I do not know which man of good sense said: "Have fewer civil servants; know how to choose them and pay them better".

In any case, never was a word truer, more appropriate especially.

The Republic, third and not the best, but finally, the Republic nonetheless and which must be loved and defended, was wrong to promise a lot. We must keep our promises and break with this method which makes a country a breeding ground for civil servants.

In all branches, families direct their children on the "situation", the "job" guaranteed by the Nation. This is a mistake. But we are faced with a fact. There are too many civil servants and they are very poorly paid.

Our friend Frossard, who was not indifferent to the question, rightly said
"From the moment that the Council of Ministers, on the initiative of Mr. Herriot, agrees to raise the salaries of civil servants in proportion to the cost of living", we can consider one of the main demands of the Cartel as acquired. »

There is a wide enough margin between the demands and the justice rendered, so that, from ministry to ministry, thorny problems are avoided. It is a question of money, of budget, of finances more or less well managed... Mr. Hebrard de Villeneuve had obtained a 200 francs per year increase for the small civil servants (12 sous per day).

I readily agree with Frossard, that this is a painful irony. Taking up the documentation of our colleague, we see that a civil servant who has completed a training course or a supernumerary, starts at 11 fr. 60 per day and a worker of the P. T. T., 16 fr. 40 per effective day of work.

The 1,800 francs of cost of living allowance requested for a long time, are not only a justified claim, but a protest against the immorality of the treatments which do not allow everyone to live honorably. Everything is there.

Mr. Digat, whose competence is unquestionable, recommends adjusting salaries to the general movement of prices "and establishing, first, a basic salary.

The Hebrard de Villeneuve commission set it, in agreement with the representatives of the civil servants, at six thousand francs (legal deductions deducted, 470 francs per month). This is an abnormal rate in proportion to the cost of living, but it is a possible minimum, while waiting for better.
We must not hide the fact that it is a deception to give an employee the assurance that he will earn his living. Alas! he does not earn it! He toils; and even if his work is one of those that make people smile, the price of his time is worth more. And if this time is wasted, whose fault is it, if not our representatives who have to pay the bills of exchange that are too often the voting slips favorable to their election.
Give and take I

Fine! But, they, deputies, took, first. And if they give, let it not be alms! I remain in the current system. I am not exaggerating anything. And everyone understands me.

Listen, now, to the opinion of a senior civil servant who is willing to inform us? I am transcribing, without changing anything, the letter he sent us
"I would like to point out to you, on the subject of the revision of civil servants' salaries, the very unfortunate effect that the strange attitude taken within the Hébrard de Villeneuve commission by the representatives of the Minister of Finance is having on the whole. Their mission, according to us, civil servants, and I assure you that I am interpreting the unanimous feeling of all my colleagues at the same time, I believe, as the feelings of the President of the Council himself, is to establish a draft revision of the 1919 salaries to bring them into line with the prices of 1924. If this revision, moreover prescribed by law, results in an increase in budgetary expenditure, it is not the fault of the commission, and even less that of the civil servants. The government alone is qualified to examine the question from a budgetary point of view because it alone has the initiative in this matter as in matters of economic and customs policy. Now, it is not impossible for him, either by reducing certain staff, or by improving administrative methods, or by making existing taxes give their full yield, to find the resources which appear, a priori, to be lacking. Our colleagues delegated to the Hébrard de Villeneuve commission were therefore right to break off negotiations with the minister's people, since they did not stick to the mission assigned to them."

And to finish, this sharp line, but which is difficult to ward off: "France is rich," said Herriot, on May 11; has it gone bankrupt since then?"
Is this entirely a bad-tempered word? I rather believe that it is a cry for help.

Here are the current salaries for an administration:

Beginning:
supernumerary, 3,800 francs. Female employee: 3,800 (intermediate levels: 4,200, 4,600, 5,000, 5,500, 6,000, 6,500).
Clerk 4.00 (levels: 4,500, 5,000, 5,500, 6,000, 6,500, 7,000, 7,500, 8,000).
Controllers: 7,500 (levels: 8,000, 9,000, 10,000).

A cost of living allowance of 720 francs removed as soon as the salary reaches 6,900 for single people.
A supernumerary: 3,800+720+1,600 (for Paris) 6,120=509 francs.

Example: a 34-year-old clerk (the age at which one should be married and a father) earns 6,500+720+1,600 (in Paris) =8,820-390 (pension deduction) =8,430, or 702 francs per month.
A controller at 60: 11,000 + 1,600 (in Paris) 12,600-660=11,940 francs, or 995 francs per month.
At the end of their career, at 60, a female employee earns 7,200 francs, a clerk, 9,000 and a controller 11,000.
In 1914, the rate was: 2,700, 4,000 and 5,000 for these three jobs.

These figures speak for themselves. Compare them to the current cost of living, to what it costs just to feed oneself, and you will have the measure of the iniquity. Add to that the fact that civil servants are required to have good dress, decorum, a dignity of existence that only relative comfort can ensure. And the family, the elderly parents, the wife... the children... Because I forgot to tell you that the civil servant must set an example and have children. No! No kidding!! And what else?

So let us not be overly surprised if there are a few "pebbles" who protest and good people who are fed up with their harsh regime, their misery in a jacket or a jacket, their hopeless mediocrity. The country owes it to itself to treat its servants better.

If the latter sometimes betray it, let the judges called upon to punish them question their conscience. Are they not themselves civil servants?