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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION  1244

are graduated according to years of service and rate of pay, the maximum that may be received regardless of salary being $1,980 per annum. The employees concerned are in all categories of employment from laborers and clerks to the higher officers of the Institution.

The National Gallery of Art does not at present come under these provisions, nor are there any other applicable to them, so that the few privately paid employees of the National Gallery are now without provision for retirement.

The advisability of covering privately paid officers and employees of the Institution into the Federal Retirement system as long been considered. These employees work with those under Civil Service at similar tasks and under similar rates of pay, but now have lesser provision for retirement, or in the case of the National Gallery, none at all. The Institution can not afford to increase the returns under its present plan.

The Smithsonian Institution enjoys a unique position within the Government framework, and the legal safety of that position has been a constant factor in the consideration of the desirability of Federal Retirement privileges.

The Civil Service Commission once indicated that the Federal Retirement Plan could be put into effect in the Smithsonian, but at that time the Secretary of the Institution held the opinion that this was not proper, a position in which he was supported at the time by the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art.

Dr. Abbot, as Secretary of the Smithsonian, recommended a special

A.W.