, 1905-12-14
RED TAPE ~ELUCGDATED.

ter of systematizing n simplifying
the work in the various departments OF
the government. It is desired by Presi-
dent Roosevelt that much of the work
now known as red tape and which is
entirely useless shall be eliminated, In
order that the government may proceed
in n more orderly and businesslike
manner than IL has in the past. II Is
now the practice In government letter
writing to not only make reference to
letters being answered, but to also
brief them fully In the text as well as
on the back thereof. This entails an
amount OF work almost i~ncalculable,
when the vast correspondence of the
government is considered. Some ears
& a young lieutenant, after reading
his instructions very carefully, decid'
ed to brief his letter first, and after he
had concluded the brief OIL the back Of
his letter, he could find nothing more
to say, so he simply wrote; THE Hon.
orable -, washington, ID. c. Sir:
For contents of this letter, please see
brief on the back hereof" He vas re-
primanded, of course, but the young
man showed up in a very forcible man.
ner the system with which II great
government Is wrestling. 1t is not too
much to say that one-half of the let
ter writing and red tape methods are
not only absolutely useless, but a posi-
tive hindrance TO the conduct of gov
eminent business.
Mr.. William 70. Curtis, writing from
Washington to the Chicago Record-Her-
aid, shows the matter up in n very
striking anner Not a thing stated
by Mr.. Curtis is overdrawn in the
slightest degree. He says:
I'm addition to the stories already
told of red tape in the departments,
the Keep commission has heard the ex-
perience of the people of Carlsbad, N.
NJ, with the government of the United
States as a tenant. The reclamation
bureau is building a big dam and a
large system of irrigating canals and
bitches for the benefit of that country
and the people are correspondingly
grateful. They have done everything
they could to help the good work along
and, among other things. rave the Ma
sonic lcdgeroom to the engineer in
charge and his assistants for offices.
But there had to be a contract with a
nominal rental. The government does
not accept such favors without many
formalities, n in obedience to the
rules IND regulations of the interior
department, which have not been re-
vised for half a century, the proper pa
pers We're prepared. The lease was
originally in the name of the lodge,
but the government rejected 1t because
the lodge was not Incorporated, and
therefore could not sue or be sued. A
new lease was made out and signed by
the trustees of the lodge, but the de
partment rejected that also because it
was accompanied by no evidence show
ing their election as trustees of their
authority TO represent the lodge and do
nate the use of the lodgeroom to the
government. The members of the
lodge got together, passed resolutions
and 0 other necessary action TO clear
up doubts and settle difficulties, and
after a new set of papers were made
out and sent to Washington they felt
easy. But the papers were not sat
isfactory; they We're still defective in
some important particulars and were
returned to Carlsbad for correction.
THE citizens of Carlsbad were be-
ginning to get a little nettled at what
they considered the unnecessary and
unreasonable technicalities of the of.
ficials at washington but they were
still grateful for tie irrigating system
and decided to try it again. So, to pre-.
vent any further criticisms and to re
move all doubt of their authority, the
trustees called the members of the
Masonic lodge together and jointly and
severally make a deed of trust, convey
ing thep property to them, n then they
prepared another lease turning it over
to the government. Much to their as
constituent and chagrin, those docu.
ments werereturned with the disapprov.
al of the secretary of the interior, on
the ground that the lease was signed
by the trustees with only the initials OF
the Christian names. whereas the full
names were necessary. The generous
gentlemen responded that their sigma
lures TO the lease correspondent exact
ly to the names appearing in the deed
of trust, where the initials only were
used, but they were willing to write
their autographs upside down or hind
side foremost or wrongside out or any
other old way that the department
wanted They suggested that the sec
rotary of the interior himself prepare
the kind of papers he wanted and send
them down. for they had tried as hard
as they could to get them right and ev-
erybody connected with the case was
now threatened with nervous prostra-
ton.
FINALLY the matter was adjusted.