Jobs & Sin

To be separated from his job is a Government jobholder's most terrible nightmare. A marriage of two jobholders doubles the terror, for there is a still unrepealed section of the Economy Act of 1932 which stipulates that if man and wife both work for the Government, one of them should be fired rather than another employe in case of any reduction of personnel. Small complaint have Government jobholders against their boss, for most of them drew pre-Depression pay till April 1933, then took a 15% cut for a few months, now have won back all their original wages. Last week they set out to gain redress from the risk of marriage on the payroll.

Mrs. Edwina Austin Avery, publications editor of the Bureau of Plant Industry, pointed out to the House Civil Service Committee how unfair the law is to marriageable lady jobholders, how it spoils their prospects with all the job-holding males in Washington. Some girls, she said, prefer to risk their souls in sin rather than risk their jobs in marriage. E. Claude Babcock, head of the American Federation of Government Employees, testified that he personally knew of at least nine cases of jobholders living together without benefit of matrimony. Before nightfall, the question of Spread-the-Work v. Spread-the-Sin had become an issue in Washington.

On the floor of the House, John J. Cochran of St. Louis rose to defend the womanhood of the Government. Said he: "I wonder if Mr. Babcock gave any thought to the mental anguish he has caused, not only to the women but to their families back home?

"He pictured girls coming to Washington who, without the protection of the home, soon found themselves in love and, fearing dismissal if married, agree to live together as husband and wife, simply overlooking marriage.

"Such a statement is in my opinion insidious camouflage. If couples are living together it is not because of the law. ... Men have been tarred and feathered in this country for saying less than that. Babcock should be removed from office for slandering the women employed in Federal service."

Pleased with the success of his effort, Mr. Babcock raised his bid, declared that he had evidence of at least 80 cases of sin on the payroll.

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