in one alphabet, of all employees in the executive civil service, both for official use and legitimate public use. As the constant additions to the service records necessitate their separation by departments and establishments, the Official Register, which was discontinued by Congress, after 1921, is greatly missed as a book of reference. The application of the classification act of 1923 to the field service will require extensive additions to the service records. RETIREMENT No changes in retirement legislation, or radical changes in practice, have occurred during the year ended June 30, 1928. The act of March 3, 1927, which removed the requirement that continuance in the service must be authorized 30 days before reaching retirement age, only partially relieved the employee of the results of delay or inadvertence in his department. The law still requires that continuance be authorized before arrival at retirement age; otherwise the employee must be dropped, regardless both of his desires and fitness and the need of the Government for his work. This serves no good purpose. The commission accordingly recommended the following amendment in a letter of January 31, 1928, to the chairman House Committee on the Civil Service, as a fourth paragraph to section 2 of the retirement act: In all cases where an employee otherwise eligible for continuance has been retained beyond retirement age without prior authority the Civil Service Commission may issue certificate of continuance legalizing the service of such employee and authorizing his further continuance as provided in paragraph 1 of this section, upon being satisfied that the retention was due to erroneous or incomplete records of age or service, or to faulty administration on the part of the department or office concerned and not to any attempt or desire by the employee to deceive for the purpose of defeating any provision of this act. The amendment would defeat no purpose of the retirement act but would effectuate its expressed intention that employees fit and desirous of remaining beyond retirement age should be retained. Certain inequalities in the relation of deductions, length of service, and annuities are regarded so generally throughout the service as unfair that they are again referred to in the language of the last report: An employee at $3,000 per annum pays into the retirement fund twice as much as one at $1,500 and gets no larger annuity. An employee retiring after 40 years of service pays one-third more into the fund than one retiring after 30 years, the salaries being equal, and gets no larger annuity. An employee who enters the service at the age of 20 receives no greater annuity on retirement at 70 than one who enters at 40, although the Government compels him to serve 20 years longer to obtain it. The amendatory act approved July 3, 1926, provided retirement at age 62 for employees subjected to great hazards, effort, or expo sure. This provision has been sparingly applied for reasons stated in the forty-fourth report. Except for a small but undetermined number of employees engaged in less than 20 classes of work, the following constitutes these assignments to the 62-year retirement-age group: Forest rangers, 986, and veterinary and lay inspectors, 2,355, in the Department of Agriculture; park rangers, 88, buffalo keepers, 3, and herder, 1, in national parks; cadastral engineers, 49, surveyors, 29, and transit men, 13, in the Reclamation Service; and topographic engineers, 125, in the Geological Survey; total, 3,649. Employees in this age group must be dropped at age 66 after August 20, 1930. An amendment providing for optional retirement after 60 or 65 years of age and 30 years of service would increase the efficiency of the service in two ways: (1) By relieving it of employees whose efficiency is impaired, though not to the extent of total disability; and (2) by allowing the prescribed retirement age to be sufficiently high to permit the retention of the more vigorous members of a group beyond the age when the weaker members should leave the service. As employees differ so greatly in physical and mental vigor at a given age, any retirement age prescribed for a group will be either too high or too low for most of its individual members. Retention of the most vigorous is provided for by the continuance provision of the act; but failing employees, unless totally disabled, must await the prescribed age, to the detriment of the service. The difference between salary and annuity would afford ample protection against the excessive use of an optional retirement provision. Under the present law the average annuity is $721.39, or 52 per cent of the average annual salary for the last 10 years. No annuity can exceed two-thirds of the salary, or $1,000. Few employees who feel able to continue at work would be permitted by their financial obligations to accept optional retirement at such a reduction of income. That optional retirement would not burden the retirement fund is indicated by the fact that although some departments have not favored continuances and many employees arriving at retirement age are not fit for retention, over 60 per cent of all employees who reached retirement age during the fiscal year 1928, or whose prior continuance expired during that year, are continued on certificates of appointing officers indicating unimpaired, or only slightly impaired, efficiency. In the executive departments it is learned informally that from 95 per cent to practically all employees, on arrival at retirement age, wish to remain, if they are at all able to do so; except that in the field branches under the Post Office Department the percentage willing to retire is somewhat greater. The total number of employees continued beyond retirement age since the passage of the act is 10,918, of which number 6,117, or 56.02 per cent, are still in the service. Services of 498, or 4.56 per cent, were terminated by death. Continuances, as compared with age retirements, by fiscal years, are as follows: The appropriations and expenditures for the fiscal year 1928 were as follows: Salaries: APPROPRIATIONS Office-- Field_____ Expert examiners__ Traveling expenses---. Contingent and miscellaneous expenses. Rent of building_ Printing and binding---. Total regular appropriation_‒‒‒‒‒ Salaries and expenses, presidential postmaster examinations_-- Total funds available during 1928_. EXPENDITURES $609, 500.00 330,000.00 2,000.00 102, 500.00 46,350.00 24, 592.00 58,000.00 1, 172, 942. 00 26, 000. 00 1, 198, 942. 00 Classification of objects of expenditure as set forth in General Accounting Office Bulletin No. 1, of May 11, 1922, as amended: 01 Personal services--- 02 Supplies and materials___. 04 Subsistence (care and storage of motor vehicles). 05 Communication service__. 06 Travel expenses-- 07 Transportation of things 08 Printing and binding- 11 Rents 12 Repairs and alterations__ 13 Special and miscellaneous current expenses 30 Equipment‒‒‒‒ Total expenditures Unexpended balance_--- $954, 586.94 65, 571. 75 2, 110. 71 7, 262. 75 84, 244. 43 859.11 6, 655.00 24, 592.00 585. 62 535.59 16, 491. 68 1, 163, 495. 58 35, 446. 42 1, 198, 942. 00 The appropriations for the fiscal year 1929 are as follows: We renew the suggestion made in previous reports for legislation to place field presidential positions which are nonpolicy determining, such as collectors of customs and internal revenue and postmasters, in the classified service, dispensing with confirmation by the Senate and the four-year term of office, leaving to the President his discretionary power of making such rules and exceptions as he may deem necessary. We suggest legislation to extend the acts of Congress applying the competitive system of appointment, etc., to all the municipal departments of the government of the District of Columbia, as is done in other large cities of the country. We recommend legislation that the positions of deputy collector of internal revenue and of deputy marshal be restored to the classified service. Further suggestions will probably result from an inquiry into the work and administration of this office which the Bureau of Efficiency has been good enough to undertake on the commission's request in February. Recommendations are now receiving careful consideration in cooperation with representatives of the bureau. We have the honor to be, Very respectfully, WILLIAM C. DEMING, THE PRESIDENT, The White House. Commissioners. |