The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-03-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.


the legislative, executive and judicial bill
which has for its object the elimination
of some of the wasteful extravaganza Of
the Government Departments. There is
more behind this bill than the mere cur
tailment of expenses, although that fur
nishes sufficient cause for the investiga-
ton which preceded and the stiff fight
which will follow the reporting of the
Till. It has been the custom of Congress
to make appropriations for each Depart
ment in excess of the amounts required
for their conduct. These appropriations
which were intended as emergency funds,
or which in many instances have been
made with an express object, have been
used by the heads of department for en-
tirely different purposes. Generally the
appropriation has been exhausted in in
creasing the pay roll without in any way
increasing the efficiency of the work
done. New clerks have been employed
and the pay of those already employed is
increased without any appropriate in
crease or improvement in the work turned
out Congress now intends that the ex
ecutive departments shall recognize Con-
gress and that body alone as the source
of all authority in the matter of expendi
lures, and that when certain stipulations
are incorporated in bill the wish Of
Congress and not the ideas of any Bureau
chief oor head of Department is to pre-.
vail. The Keep Commission has been at
work for months trying to disclose the
muddle of incompetepcy, inefficiency and
graft in the Departments, and it is prin
cipally on its reports that the Committee
has been brought to realize the necessity
for revolutionary action. The disclosures
made by this Committee fill several large
volumes and present some startling rev.
Citations of wastefulness and dishonesty in
the Departments The actual violations
of the law are numerous but the smaller
evasions and perversious present more
appalling total. The individual instances
of petty graft are found in every bureau
of every Department AID while many
are small taken singly, the sum of them
makes record of thievery from the gov
eminent funds that would be difficult to
equal anywhere. Clerks have been illeg.
ally employed and paid, appropriations
have been diverted; funds appropriated
for one purpose have been applied to
another: limitations on funds prescribed
by Congress have been fagrantly set aside
by Bureau Chiefs and under Secretaries;
employees receiving large salaries from
the Government are drawing salaries
from outside concerns to which they give
time paid for by the Government; news
paper clerks at salaries of 81 800 to $4,000
a year are employed 10 read the news
papers for the Department Chiefs and
make clippings that may be of use and
interest. and a messenger at $72o year
is employed to deliver these clippings to
the bureau for which they are designed;
certain Divisions have increased fifty per
cent in the cost of their, maintenance in
five years while the work done by them,
because of changed conditions requiring
it, has actually decreased; without any
authority the various bureaus have con-
tracted enormous bills in the Government
Printing Office for the printing of useless
documents, prepared often in the first
place to give work to superfluous clerks;
in the case of the Patent Office rent of
$Io,5oo in which to house models that are
not used by the Patent Office once in
fifteen years;-but instances of this kind
might be given until every column OF
your paper were filled and even then it
would be but the beginning of the story.
The provision of the bill which will re.
ceive the most attention, however, is that
one which relates to the employment and
retirement of aged clerks. IF the House
and Senate concur on this provision after
June the pay of clerks over sixty years of
age will be reduced in accordance with
their age. After 1913 no person over
seventy shall be employed in the classified
service of any department. It is various
lv estimated in the departments that the
efficiency of clerk decreases from ten to
tweuty.6 Eve per cent after sixty years of
age, but there has never been any pro-
vision for decreasing their salaries accord
ingiy. In the Treasury Department alone
there are fifteen men over seventy years
of age employed as watchmen, while a
great many more than that number of
similar age have desks and are paid the
salaries that active men of thirty would
have hard work to earn.
~
The announcement that the President
will appoint Secretary of War Taft to the
Supreme Bench of the United States to
succeed Justice Brown is one of more
than usual political significance. Sec.
rotary Taft has been prominent and pop
ular as a presidential candidate. and his