The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1909-05-08
News OF NATIONS
CAPITAL
BY Sheldon s. Cline.


some pretty sizeable tasks but in none
of them has he ever encountered SO
many difficulties as are confronting
him in his efforts to get the expenses
of the government reduced. Some If
the members of his cabinet who started
an early campaign for economy in their
departments are at the verge of despair
and almost ready to abandon the ua-
dertaking as hopeless.
Up at the capitol the tariff makers
discovered that everybody is willing
and anxious that the import taxes
should be reduced on everything except
on the particular products in which he
is interested. 1t is the same with cut.
ting expenses. Every man who works
for Uncle Sam is an earnest believer in
economy and is anxious to see it prac-
ticed-dn every department except his
own. But every time the pairing knife
is applied some one let's out an awful
howl.
The head of department summons
a bureau chief and asks how much of
a reduction it is possible to make in
the cost of operating that particular
bureau. "Not a cent, Mr.. Secretary
not cent the chief will earnestly ex-
claim. GAS a matter of fact, we sim
ply must have more money in order to
keep up with our work. You see, the
work we are doing means saving Of
'steen millions Of dollars year to the
American people and it would be the
poorest sort of economy to curtail it.
Then the bureau chief enters upon a
long and learned disquisition and when
he has done the secretary has to admit
that here at least is one bureau upon
which the vandal hand of retrenchment
must not be laid. He summons another
bureau chief and hears the same sort OF
a story, only more so. This man proves
conclusively that the fate of the Ameri
can republic depends absolutely upon
his getting an increased appropriation
for the coming fiscal year. And so il
goes throughout all the bureaus Of his
department. When he comes to sum
ND the results of his retrenchment cam
paign he finds that he is committed to
asking congress to give his department
about twenty-five per cent more money
than it had for the current year.
He doesn't dare take a report like
that to the next meeting of the cabi-
net. in the face of the presidents g posi-
tive instructions that estimates must
be cut; and he knows he cannot cope
with the chiefs of his bureaus, n,st of
whom have been in the department
more years than the cabinet member
has days It certainly is discourag
ing situation and il is little wonder
that some of the men who came here
on the 4th of March full of energy and
enthusiasm for their work and serenly
confident of their powers to achieve
results already have begun to wear a
furtive and hunted look and to spend
sleepless nights in dread of the ap
preaching hour when they must make
first accounting of their stewardship.
Nor is the demand for retrenchment
the only troublesome problem which
Mr.. Taft has given the members of his
cabinet to solve. He told them they
were to boss their own departments and
be responsible to him for the manne,
in which they did it. Most of these
men had made marked successes IN
private life and were thoroughly in the
habit of bossing things. 1t looked easy
All a man had to do to be boss was
simply to boss and have the authority
necessary to enforce his decrees.
Right here the stumbling block was
encountered While a member OF the
cabinet, with the president back of him
theoretically has ample power to sever
a recalcitrant subordinate from the
payroll, in practice the power is very
materially restrained. Secretary Ma
gle, of the department of commerce and
labor, discovered this fact when Direct
or North of the census bureau. buckee
up and refused to take orders from his
superior officer. Theoretically, thu
president, acting upon Mr.. Nagle !
recommendation, should have made
short shift of North, but he didn t
Continued from Page 2.)