Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-23
KEEP co OMM|SSION
Meeting of Subcommittee at
Mr.. Pinchot's House.
THE PRESIDENTS TALK
His Comment on the Departmental
Business.
REFORMS THAT ARE DESIRED
Some May BE Obtained Through Ex-
ecutive Order, While Others viii
Require Legislation.
REFORMS THAT ARE DESIRED

| President Roosevelt's interest in the bet
| ter conduct of government business. with
| out the present great amount of unneces-
sary red tape, and his personal enthusiasm
| in the cause have been impaired to every
| government bureau In the capital city in
| novel and striking manner. 1t learned
| today that about seventy departmental
| officials. including heads of bureaus and di-
! visions, chief clerks and Others. We're in
| vited to the residence of United States
| Forester Clifford Pinchot. 1915 Rhode Island
| avenue northwest. last Tue osday evening,
| as Mr.. Pinchots guests. The government
! forester is a member of the Keep iuvestf-
| eating committee for the departments. MI.
| Keep, head OF the committee, and other
| members were there. The officials who
| were present are the members of number
| of assistant committees" which have
| been organized under the supervision of
| the Keep committee and with the CO
| operation of the heads OF the departments.
| This was the first gathering of the oTsaui-
| cations. The members had not been together
| over hour when Mr.. Roosevelt was In
| troduced and proceeded TO tell them. In a
| free and easy speech lasting nearly an
| hour, just what are his own ideas on tho
| subject of departmental reform.
At the conclusion of the Presid ant's re-
| he turned TO Mr.. Pinchot and said:
And now l would like to meet al Of
| these gentlemen"
| An informal reception was he'd wit the
| result that the chief executive got in close
| touch with the men who are directly re-
| sponsible for the conduct of Uncle Sam $
business
Then Mr. Keep took the floor and spoke
upon the sare question. After the addresses
| adjournment taken to the s;n, king
room. and cigars We're handed around ana
a most enjoyable. social hour spent
One result of the meeting was the stimU-
aticn to action of the assistant committees
| Of department. OFFICIALS which have The
! dlrty of devisfng schemes for greater
dispatch in doing public business and for
the establishment of uniform systems
| throughout the big departments for The
| purpose of putting stop 10 various al
| legged abuses resulting from present meth
| DDS. Some of these smaller committees
will meet once n week and talk over their
plans and make recommendations 10 the
Keep committee and the heads of depart
ments.
Improvement of the service without
legislation. If possible, but Improvement at
| all hazards is the motto of the movement
as given out by several OF those who at
tended the semi-social and semi-busness
gathering at Mr.. Pinchots. This, toe, Is
the Presidents desire.
I'VE had a magnificent time" remarked
a prominent departmental official who was
there to a Star reporter this morning The
President, Mr.. Keep and Mr.. Pinchot I'M
enthusiasm for the betterment of the serv-
ice, and we came back to our desks with
a determination to greatly renew our ef-
forts along these lines The meeting put
new life into us, and there ought surely 10
be fnnumerable good results"
The Presidents Address.
The Presidents remarks were as follows:
Mr.. Keep; Gentlemen:
Il wish to express my very great appre-
citation of the work that you are doing 1t
would be a good thing for certain cities of
our government to realize the amount OF
| hard. disinterested work for the govern
ment represented by this gathering 10
which [ now speaking-a work which
must in the immense majority of cases be
It's own reward, and, therefore, an ample
reward; for there is nothing pleasaDter
than the consciousness of having done well
a bit of work well worth doing.
"A year ago l appointed the Keep com
mission, because | had become convinced
that the business methods of our govern
ment were by means abreast of the
time. While think there is comparatively
little corruption in the national govern
mental service, and While that little / In
tend to cut out or have cut out through
other agencies than yours, II yet remains
true that there is good deal of duplication
Of work. a good deal of ciumsiness of work,
and, above all. the inevitable tendency to-
ward mere bureaucratic methods. against
which every government official should be
perpetually on his guard-the tendency 10
regard not the case but the papers in the
case, as the all-important matter with
which to deal, and to feel proud sense of
duty performed If all those papers are ap-
propriately docketed and referred and min
utes made about them, and then referred
back without regard to what has become OF
the real fact at issue.
LAS you are aware the Keen. comm ssi ion
sent out questions to those responsible for
the actual work in ali branches of the gov
ernment service Answers were received. or
are now being received. TO those Questions,
and they furnish useful aid to the study
by the commission of governmental con-
ditions. But inevitably in the great ma
jority Of cases these answers are inadequate
to form basis for definite recommended
tions, and of course that Is what l want
from this commission. / do not want a
diagnosis OF the case. l want a recon-
nlendation how to reach the case; / do not
want merely TO know that things bad:
/ want to know what is bad, and what is
to be done to make 1t better; that II
legislation is necessary / can recommend
it. that If, as l hope will be trIe in the
enormous majority of cases. the matter can
be reached by executive regulation. | can
see that that regulation is issued. | want
to say right here, gentlemen, that l shall
value the reports that receive largely not
exclusively at adj. but largely in proportion
as they do not call for legislation. There
is nothing ea:ter, as all of you knew. than
to draw Up an elaborate minute 30 show
how well things would go on if some one
else did something different. / want YOU,
so far as is possible. to recommend some
thing that | can do, something that the
heads OF the departments can dc, so that
we can ourselves put a stop 10 aueh at
least, OF the evil that exists. remedy much
at least of the shortcomings that exist
A Bit Of Advice.
AS have said your particular effective
ness lies In the fact that you are dealing
at first hand with work with which you are
thoroughly familiar. You are not outsiders.
You are not engaged In constructing a par
lor theory of how the work should be
done; you are engaged in recommendations
to better the business which you are your
serves to carry through and see made bet
ter when those recommendations have been
adopted. You have literally an unparal-
leled opportunity for useful work AS far
as am aware there has never before been
made II this country, indeed In any coun-