<DOC>
[Cannon's Precedents -- Volume VIII]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:cannon_cclxxvii.wais]


                          Chapter CCLXXVII.\1\
 
                         SERVICE OF THE HOUSE.

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   1. Compensation of employees. Sections 3600, 3601.

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  3600. While customary to grant the widow of an employee of the House 
an amount equal to one-half of a year's salary, in exceptional 
instances the House has authorized payment of the full amount of the 
annual salary.--On December 21, 1916,\2\ Mr. James T. Lloyd, of 
Missouri, by direction of the Committee on Accounts, offered the 
following, as privileged resolution:

  Resolved, That the Clerk of the House is directed to pay, out of the 
contingent fund of the House, to Lenora McCall Courts, widow of James 
C. Courts, late clerk to the Committee on Appropriations, a sum equal 
to one year's salary at the rate he was receiving by law at the time of 
his death, said sum to be considered as including funeral expenses and 
all other allowances.

  In discussing the resolution, Mr. Lloyd explained:

  Mr. Speaker, this is a little different resolution from what we have 
been offering on the death of an employee of the House. Mr. Courts, as 
you know, was the clerk to the Committee on Appropriations. He had been 
connected with the Committee on Appropriations for 39 consecutive 
years, during all administrations, since he was first employed. Since 
1884 he was the clerk of that committee until the time of his death 
last September.
  He devoted his whole time and attention during all those years to the 
service of that committee and the Government, and it is safe to say 
that no man connected with this House, either within the Chamber or out 
of it, was more faithful and valuable and meant more to the Government, 
so far as his work was concerned, than Mr. Courts, and we think that 
under the circumstances it is but right that we should allow a year's 
salary to his widow, just as we would in the case of the widow of a 
Member of Congress, if a Member of Congress died. Heretofore in the 
case of other employees we have allowed a sum equal to six months' 
salary.
  I am inclined to believe that the resolution is a highly proper one 
under the circumstances, and I want it distinctly understood, so far as 
the Committee on Accounts is concerned, that we are not offering this 
as a precedent for the future. And yet if it is construed as a 
precedent in the future, there is no danger, because this individual 
served 39 years, and if anybody else served 39 years if would not be a 
serious burden to the Government if a year's salary were allowed.
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  \1\ Supplementary to Chapter CXLVII.
  \2\ Second session Sixty-fourth Congress, Record, p. 648.
Sec. 3601
  3601. On July 9, 1921,\1\ the House had under consideration the 
following resolution:

  Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives be directed 
to pay, out of the contingent fund of the House, to Nellie May 
Phillips, widow of Herman A. Phillips, late Journal clerk of the House 
of Representatives, a sum equal to one year's salary as Journal clerk, 
and that the Clerk be further directed to pay out of the contingent 
fund the expenses of the last illness and funeral of said Herman A. 
Phillips, such expenses not to exceed $250.

with a proposed amendment offered by the Committee on Accounts as 
follows:

  Strike out ``one year's'' and insert in lieu thereof ``six months,'' 
so that it will read ``a sum equal to six months' salary as Journal 
clerk.''

  In the course of debate on the resolution, Mr. Clifford Ireland, of 
Illinois, chairman of the Committee on Accounts, who had presented the 
resolution, said:

  Mr. Speaker, this is the usual resolution for the dependents of a 
deceased employee of the House, with this exception, that the original 
resolution as drawn provided for the payment of one year's salary to 
the dependents of the deceased employee, and the custom for ordinary 
employees of the House has been to pay six months' salary and funeral 
expenses not to exceed $250 in amount. It has been found to be the 
precedent, however, of the House that officers of the House and 
employees of the so-called Clerk's desk have been paid a full year's 
salary. In committee this resolution was amended to conform to the 
ordinary resolution. I gave notice before the committee at that time 
that I should oppose the amendment, and do so now. I yield to the 
gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Mann.

  Mr. James R. Mann, of Illinois, opposed the amendment and said:

  Mr. Speaker, the practice of the House has been to pay a year's 
salary to the widow or dependents of a Member of the House, six months' 
salary to the ordinary employee of the House, and a year's salary to 
the widow or dependents of one of the elected officers of the House. 
Apparently the precedents are that the practice has been to pay a 
year's salary to the widow or dependents of clerks at the desk, 
including the Official Reporters of the House. The precedents are not 
numerous. The last time an officer or clerk at the desk died was in 
1887. A reading clerk died and the House proceeded to pay the widow of 
the reading clerk one year's salary. Prior to that time Mr. Hincks, one 
of the Official Reporters of the House, died and the Committee on 
Accounts did not recommend a year's salary, but the House increased the 
amount and paid a year's salary to the widow of the reporter. Again, 
when Mr. McElhone, one of the Official Reporters, died, the Committee 
on Accounts recommended that his widow be paid one year's salary, and 
the House so voted, and she was so paid.
  I brought Herman Phillips here to the House nearly 24 years ago as 
assistant Journal clerk. Shortly afterwards he became Journal clerk of 
the House. From then on he was Journal clerk during all of the time 
except when the Democratic side of the House was in control of the 
House. He was an expert man in the House, both as a Journal clerk and 
as an aid in parliamentary work. I think the House can afford to follow 
the few precedents which have been set, there being no precedents on 
the other side, and pay his widow as the widow of a clerk at the desk, 
a full year's salary; and I hope that the amendment reducing the amount 
to six months' salary may be defeated.

  The question being taken on the amendment proposed by the committee 
it was decided in the negative. The resolution was then agreed to 
without amendment.
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  \1\ First session Sixty-seventh Congress, Record, p. 3487.