The Washington times., 1910-02-21
Clerks Trips Costly.
GOVERNMENT expense accounts are
~ funnc things.

GOVERNMENT expense accounts are
~ fiInnC things.
Why should Il cost a clerk In the
Interior Department five times as
much 10 so 10 a certain point in the
State cs Washington as It does for
the Secretary. his superior officer. 20
make a trip TO Honolulu and certain
Wesl ern polnts?"
Why should il cost the Commissioner
OF the General Land Offce only one
half what it cost the clerk that ac-
comTanied him on the same trip?
Why should il cost a man in the In
terior Department seven or eight times
as much TO take a trip down 10 Ala
bama, Mississippi, and Florida as il
does for an employe Of the Postofice
Department TO go 10 Spokane, Portland,
and san Francisco?
Why IS It that very large proper
tion Of the big travel items that are
turned in by Government employes seem
10 be for trips 10 the South IN winter
and 20 the North in the summer time7
According to the accounts OF the
Postmaster General. Secretary Of the
/ Interior and the Interstate Commerce
Commission. submitted 20 Congress for
! its approval, one Of the clerks in the
General Land Office IS the most ex-
pensivs traveller n the three depart-
ments mentioned. He turned in a bill
| for S5,747.S5 on account Of a trip TO the
State OF Washington 20 examine sur
veys IN the diminished Colville Indian
Reservation. Washing, on"
II the reservation had not been di-
minished by the Indians careleSsly Civ
| ing away or selling their land this
/ clerks expense account would possibly
I have been somewhat larger. In July,
/ 1908, Secretary Garfield took a trip TO
the Sandwich Islands and various points
in Western States and spent only Sl.OS7,
or much less than one-ffth Of what II
/ cost the Land Office clerk to look over
/ that dwindling Indian domain.
The smallest account submitted among
/ the papers is that OF s. L Andrus,
| superintendent of the mail lock repair
shop Of the Postoffice Department, who
made a trip over to Bridgeport, Conn,
/ &c inspect a riveting-ma chine that the
/ department thought Of buying. An
| drus, spendthrift that he is, actually
blew in $1-S5 Of the Governments good
money for this junket. II should be
mentioned. however. that postal en-
! ployes travel free on the trains, SO it IS
| fair to presume that the SIS went for
hotel bills, wine and automobiles.
] Fred bennett, Commissioner OF the
Land Office. made a journey 70 Salt
Lake, Portland, Spokane, Seattle and
other Western cities during the yea1
and spent s205.70 on the trip. Fred
! Newburgh, his clerk, turned in state
ment for SlS9.S5 for expenses while &C
! companying the commissioner on the
same trip. Possibly Mr.. bennett was
| entertained by friends in the various
1 places visited, while his clerk had tC
put Up at hotels
There is a suspicion in the minds Of
/ the Con yressmen that when Secretary
BalIinger of the Interior Department
travels he pays some OF the expenses
himself. II he doesn't go down into
his own pocket he must get reduced
rates at the hotels. Last summer tht
| Sec rotary took a trip etc various point!
in Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming.
ard the bill he turned in was only
S7.72. Perhaps he avoided the eXac
tons of the hotels by living on the
trains and eating lunches carried from
Washington.
Hot Springs. Ark; The Weirs. Ne1
Hampshire. Denver, Wisconsin ant
Michigan seem TO be popular summer
points toward which 10 travel on Gov
ernment business in the heated months
and Florida, Southern California, New
Orleans and Texas in the winter time