A resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, calling for information relative to the printing for that department for the year 1855. MARCH 5, 1856.-Read, ordered to lie on the table and be printed. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 4, 1856. SIR I have the honor to inform the Senate, in obedience to the resolution of yesterday, calling for a statement of any and all sums of money which have been paid or agreed to be paid for printing for each of the several bureaus and offices of the department during the year ending December 31, 1855, which has not been expended under the provisions of the act of 26th August, 1852, regulating the prices of public printing, that there has been no money paid or agreed to be paid by this department for printing for the year ending 31st December, 1855, contrary to the provisions of the law of the 26th of August, 1852. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. JESSE D. BRIGHT, President of the Senate With a resolution of the 21st ultimo, calling for information relative to the number of messengers and employés in that department other than clerks MARCH 5, 1856.-Read, ordered to lie on the table and be printed. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 3, 1856. SIR: In obedience to a resolution of the Senate, passed on the 21st ultimo, "That the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Interior, War, and Navy, the Postmaster General and Attorney General, be required to report to the Senate, as early as practicable, the number of the messengers and employés, other than clerks, now employed in the several offices and bureaus of the executive departments in Washington city, and the amount of compensation now paid to each; also the number of such employés, whether denominated messengers, packers, laborers, watchmen, or otherwise, and each of them respectively, that are required to be employed in said offices and bureaus for the proper dispatch of the public business, with the annual compensation which should be paid for the services of each of the respective classes of said employés, with a view to legislation providing uniform compensation therefor," I have the honor to submit herewith statements, marked A and B. It will be perceived from statement A, that there are in the various offices of the Treasury Department fourteen principal messengers, at compensations varying from $600 to $900 per annum; nine assistant messengers, at compensations varying from $420 to $720 per annum; thirty-eight laborers, at the uniform compensation of $576 per annum, and sixteen watchmen, at the uniform compensation of $600 per annum. I am not aware that any other or additional officers, of the description mentioned in the resolution, are required in this department for the dispatch of the public business. The equality of compensation, at which the resolution seems to aim, might perhaps be accomplished by fixing the principal messengers in this department (say one in each office) at $900 or $1,000 per annum, with the duty of taking charge of the stationery, and keeping the accounts of the receipt and delivery thereof, and by fixing all other of these employés (say assistant messengers, laborers, watchmen, doorkeepers, packers, &c.) at about $600 per annum. These compensations would be reasonable, as compared with the usual compensation of such persons in private pursuits, and would be so far, I presume, satisfactory to the incumbents. But there would still be inequalities of occupation and labor amongst them, as, for instance, between the principal messenger of the Auditor's Office, Post Office Department, the largest of the bureaus, and the principal messenger of the Light-house Board, one of the smallest, and also between watchmen and laborers. And the equality of compensation, if thus established in the Treasury Department, would scarcely give satisfaction, unless the same rates be extended to other departments of the public service. In statement marked B are to be found the greatest inequalities, both of occupation and compensation. The doorkeeper of the President is occupied throughout the year, and throughout the day, and receives but $600 per annum, whilst similar officers at the Capitol occupied but for a portion of the year, receive $1,500 per annum in addition, perhaps, to perquisites, and to the additional compensation usual at the close of extra and other sessions of Congress. I have felt it to be my duty to refer to these cases, inasmuch as I have reason to believe that the complaints on the part of the messengers and laborers in this department are founded, not so much upon the small inequalities of compensation (generally arising from inequalities of employment or responsibility) in the different branches of the treasury, and other executive departments, as upon the greater inequality, both of compensation and employment, between them and similar employés of the two houses of Congress. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. D. BRIGHT, JAMES GUTHRIE, President pro tem. United States Senate. A. Statement showing the number of messengers and employés, other than clerks, now employed in the several offices and bureaus of the Treasury Department, in Washington city, and the compensation now paid to each; also the number of such employés required to be employed in said offices and bureaus for the proper dispatch of the public business, with the amount of compensation which should be paid for the services of each of the respective classes of the said employés, in pursuance of resolution of the Senate of February 21, 1856. |