The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1906-03-22


cuation of who saved $4,000 of his 100000 al
otment for printing before he talked about it. and has
duced the whole cost OF operating his department by about
100000 year If each of the other Secretaries could do
half well Excepting the Secretary of State whose clerks
under roof the cost of administering the de
partment they properly housed would be $297
900 less than is today That added the present
rent BILL would make total of $64 900 the money cost
every year spreading the executive departments the
District government all the face of the city.
The two items in this account of Congress- with seat
tered bureaus, then, are these
2s70OOoO
Total 647Oeo0O
Now, Congress is responsible for this outlay More
than that is the of it, and the by which
it can be curtailed What ought Congress to do?
In two it has already acted But there the
remedy in sight is only partial.
Against the Agricultural Departments outlay OF $685.
568 for rent and its calculated outlay of $4,000 for
cost of administration total of 81 568Congress has
thOrized building to stand In the Mall where ground al
ready belonged to the National Government and to cost
about $2500000 The structure will be ready before
September l. 1907. Yet it has already been made plain
that the plans which Congress has accepted and only Con
gress expand will keep least divisions in the
baywindow brick dwellings they occupy in South
Washington.
Against the Districts outlay of Il for rent and
probably much less than $4,000 for extra cost
of administration Congress has authorized the construction
of a new municipal building at cost of $2500000. This
structure will the joint treasury of the jurse
tons $320 year rent and the cost of the extra help
light and fuel. The completion of the new Commercial
High School will it also $2625 year The remainder
of the present District rent BILL $32226 will go just
before The nation and the District must spend S42 200 of
it because they too poor to build amory for the Ma
tona Guard of the Capital and $211 of it because they
too poor to build schools for all the children of the
Capital.
adj fort two de-
parments Of the Government ought have provided
for them, it would only have made beginning In the
meantime the officials of the Life-Saving Service
than Of the auditors the officers of the army duty
with the Military Secretary the Surgeon General the chief
of the Insuar Bureau and other subcOmmanders the
bers of the naval examining board and the officers of the
general board of the navy the clerks who consult the
files of the Postoce Department. the attorneys Of the De-
parment of Justice and the experts of the Department of
Commerce and Labor walk back and forth their
work. like many students college campus wasting
time delaying the public business and adding greatly
cost.
What Congress ought to do the thing board of d
rectors woud do for governmental enterprise 1t
should for the nation the profit which landlords
making out of its rert BILL
The rent bill is plenty large for the purpose.
All the money the Government could spend such
buildings could be borrowed at the rate of s5 or per
cent At the latter the outlay of 600 for
the interest on 22 This is without regard to the
saving administration each department housed
it ought be housed If that saving added then the
$646000 which the Government distributes every year
to District landlords lighting companies, coal merchants
and employees who needed only the extra buildings
represents a principal of $34,000,000.
Six new buildings would accommodate all the bureaus
which in rented quarters AT average cost of
100000 each, either prineipathat represented in the
rent bill alone that represented IN the whole extra cost
of using rented buidngswould construct the whole
needed
for the District government in addition.
Congress ought to At erecting those structures this
year-ths session At the least possible calculation they
could not be finished before February, 1909 and it
tremey unlikely they would be finished before 1911 1912
In the meantime the Government is wasting half million