The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-14
A USEFUL COMMITTEE.
Cutting Down Expenses.

| Youths Companion.
An important reform, almost unno-
ticed by the public and the press, has
been proceeding steadily at Washing
| ton during the session Of the Fifty
| third Congress. We are accustomed TO
hear that Congress ..does nothing" or
else does nothing but what we think it
should not do.
The reform to which we refer, which
consists mainly of an improvement OF
the business methods OF the public
service, and which is likely to save to
the government and the taxpayers
millions of dollars yearly, is not only a
a proof that Congress does do some
| thing, but an admonition that the peo-
pie should judge its proceedings from a
closer observation than the ordinary
press dispatches usually enable them to
do.
A Joint and non-partisan commission
of senators and representatives of the
present Congress was constituted bv
law in 1898 to investigate the methods
of the executive departments and other
government establishments in Wash
ingtOn, and see what change in the
laws might be necessary to secure great
er efficiency and economy The COM
mission found that our government, as
a great business agency, was working
under many methods which were the
result of enactments made at the very
beginning of the government, in 1889.
Many of these methods had been
very we'll adapted to the government
in the early days, when the annual ex-
penditures were but few million dol
lars, but had become wasteful and alb
surd at the present time.
The first thing which the commits
sion did in the way of legislation was
to recommend the substitution of a sys-
tim Of engrossing the acts of Congress
by printing instead of by writing with
pen and ink.
Not only was the Old system eNpen-
siye, but errors in copying were fre-
quent, and it seemed to be Impossible
to prevent them.
1t was shown, among other striking
things, that an error of the pen of an
engrossing clerk in the tariff act of
1888 cost the government two million
| five hundred Thousand dollars in reve-
nue. in one year. The act had put
| 'tfruit plants" on the free list and the
clerk, by putting in a comma between
''fruit" ard "plants," had made it put
| fruit on the free list A bill recon-
mended by the commission abolishing
the old method of engrossment became
law.
The commission found that the de-
partments were paying very diverse
amounts for supplies. One paid near
" dollar ton more for coal than an
other, and one paid more than twice as
much for ice as another. The commits
sion submitted, and Congress passed, a
law which will make all these prices
uniform, and regulate them all by the
lowest bid made to any department.
The next step was the securing by
the commission of an act abolishlng
the publication of a certain report OF
accounts made by the treasurer to Con
gress.
| This report cost sixty-fve hundred
dollars a year, and was so eXtremely~vO-
luminous that nothing could be found
| in it. At the Senate document room
it was reported that not one copy OF
this work had been referred to in thirty
years.
| The commission brought about the
passage of an act reforming ard sim
plifying the business methods Of the
post-officce department, ana abolishing
the system of postal notes. The com
mission estimated that this act will
save two million dollars a year to the
government.
The most important remaining work
of the commission, so far, has been an
examination of the methods OF account
i,r II, tho troas,,rx. Go,,or+r,o,,+ I,