Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. My name is Daniel Goldschmidt, and I the executive committee of the Federal Civil Service Society, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, this is my first appearance in I am a little bit awed by the vastness of everything.

There is a serious illness afflicting the civil service; the p plained to us their symptoms, and we, the students, will tell opinion will prove a remedy, each from his own viewpoint, t honest convictions, after deep and serious study and mature c is then for you to decide which is the best and proper remedy, doctors; and as there is no question as to the nature of this ill of you is action, immediate action, before many more of yo And, gentlemen, the simplicity with which this can be treated is not medical skill we need-only mathematical skill-and small amount of dollars and a large amount of humanity, bler reason, and patriotism.

An average of $1,000,000 for 50 years will provide an annuit annuated; that is, pay for back services during the period unde retirement bill, as expounded by the Efficiency and Economy reported on favorably by Hon. William H. Taft, ex-President nature of the remedy is in your hands. In 1911 there were over the age of 64; 1,852, or 1 in every 14, in Washington, D where, or 1 in every 34, and to-day the estimated loss due superannuation law is $1,500,000, or thereabouts.

I represent the Federal Civil Service Society of New York among its members employees from every branch of the Gov and who believe in a contributory form of retirement as the mo just to the Government as well as to the employees.

We have here in this room honest, conscientious men who pension, and maybe some who favor some other plan, but each is here for but one real purpose; that is to ask you gentleme kind of a law that you in your wisdom can evolve from all the that are promulgated, taking perhaps the best of each and cu part which is not so good, or adopting as a whole any parti presented.

No matter how much our opinions differ as to plan, we as definite action, as there is a crying need for superannuations fro of departments, as you also well know, and from the old cl comes the plea for a pension or annuity, so that their last fe can be spent in peace and happiness, to prepare to meet their are several plans, among which are the Perkins bill, an old-a plan; the Gillette bill, an old-age contributory plan, with $600 Austin bill, an old-age contributory plan, with 15 per cent inci and the Hamill bill, a service plan.

I am here to advocate the contributory plan, where first the increase our salaries in order to meet the advanced cost of 1

ship, they are compelled by sheer necessity to provide gency, or when trouble overtakes them they are overhelpful subscriptions from time to time, is a terrific drag ecially in those departments like the Post Office, where hour, even though it may be the first in 20 years, is dewhere even absence through the death of mother, father, eted and no sickness is allowed for same.

partment is that?

The Post Office Department.

y no sick leave?

Nothing, only—

sick leave in Washington?

I do not know about Washington; I am not prepared to k they have.

nual leave do these employees have?

Fifteen days, excluding Sundays and holidays.

There are

e employees receive 30 days' sick leave, but such a thing partment outside of Washington is unknown.

we only the 15 days' annual leave?

That is all, and every hour of absence caused by sickness

not have to work on Sundays?

Sundays; but get a day compensatory time. Some men nday, some men every second Sunday, and some men every ce in a great while.

y holidays are allowed?

Every holiday-oh, no; excuse me, Mr. Committeeman; I holiday. I do not get it back. I am on this coming holirk, and I get nothing back for it, because it is my day on. know that clerks had to work on legal holidays.

I dare say there are branches in the custom service where y off.

that is true in the customs service.

Where an error may cause a clerk to be compelled to make it happens to be too great, the employee must throw himhis fellow employees.

iation for Improving the Condition of the Poor issued a e the clipping from a New York paper-showing that the vhich a person can maintain a family of five on a normal $1,100 to $1,300 per annum; and I can safely say that it ally possible in decent environments, one reason being be50 per month for rent and light. This was a test in any r that family would require at least three bedrooms, a 1, or living room, and I know of no part of New York City

the year. Rent and light, $237.25; food, $473.77; clothing, $158. lunches, $32.48; dues, $27.82; medicine, $28.83; ice, $18.25, wh day, and I say to you on my word of honor that you can not bu of ice in New York. There is no such thing, and a 10-cent piec you can purchase. That 10-cent piece of ice is a day's supply the ice box, because when it is hot in New York it is very hot. Mr. DIES. I know it is.

Mr. GOLDSCMIDT. Then car fare, $23.72; supplies, $33.21; an $35.40; making a total of $1,085.19; and I trust that the man Mr. DIES. What is the size of that family?

Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. Five-a man, wife, and three childrenman who had to get along on that had no appendicitis operatio And I trust he did not have to buy eggs, because he must pay a great part of the winter, and butter was 40 to 50 cents a po Mr. DIES. Storage eggs were never as high as 60 cents in N Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. No, sir; but I will tell you in what are of the cheapest stores, like Butler's and the Atlantic & Pacific as high as 37 to 45 cents for the eggs they sell at those places. Mr. DIES. What kind of eggs are they?

Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. I dare say they must be storage eggs. Mr. DIES. Can you say whether they are yard eggs or cold Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. I can not answer that. I dare say that Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. handle mostly storage eggs, but I will not want to go down on record, because they might sue Mr. DIES. We will assume they were storage eggs? Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. That is probably correct.

Mr. DIES. Cold-storage eggs have not been over 40 cents, ha Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. Oh, yes, sir. The price of eggs has been year that I, personally, speaking only for myself, could not a purchase eggs that ought to be provided for a family; I will although it might be a little painful to admit, that at times w the eggs we should.

Mr. DIES. There are a good many men in New York in th fresh eggs are concerned.

I think you make a mistake when you constantly talk abo of living in the cities, because the cost of living is high everyv the essential items of food and clothing and there is not very in the small and in the larger cities.

There is a little difference in eggs, it is true; very little diff Of course, the difference in articles of clothing is on the side o larger cities, because he has a better assortment and is in a them cheaper. I think you will find the cost of living in the not, probably, as great as it is in the larger cities, including other articles, but you will find it is running quite close sec cities themselves.

nd in some instances the salaries are less. Surely we have y for a little more money, a few more of the labor-saving 1-worked wives, a few more comforts for our families, a I of living to conform with the times.

se, and we can pay a contribution to provide for the days e the labor we are giving now, so the Government departpered by our feeble efforts to do 25 per cent of work for when we become old; so we can take away this dread of ecter of want, that confronts us all in our declining years. er said that the people of this country all had a worried id lacked that happy cheerful air that the Germans, the iss people have. What is this worried look, for what and conniving, and pursuit of the mighty dollar? It is the age. Everyone who is not rich is worrying as to what will n he is old, for, gentlemen, you know it--no one can depend One father can support seven sons, but seven sons can not

t of retirement law, something to begin with, something nt is just to the employee and just to the Government, and een here in vain; and remember that this will only be the he time will come shortly when all the States and Governprovide food, clothes, and lodging to those old gray heads, this country by their toil until the time that their strength 1 kill them; you must not let them suffer: you must proend mothers of the race.

talking about old-age pensions?

I am intimating that, because the claim has been put up tated from time to time in a sort of a joke. “Why only the es; why not the rest of us?"

the logical sequence of the old-age pension.

That is my statement.

you for some action—to report out of this committee a h an increase of salary at least large enough to cover the for the old men and those who are and soon will be near or, rather, for all the past services, compelling the new their own annuity out of a fair compensation.

my argument I have shown you that the bedrock average for a period of one year under the cooperative purchasing favorable conditions, with the expert supervision of the oving the Condition of the Poor, was $1.082.

thoritatively informed that the average salary of Govern48-8134 less than the experiment among the poor showsurchasing power under the cooperative plan makes their $1.298 would go where each individual must purchase in