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The Commoner.
JUNE 27, IMS
'J1"1
covering estimates, appropriations, accounting,
reporting and conditions governing expendi
tures. To collect this necessary information, analyze
Its essentials and assemble them into a budget,
requires a special organization of experts not
now in existence or provided for. The com
mission on economy and efficiency was an ap
proximation to such a group of exports. Tho
proposal of tho commission is that a permanent
bureau of administrative control be established
to act as "ft central information plant," send
forms to departments, assist and direct in the
gathering of data, then to shape this material
into a serviceable budget a plan board and
a statemdnt to stockholders putting in sum
maries tho wanted knowledge about government
business this to bo sent by the president to
congress. Such a bureau, at immediate service
of all government officials, would bring facts to
bear on the problems of our billion-dollar book
keeping. Though a committee on expenditure is pro
vided in tho rules of the house for each of the
departments, these committes have assumed
critical powers rather than shown a disposi
tion to assist, advise and co-operate with depart
ment heads. The latter would be the function
of the proposed administrative bureau in charge
of preparing tho budget." Such a bureau would
keep currently 6n record the data sought by
committees on expenditures or by persons or
organizations. Its function would concern tho
business and not the politics or policies of the
government. As to whether the government
should build more battleships, it would say
nothing; as to how the government should build
or buy the best battleships for thie money set
aside, it might say much.
Urging the need for a central bureau of in
formation to prepare a budget, the commission
commented, "The present method of drawing up
estimates and presenting them to congress fur
nishes a continual and potent temptation to ex
travagance and waste. With each bureau or
department head free to request whatever
amount his judgment or enthusiasm may dic
tate, it is natural that no really
serious attempt is made to consider the relations
of a particular service to a large group of ser
vices. It Is taken for granted that appropria
tions requested are not an honest expression of
what is needed, and that each head who submits
an estimate does so expecting that it will be dis
counted and, therefore, pads his estimates ac
cordingly. "Committees of congress are deprived of in
formation about the actual needs of the service,
and of- the co-operation of tho administration.
The two branches are much on the same plane
as would be a partnership in which each partner
Is holding out against the other and peeking to
put him in a position of personal disadvantage.
Under such circumstances, there can not be the
mutual confidence essential to effective co
operation." The proposed bureau of administrative con
trol would gather this requisite' Information
from tho departments and lay it before con
gress in the form of a budget without increased
expense to the government. The nucleus of such
a bureau exists already in offices which it .Is
proposed to transfer and combine. These
offices are: Comptroller of the treasury, audi
tors of the treasury, war, navy, interior, post
office, state and other departments, division of
public moneys 'and division of bookkeeping and
warrants. The annual appropriations for this
service amounts to $1,061,470 and would bo
adequate to do "not only the work at present
done by them, but also all the other work
recommended."
Such a specific organization would report to
the business men of the nation all the valuable
lessons gained out of government contact with
successes and failures in methods of manage
ment, production and distribution. As the cen
tral station for the accounting and the efficiency
engineering of a public welfare corporation,
spending more money every year than the total
capitalization of the largest corporation of the
nation, it would gather a vast mass of know
ledge on the principles of buying, the handling
of men, tho making" of contracts, the standardi
zation of methods, and like vital subjects.
Besides its broad work on the budget, it
might make minor efficiency and economy
studies of such questions as: tho cost to the
government of buying and maintaining the
thousands of typewriters used; how much would
he saved in extension of pneumatic tube service;
now much In making out pay rolls by mechani
cal means instead of by hand or typewriter, as
is done in many offices; how to secure accurate
unit costs on heating, lightning and cleaning
government buildings in Washington and olso
where; how to improve the light, ventilation
and sanitation of government buildings that
have been condemned by tho Washington mu
nicipal health and building authorities as
menaces to tho health and safety of the men
and women who use them.
In this single matter of housing in Washing
ton, for instance, the bureau would bring order
out of confusion. Payment of rontalB is so In
volved that the aggregato Is actually not
known. Policy or plan there was none; usually
tho most opportune course was adopted in each
case. Once adopted, however, it speedily be
came a fixed method, a precedent which was per
petuated because thoro was no one with author
ity to look into it, analyze it and dotermlno
whether or not tho quarters were suitable to
tho work done in them or the most economical
available for that work. Like Topsy, the hous
ing system for government offices "just growed."
Individuals recognized the appalling inciden
tal waste and protested; but there was no cen
tral authority to take the matter In hand, In
vestigate, organize and rearrange on efficiency
lines.
"We have spent three million dollars buying
land down opposite the treasury building upon
which to place three departments, but we do
not seem to get to the point of appropriating
money for the buildings," said the chairman of
the senate appropriations committee at one hear
ing this year. On the same occasion, It was
stated that a plot of ground was bought more
than ten years ago for a hall of records, but
that no headway had yet been made toward
building.
Seventy-six good office rooms of tbo war de
partment in the high rent district are "clut
tered with files seldom used." Tho office forces
of the department, instead of being centralized,
are scattered over fourteen buildings; $29,000
a year in rents are paid by this department alone
in Washington. A largo corridor in tho pension
office, which is used once every four years for
an inaugural ball, would make an excellent
stockroom for files. Civil war documents of ir
replacable historical value are stored in a build
ing well known to be a fire trap. Storage of
records at other points Is Cumbersome, wastes
space and raises tho rent bill. It would pay the
country to invest one hundred million dollars
in land and buildings in order to save tho rent
now paid in tho District of Columbia.
