The Washington times., 1911-10-10
THE BIG DEFICIT AT THE
NAVY YARD.


has probably lost nothing much. Bad
inventorying methods, or almost none
at all, and execrable bookkeeping and
accounting, are given as the explana-
ton.
Reform, of course, we will have. No
private business could 60 on in such
fashion without being ruined, and Gov
ernment business can be conducted in
this manner only because of a COM
plaisant laxity about what it costs to
perform Governments functions. There
is no way to standardize Government
business. There is nothing to compare
it with. We all know that our navy
is horribly expensive compared to what
We get for the money. We know that
a battleship is very expensive to us,
but still we must build them at home
because it would be manifestly unpat-
riotic to 60 abroad for them.
Reform in such affairs is an excel
lent thing. But it is not amiss to sug-
gest that there is possibility of going
to the other extreme, and that the So
called economy commission of President
Taft, headed by Mr.. Cleveland, shows
disposition to overdo the theory of
scientific management.
The Cleveland commission is under
taking to perfect the methods of doing
all department business, SO that every
clerk, stenographer, file keeper, janitor,
and all the rest, will have his every
movement prescribed and determined
for him in advance. If the Cleveland
plan shall be perfected and put into
operation the elements of individual
discretion, of brains, of initiative, will
be discouraged just as far as possible
in the Government service.
1t is part of the Cleveland commits
sion plan, for instance, to develop a
system of cost-keeping that, on the
testimony of most of the Government
authorities, will cost a good deal more
than it will come to. In the last year
the demands of this commission on the
time, patience, and energies of the Gov
ernment employees have been simply
The commission has had
general authority to impose almost any
upon the Government
and accounting forces,
and it has undertaken perhaps the
most ambitious task in organization
and reorganization of business methods
that was ever attempted in this coun-
try.
Congress has been hearing protests
against this substitution of theory for
practical methods in such volume that
it is confidently expected there will be
a big fight on further appropriation
for the work of the commission.
One of the unfortunate things about
this commissions operations is that it
has well-nigh terrorized the Govern
ment's executives. Chief clerks, bureau
heads, division chiefs, do not dare to
talk out loud about many of the
ridiculous requirements imposed by the
Cleveland commission. They under
stand that President Taft is partisu-
Iarly devoted to this work, and is pre-
pared to stand by it even to the Elk
tent of umbrage against people who
may develop the temerity to criticise
it. Thus it comes about that a mag
nifcent fabric of theory, much of it
utterly impracticable and uneconomic,
is being superimposed on a business
structure in which red tape is already
too common.
The Government business needs more |
han anything else to be simplified; to
nave shortcuts devised; to open more |
lirect processes of producing desired
results. 1t seems to be the opinion of
The vast majority of Government en-
oloyes and workers that the Cleveland
if permitted to work out |
It's entire scheme and put it into effect,
would impose added cost, longer delays,
and complexity in performance that
would make Government business an
even more difficult procedure to un-
ierstand than it is now.
Congress would do we'll at least to |
investigate the economy commission be-
fore providing for continuance of 80
expensive plan of economy.
Such conditions as have been found |
1t the Washington Navy Yard need to |
be remedied. But the remedy in that |
Ease appears to lie in better attention
to business. Inventories ought to have
been made when they were not made. |
No amount of system will secure the
performance of duties when negligent
officials overlook them. The danger is |
that<we may get SO much system that
results will be lost in its chaff.