The San Francisco call., 1905-06-17
ROOSEVELT
WILL STOP
Bic WASTE
Selects Committee
to Investigate
Departments.
Reform Business Meth
DDS Will Be Intro
duced in Bureaus.
Chief Elective Hopes to Be
Able to Cut Expenses
Several Millions.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

WASHINGTON, June 16.-Young blood
has been called upon by the President to
reform the business methods of the va
rious departments of the Government. A
committee of investigation which has
been quietly at work for some time has
been appointed by the President to bring
about uniform methods in the business
among the bureaus, with view to saw
ing a waste in the expenditures which is
believed to amount to several millions
yearly.
The committee consists of James r.
Garfield, Commissioner of the Bureau OF
Corporations, chairman; Lawrence o.
Murray, Assistant Secretary of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor; Frank
H Hitchcock First Assistant Postmaster
General; Charles II. Keep, Assistant Sec
retary of the Treasury and the Presi-
dents personal representative in that de-
partment, and Clifford Pinchot. chief for
ester in the Department of Agriculture
All of these men are we'll under ~ years
of age, gifted in business ability and
great workers on detail.
Extravagant expenditures are TO be cut
down or done away with altogether, IN
Guiding trips by employees on behan OF
the Government, which have grown IN
number alarmingiy in the past Few years.
is to be reduced TO a minimum, and IN
all probability the personnel OF each bu-
reau will be carefully examined.
In a letter addressed to Charles H
Keep. Assistant Secretary OF the Treas
ury. President Roosevelt says in part:
Salaries should be commensurate
with the character and market va.ue OF
the service performed and uniform Tor
similar service in all departments
.srrlo Of method.
ard custom or pratice, is no reason Tor
its existence when better is onered-
There should be systematic depart
mental operation with expert and tech
nical knowledge. The different de-
partments should be substantially uni
form The adoption of metnods ana
the performance of work every step OF
which is not clearly indlSpensaoie
should be eliminated.
"A resolute effort should be made to
secure brevity on correspondence and
the elimination of useless letter writ
ing. There is a type of bureaucrat
who believes that his entire work and
that the entire work of the Government
should be the collecting OF papers In
reference to a case, commenting with
eager minuteness on each and corre-
snonding with other officials in ref
erence thereto. These people really
care nothing for the case, but only the
documents in the case. In all branches
of the Government there is tendency
greatly to increase unnecessary and
greatly perfunctory letter writing. In
the army and navy the increase Of
paper work is a serious menace to the
efficiency of fighting officers who are
often required by bureaucrats to spend
time In making reports which they
should spend in increasing the ef-
f1ciency of the battleships or regiments
under them. AS regards this matter,
you will please confer with the As
sistant Secretaries of the War Depart
ment and Navy Department and re-
quest them to submit to me scheme
for doing away with the evils referred
to. In the civil departments the abuse
of letter writing amounts not merely
to the waste of time of the Government
servant responsible for it, but also to
the impeding of public business.
please consider also the matter OF
enforcing accountability for property.