Stopping such leaks the moment they occur
plugging waste holes before resources trickle
away to nothingness finding and enforcing
fair and reasonable standards in buying ma
terials and services it is toward these results
that business men aro turning their keenest
attention and fiercest energies. All along tho
line, the high rewards are offered to those who
can cut the costs of operation and mako the
buying dollar buy more than it purchased
yesterday.
This hatred of waste, this urge towards effi
ciency is the force behind the demand that the
government shall have a budget shall apply In
the far-flung circle of its services and establish
ments approximately the same standards of per
sonal and organization efficiency which the
average business must enforce as the price of
its business life. Because congress can squeeze
an extra hundred million dollars out of the
country's tax payers any time it chooses, that
is no reason why the hundred million should
not be saved instead of raised by a fresh tax
levy. Because the last congress appropriated
eleven hundred million dollars Instead of the
usual billion, there is an added reason why every
dollar of that sum should be spent wisely, should
buy maximum value in service or floor space, in
transportation or food stuffs, in factory ma
terials or office supplies.
Comes then the question: "Can the govern
ment buy wisely without a budget?" Any busi
ness man of experience will answer that until
each department reduces 'the chaos of Jits activi
ties to an organized program of work, and bases
its estimates of money needed on this program,
the nation's business will continue to be done
by guess and rule-of-thumb And, as in any
other business, the first step toward making
wrong right, is complete, accurate, digested in
formation about the work to be done, tho right
way to do it and the reasonable cost, of accomp
lishing it.
This information a budget will give these
standards of value and working efficiency a
bureau of administrative control will define and
apply. Pacts instead of guesses, exact totals in
stead of optimistic approximations, comprehen
sive summaries instead of a vague and intermin
able array of items laid before tho general man
ager and the board of diroctora of tho United
States for tholr guidance and tho country's ad
ministration. It is not politics or statecraft or
diplomacy that Is involved. It is plain busi
ness. And tho business mon of tho country
have come to tho point whoro thoy want to see
their tax dollars buy moro sorvico and less
waste.
A BANK PRESIDENT'S SUGGESTION
Winfleld, Kan., Juno 6, 1913. To Tho Com
moner: There has boon ho much talk concern
ing a "Central Bank," "National Rosorvo As
sociation," "The Aldrich Plan," etc., until it has
become an "old story" and but little noaror so
lution of the problem than when tho start was
made. With somo temerity, I auggoat "Gov
ernment Guaranty of Deposits of National
Banks." This can be done through tho offlco of
tho comptroller of tho treasurer at vory llttlo
additional expense and at a minimum cost to
national banks. It has beon shown conclusively
that an assessment of one-thirtieth of ono por
cent would cover tho requirement, and I doubt
if this assessment would bo required moro than
ono year In three. The very fact of a govern
ment guaranty would at once groatly cut tho
failures, which aro, even now, practically noth
ing. It seems to mo that this would simplify
matters and rollovo tho anxiety as to tho matter
being handled by a few men, and dlvorco it en
tirely from "Wall street influence."
Quoting from Sonator Owen, chairman of tho
senate committee on banking and currency:
"Covering the active national banks for tho past
forty-nine years, thoro has beon an annual loss
of .0362 per cent." A small amount. With a
government guaranty, this would bo cut moro
than one-half, so this is my reason for saying
that one-thirtieth of ono por cent, mado once
in three years, would meet tho exigencies of
the case don't you think bo?
I merely make these remarks as a suggestion
and would like to hear from other national
bankers. Very truly, W. C. ROBINSON,
President First National Bank, Winfiold, Kan.
THE ADMINISTRATION'S PEACE PLAN
Following is an Associated Pross dispatch:
Washington, Juno 22. With tho acceptanco in
principle of the president's peace, plan by eigh
teen nations, Secretary Bryan has felt en
couraged to develop some of thp details of th
plans which so far have been only generall;
outlined. Ho made a statement today touchlnj
tho composition of the proposed commission
to Investigate controversies designed to meet
suggested objections that it would bo impossible
to provide unbiased bodies of investigators,
whose findings would command nospoct of tho
principles.
Tho statement is as follows:
"Mr. Bryan in stating to tho nowspapors that
eighteen nations had now accepted the prin
ciple of the president's peace plan, gives somo
of tho details suggested for tho completion of
the plan. Tho plan contemplates a permanent
international commission, and tho president
suggests that the committee be composed of
five nationalities as follows. One member from
each of the contracting countries to be chosen
by the government, one member to bo chosen
by each pf the contracting countries from somo
other country and the fifth member of tho com
mission to be agreed upon by the two govern
ments, the commission to be appointed as soon
as convenient after the making of tho treaty;
vacancies to be filled according to tho original
appointment.
"This is merely a suggestion. This govern
ment is ready to consider any proposition that
tho contracting parties may desire to make."
PERFECTLY HUMAN
The trouble with Senator Maxtine of tho com
mittee Investigating tho West Virginia terrorism
appears to bo that ho Insists upon making his
report as he goes along. Everything that ho
hears and sees fills him with voluble surprise,
indignation and rage. He sympathizes oratori
cally with the afflicted and oppressed; he be
comes denunciatory in the presence of cruelty
and tyranny on the part of the 'powerful, and
the quibbles of a mine attorney, move him to
picturesquo imprecations.
It will be remembered that this was the com
plaint against the elder Weller at the trial of
the celebrated breach-of-pfomiso case In which
Mr. Pickwick was unhappily involved, but did
anybody question Tony's honesty of purpose or
intelligence or devotion to justice or sobriety?
No! New York World.
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