The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, May 15, 1919, Image 7
SERVES UNCLE SAM 71 YEARS. !
i
Annual Pay of Thomas Harrison, 91, j
' ^ Still Nine Hundred Dollars. j
!
(Kansas City Star.)
Seventy-one years ago Thomas j
Harrison became a clerk in the Unit- j
ed States naval observatory at Wash-!
ington. He was 20 years old then, j
* and his salary was $900 a year. Today,
Thomas Harrison still is a clerk
- in the naval observatory. He's 9,1 j
years old now?and his salary still
is $900 a year.
Even back in the administration
of James K. Polk, when Mr. Harrison
r
entered the civil service under Maury,
the first superintendent of the ob
A A A A ^ ^ !
servatory, $yuv wasn i mucii, as
money went?and especially as it
went in Washington. Today it's less. j
But there's a little old-fashionea j
home in Georgetown that has to be !
kept up. There are clothes to buy?'
and food. And so it is that Thomas j
Harrison, who has spent more than '
- three score years and ten in the ser-!
vice of his government, plods every:
day through snow or mud or dust to ;
the observatory.
Of course there was a time when
A
he received more. A few years ago
his salary had advanced to $1,300 a:
year, hut $400 of that was lopped off
at his own request. The work had ;
grown too heavy for his aged should-<
ers to bear, so he asked to be re-:
lieved. To have failed?to have had j
a younger men display greater ap-;
titude than he?would have meant
dismissal; fortsuch is the rule of the
service. So Thomas Harrison asked ,
for lighter work. To lose one's job !
at 91 would be a tragedy. There
J
aren't many demands for 91-year-old j
men, and there hadn't been many op- j
portunities to save from his meagei j
salary.
In a lifetime in Washington,
Thomas Harrison had seen many
. ^ others drop out and younger men
take their places. He had seen superannuated
employes engulfed in
the square seas of poverty; he had
seen them seek refuge with some
kinsman in a poorhouse. And he took
no chances.
/ He knew the heartlessness of the j
machine of which he was a part; the ;
machine whose workings are apparent
in this incident, related by j
Thomas Ewing, United States commissioner
of patents, to a congres .
v , sional committee:
n ,
"I had in my office a very tragic
, experience. There were four persons j
.. . of the examining corps whom I re- j
v/ duced one grade, a difference . of i
S3AA h OPO11CQ worn Inn i-vl/3 fn I
Tw v v) wvvwuuv 1.41VJ n t-iv, tvv Viu tU
> discharge the duties of their positions.
One of these men went from
my office directly home and didn't
get out of his bed, and he died the
second day thereafter of nothing in
the world but mortification.
"Another *of those men went from
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my office to an undertaker's place on
Pennsylvania avenue and blew out
his brains. Fifty per cent, of the
cases are prcud men. They have been
capable men. It was one of the harsh
things I had to do. Perhaps it was a
mistake, but none the less I believed
it best."
Efforts have been made to grant
the aged naval observatory employe
an annuity, but congress has shied
from'any action that might embarrass
it as a precedent in the future.
There might be others in years to
come who, having reached the age
of 91, after 71 years in the harness,
might demand a. pension and, while
congress says it's perfectly willing to
take up the question of pensions for
superannuated civil service employes
some time in the future, it isn't
ready to consider it now.
About two years ago Senator Jones
of Washington introduced a bill proposing
the retirement of Mr. Harrison
on a pension of $100 a month.
The senate passed it viith enthusiasm,
but it died in the house, where
it had no sponsor. Again, in the
last congress, Senator Jones proposed
a pension for Mr. Harrison, this time
for $50 a month, but the bill stopped
in the committee of naval affairs. In
offering his second bill, Senator Jones
read the following to Mr. Harrison
from Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant
secretary of the navy:
"I have to inform you that in accordance
with the recommendation of
the superintendent of the naval observatory
you have been granted
leave without pay for six months, be*
ginning October 13, 1917.
"As you have been in the employ
of the government now nearly 69
years, and during all that time your
record has been excellent, I regret
that there is no way in which the department
could continue you on the
rolls with compensation.
"I desire at this time to express
the appreciation of the department
for your lo ig and satisfactory service
and the hope that you will be *so benefited
by this leave that you can return
and resume your duties at its
expiration/'
That "leave without pay" expired
in the spr ng of 1918, and Mr. Harrison
has teen on the job ever since.
Others hava taken up the fight for
him, but be harbors no resentment
against the employer for whom he
still works, after 71 years of service.
Mr. Harrison was born in Washington,
D. C., while John Quincy
Adams was president. He has served
during the administrations of 18 of
the 28 chief executives of the United
States, and has known personally ev
erv president since Van Buren. Although
born in Washington, his boyhood
was spent in West Virginia,
where his' father, a former officer in
the regular army, had gone after retiring
fom the army following the
r
^II
An Old Chinese Town.
i
(Christian Science Monitor.)
; Even as time is counted in China,
! Fen Chou Fu is quite an old town.
People were living there 2,000 years
{before the Christian era, and when
' the Manchus drove out the Mings the
j defeated rulers took refuge in Fen
! Chou Fu and rebuilt its city walls,
j although how long they stayed there
i the Twentieth century traveler who
describes the ancient city in a current
magazine, neglects to tell the reader.
T},,? +Vi/a n-allc ctrnriO' a n rl
j I)UL inc.* illau^ C ilU Willi*? C VA V/11^4 ;
| probably set up the great, longlegged
bronze birds that perch on
them. In the gateway two upright)
stones mark the width of vehicles
j permitted to enter the narrow,
I crooked streets, and everywhere the
I crows, hawks, magpies, and whistling
kites build their nests. An odd
, old city, Fen Chou Fu is, nevertheless,
not altogether immune to out'
! side influence. The traveler photoi
graphed a Chinese wedding party,
j and atop his native habiliments the
; bridegroom is revealed wearing a
j derby hat.
I
l
I war of 1812.
| "It was a wilderness then," Mr.
Harrison said recently, "and we lived
rather primitively. I was outdoors
almost all the time and the work in
j the field and the sports in the woods
I gave me a rugged constitution, for
j which I have since been thankful
many times. We returned to Wash,
ington after about six years of life
in Virginia. My father died in 1848,
j and I was given a position with the
j federal government. He left a large
family and their support devolved in
a large measure upon me. My father
died in the midst of his usefulness.
It fell to my lot, my very happy lot,
to look out for the family."
Congress for some years has been
talking old age pensions for civil
service employes, but it is probable
that long before any law authorizing
them becomes effective, Thomas Harrison,
the oldest employe of the United
States government, both in years
and in point of service, and probably
the oldest government employe in the
world, will be beyond its benefit.
Rub-My-Tism is a great pain killer
It relieves pain and soreness caused
by Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Sprains,
etc.?Adv.
MEETING OF TAXPAYERS.
A meeting of the taxpayers, voters
of Bamberg School District, No. 14,
is herphv r??llpd to hp hpld in thp
City Hall in the town of Bamberg, S.
C., on Monday, May 26, 1919, at 4
o'clock p. m., for the purpose of
electing one member of the Board of
Trustees, and for the transaction of
| any other business that may legally
come before the meeting.
W. M. BRABHAM,
Chairman Board of Trustees.
Bamberg, S. C., May 7, 1919,?2tn j
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