The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1906-03-17
WASHINGTON
LETTER

The committee on appropriations
of the lower house of Congress re-
ported Friday the legislative, execu.
tive 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
curtailment of expenses, although
that furnishes sufficient cause for the
investigation which preceded and the
stiff fighting which will follow the
reporting of the bill. 1t has been
the custom of Congress to make ap-
preparations for each department 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 OBJ
ject, have been used by the heads of |
departments for entirely different |
purposes. Generally the appropria |
ton has been exhausted in increas-
ing the pay roll without in any way |
increasing the efficiency of the work
done. New clerks have been en-
ployed, and the pay of those already |
is increased without any appropriate |
increase or improvement in the work |
turned out Congress now intends |
that the executive departments shall |
roo1c,,,zo f17af hnHy |
alone as the source of all authority
in the matter of expenditures, and
incorporated in a bill, the wish OF
Congress, and not the ideas of any !
bureau chief or head of department, |
is to prevail The Keep commission |
has been at work for months trying |
to disclose the muddle of incompe- |
tency, ineficiency and graft in the |
departments, and it is principally on
its reports that the committee has
been brought to realize the neces-
sity for revolutionary action. The
II disclosures made by this committee
i fill several large volumes and pre-
/ sent some startling revelations OF
= wastefulness and dishonesty in the
departments. The actual violations
of the law are numerous, but the
s smaller evasions and perversions pre-
n sent a more appalling total The in
: dividual instances Of petty graft are
y found in every bureau of every de-
partment, and while many are small,
taken singly, the sum of them makes
a record of thievery from the gov
eminent funds that would be diff
cult to equal anywhere. Clerks have
been Illegally employed and paid;
appropriations have been diverted;
funds appropriated for one purpose
have been applied to another: limi-
tations on funds prescribed by Con-
gress have been fagrantly set aside
II by bureau chiefs and under secreta-
ries; employees receiving large sala-
ries from the government are draw
N ing salaries from outside concerns,
the government; newspaper clerks
at salaries of from $500 to $4,000 a
year are employed to read the news
papers for the department chiefs AMI
make clippings that may be of use
and interest; and a messenger at
500 a year is employed to deliver
these clippings to the bureau for
which they are designed; certain di-
visions 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 bu-
reaus have contracted enormous bills
in the government printing office for
the printing of useless documents
prepared often, in the first place, to
give work to superfuous clerks. In
the case of the patent office, a rent
of $4,000, 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
filled, and even then it would be but
the beginning of the story.
The provision of the bill which
will receive the most attention, how
ever, 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. About 1913 no per-
son over seventy shall be employed
in the classified service in any de-
partment. 1t is variously estimated
in the departments that the efficiency
of clerk decreases from ten to
twenty-five per cent after sixty years
of age, but there has never been any
provision for decreasing their sala-
ries accordingly. In the treasury de-
partment alone there are fifteen men