United States Ciril Service personnel records-Number system-Continued.

United States Civil Service personnel records-Number system—Continued.

Nonparticipating Insurance Company premium for deferred annuity compared
with proposed 24 per cent deduction.

Statistics of "Permanent " employees in the Civil Service of the United States.

The foregoing statistics apply only to bona fide Government civilian employees
the character of whose employment might properly be considered as permanent.

79180-187

Temporary employees, and those rendering only part-time or seasonal service, or whose appointments are for definite periods of less than a year, or until the completion of particular constructional jobs, etc., have been excluded. These numbered approximately 250,000 in 1916.

To the regular service of postal employees shown in the table must be added an average substitute service of about two years in the case of city carriers, and about one year in the case of postal clerks or railway postal clerks.

The local navy yard, like the local post office, is treated as part of the general service and has been included under "Elsewhere" rather than "In the District of Columbia."

The decennial censuses indicate a population growth of about 2 per cent annually. In the five-year period just preceding July 1, 1916, the growth of the Postal Service was about 2.7 per cent per annum, and of the other branches about 4.2 per cent, an aggregate of about 3.4 per cent annually. The abnormal growth during the five years was no doubt partly induced by the European war, which was in progress two of the five years, but was probably as much or more a reflection of the increased governmental activity of recent years, State and municipal as well as Federal, which has been quite independent of war, and is likely to go on for some years to come. It must be noted, however, that the assumption of a higher year-in, year-out rate than that of the population, 2 per "cent, would be equivalent to assuming that eventually the entire population would find itself in the Government employ.

From all the evidence at hand, it seems reasonable to expect the Postal Service to continue to grow at a fairly constant rate of about 2 per cent annually, and that in the other permanent classes the yearly increases which now appear to be not far from 10 per cent can hardly continue at such a rate longer than 1920, whether the war goes on or not. On this assumption, there would be about 180,000 permanent employees other than postal in the civil service in 1920. Without the abnormal influence of the war, this figure could hardly have been reached before 1930, and it is surely conservatively high to assume that a figure of 180,000 reached in 1920 will be maintained without increase or decrease until 1930, and will then go on increasing at a normal constant rate of 2 per cent.

The table appended shows the estimated size of the permanent service at different periods according to these assumptions.

Mr. ALCORN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have Mrs. Havens read Curfew, something she had put in the Federal Employee some time ago.

STATEMENT OF MRS. RUTH D. HAVENS, EMPLOYEE TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF AUDITOR FOR THE NAVY DEPART

MENT.

Mrs. HAVENS. Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen, it seems that they desire these verses incorporated after Dr. Maddrill's statement, as a supplement. They are entitled Curfew.

Our "parting day' now parts at half past four;
Though, years ago, it used to part at three;
And if Chief Borland held the winning oar,

Heaven only knows just when the part would be.

"Retirement" does not come with parting day,
Nor dying year nor closing century;

It holds its breath till "Bureau E" shall say,
To the last farthing, what the price shall be.

And if we wait while experts stack the cards-
For still the Index needs a million more-
We can expect no share in its rewards,
We shall have died a score of years before.

We lack not faith in mystic calculations,
Nor doubt they will be full and accurate.
The trouble is, too many generations

Will have expired before their final date.
War's end will have subdued the cost of living,
A World Democracy have bred content;
Foes will be joining in a glad Thanksgiving,
Nor know nor care what all those figures meant.

They will be framed, like other hieroglyphics,
And in museums hang-a source of wonder-
And no man, 'twixt Atlantic and Pacific,

Can feel the tragedy he's standing under.

O, dear companions, painfully tottering toward
Whichever H- is due your moral rating.

I know you feel, with me, both grieved and bored-
Evangeline had nothing on our waiting.

If we were only heathen, allied nation.
Paupers, insane, sick, criminal or lost,

We might expect a big appropriation,

Without such endless reckoning of the cost.

Since we are only Uncle Samuel's servants,
Faithful and loyal, to the last red drop,

"Bled white," we stagger on, industrious, fervent,
Though Death alone shall kindly bid us stop.

"Tis told at home, and e'en across the ocean,
That this fair land is prodigal of gold;
Yet punishes, with hardships and demotion,
Its culprits who have sinned by growing old.

Revise your prayer book, dearest Christian brothers,
And cease to plead life be not swiftly ended;
But beg your God to spare your fathers and mothers
From length of days, with old age unbefriended.

[Mrs. Ruth G. D. Havens, the author of the above poem, is a lady 77 years of age, who has been employed in the service of the Government for 43 years, and in the accounting offices of the Treasury Department 42 years. Her sentiments on the retirement situation, therefore, seem entitled to considerable weight.-Ed.]