Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
SECY. OF AGR|CULT URE
Criticised in a Committee
Report.
MT. WEATHER OBSERVATORY
Also Comes in for Some Severe Crit
cism.
MONEY ALL ACCOUNTED FOR
Much Material Which Was Worthless,
Costing Government Money for
Storage and Labor.

| lures In the department, Hdoc
public today by Representative Littlefie.d
| of Maine, chairman of IT, committee.
Twenty sessions were held by the commit
| tee In the course of it's Investigations into
expenditures in the Agricultural Depart
| ment.
The committee begins its report with the
| statement that from the Forty-ninth to the
| Fifty-ninth Congress the government has
| expended $31, 1918 in the publication of the
| volume Expenditures in the Agricultural
| Department" although the committee re-
| marks that mo call has ever been made
| for the document and it is Of substantially
no public value" The committee further
! says that the voIume consists of "a mass
of unclassifed. unrelated. heterogeneous fig
ures, worthless as a basis for in
This useless book, the committee says,
cost s5,306 to print in the Fifty ninth Con-
+, gsess alone. The report adds that at the
| beginning of the session the committee
! called upon the department for classified,
| analysed and condensed volume of expendi-
| lures, which was promptly furnished in a
volume of 294 pages. costing 81 lo34',
| saving in this one instance of 81, l52.49.
| The report says that the committee does
| not consider 1t necessary to publish for
! the next fiscal year the volume of expendi-
| to furnish twelve typewriter copies of
| list of expenditures at cost of $lOO,
| saving of $5,206 a year to the government.
Mt. Weather Observatory.
| The report, taking Up the Mount Weather
| Observatory-and in respect to this item
| the report is a minority statement-says
| that Prof. Moore was in error in relying upon
| "a provision in the agricultural appropria-
| ton bill 'for the purchase of sites and the
| erection of not less than six buildings for
use as weather bureau observatories." the
| committee stating that lit turns out to be
| the fact that under that appropriation and
| appropriations reading like that only $780,
| 251.25 was expended. yhile under an ap-
preparation entitled general expenses,
| weather bureau SS4.S42U3 was expended.
| SO that there were two provisions Of the
appropriation bills that were drawn upon
| from time to time for the purpose of max
| ing this expenditure.
| The report then quotes from an opinion
| by the controller in which he says: Il under
| stand that buildings have been erected each
| year at Mount Weather commencing with
| the appropriation for 1903; that the sites
and buildings so far erected. with furniture
| and instruments. have cost $4,000. and
| when the research institution the
weather station at Mount Weather is COM
pleted under the present plans it will cost
| $3.50. COO
| Under existing law there has been no au-
| thority for the construction development
of the station at Mount Weather as con-
| structed proposed to be developed"
| S. X. Jacobs. chief of the miscellaneous
| division of the office of the auditor for.
! the state and other departments, when
| called before the committee to explain why
the disbursement of the sums in question
| without authority was permitted stated
| that the law gave the Secretary the widest
discretion. but the committee says the pre-
else contrary Of this is the fact.
| Every Dollar Accounted For.
| The report, commenting on Mount Wealth
| er. says:
| Although unauthorized by law, we have
| this institution and equipment as 1t stands.
Our opinion is that when the head of this
| bureau works out any other plans for its
| further development that such plans. with
| the purpose contemplated and the cost in
| volved, should be communicated to Con-
gress and the plan approved and the
amount of appropriation therefor be spe-
| clhcaily made from time to time before
| any further additions are made thereto
| 1t is proper to state in this connection that
| every dollar disbursed for this purpose has
been accurately and properly accounted
| for"
Representatives Samuel. Flood, Gambler.
Dairy and Davis join in a report to the
| effect that I'VE find no evidence of extrav-
| agance or misapplication of funds in the
| crea ton of Mount Weather which we be-
| lieve to have been worthily conceived and
| the plans so far to have been efficiently
| executed"
olmstead's Employment.
| The report crlticises the employment of
| Mr.. Olmstead chief of the bureau of sta
tistics of the Agricultural Department while
| at the same time he was drawing a salary
from the Philippine government in relation
/ to the completion Of the census in the
/ archipelago.
| The report reterates the criticisms
voiced by the appropriations committee
| last year concerning the violations Of tho
| provisions of law by the Secretary Of Aeri
| culture in having the new Department of
| Agriculture building constructed in two
segments, instead of in one complete build
ing, but adds that the first-named plan
was undoubtedly the wise and proper one.
The report, taking up the subject of wire
less teiegraphy, says that the original con-
| tract with Reynold A. Fessenden the in
| ventor, was made without authority and is
| consequently void. The controller is quoted
| as saying he is not aware why the auditor
| found certain sums expended for wireless
| telegraphy purposes.
| Worthless Document.
In the course Of the investigation the
committee discovered that there was on
hand in the printing office and the folding
| room a large mass Of practically worthless
material, that in the printing office aggre-
eating 10000 volumes and that in the
| folding room 100000. costing $4,000 a
| year in storage charges and s.. $50 for labor
| hire
/ Inc report aQQS tnat an interesting 1aCt
| illustrative Of the gross negligence con-
| nected with such an accumulation appeared
when we discovered that since 1890 the gov
| eminent had been paying $1,000 a year for
/ the storage of a lot Of census reports which
were accumulated at that time, and had
| been held under the census Office on stor-
| age on account of the fact that they were
/ absolutely worthless and could not be dis
| tributed, these now being covered into the
accumulation in charge Of the printing
| office, but 1t has cost the government $48,-
/ 900 simply for storage alone in order to
| keep on hand this material that has been
worthless from the beginning"
In connection with the binding of docu-
ments of this department the report says:
I'VE found that the requirement OF the
/ law compelling public documents to be
| bound in law sheep was costing. in accord
| ance with the estimate of one of the wit
nesses over and above what It would have
/ cost to have bound them in cloth. which,
| we learn, Is for all purposes Of durability
and use much better than law sheep. the
i sum of $l50OO0 annually. And, according
| to another witness. $1S8, 634.S6 annually,
/ thus showirT an entirely unnecessary and
/ useless expenditure of anywhere from
/ $50, 900 to $1sS.634.S annually.
! There can be no question but thatzfhe
law should ba 30 changed AZ to elin1 ate
i this unnecessary expense and that payf1cI-