The Evening Critic

THE LEGISLATIVE BILL.
The Obnoxious Clauses
Which Should be Rejected.
The Legislative, Executive and Judicial Appropriation bill contains the following, which is calling forth considerable comment at the Capital to-day:
"Sec. 4. That hereafter it shall be the duty of the heads of the several Executive Departments, in the interest of the public service, to require of all clerks and other employees, of whatever grade or class, in their respective departments, such hours of labor as may be deemed necessary for the proper dispatch of the public business, the same, however, not to be less than from the hours of half-past eight ante meridian to half-past four post meridian each day, except Sundays and days declared public holidays by law."
The public mind seems to be very much divided upon the question of the propriety of such a provision in an appropriation bill. It is held by some that the heads of the departments are the best judges of what kind of regulations are the best to secure efficiency in and the dispatch of the business in the departments, and that this whole question should be left to them, and that they should be held accountable for the efficiency and punctuality of their employees.
Others claim that the representatives of the people have a right to fix the time that the servants and employees of the people shall work, and if, when the time is fixed and settled, any of the said servants or employees think the terms are too severe and the conditions imposed are too exacting, they can have the privilege of resigning and the places thus vacated can be filled by some of the many thousand applicants who are anxiously waiting for employment and who would accept almost any conditions to get places.
The concluding part of the same section of the bill contains the following: "And the salaries of all employees in the Executive Departments receiving annual compensation shall be payable monthly, and not oftener."
There seems to be but one opinion in the minds of all fair-minded men as to the propriety of adopting this provision, and that is that it would operate in the interests of the brokers and would not inure to the benefit of the Government or efficiency of the service in the least, and hence it is not likely to pass.