Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1912-04-12

Under similar conditions there should
be uniformity The report recommends
that all allowances in the form of mile
age be discontinued and that actual
cost Of transportation be paid; that in
lieu of payment of actual cost of other
expenses, commonly known as sub
sistence, which would include lodging,
a scale of per diem allowances be es-
tablished by the president for the
several classes of officers and en-
ployees. 1t is also recommended by
the commission that all accounts for
reimbursement of travelling expenses
shall be certified as to correctness in
lieu of the requirement Of law in many
cases that the verification be by afi-
davit The latter procedure is trouble
some an expensive, and the penalty
for false certification is fully as valu-
able in its deterrent effect as the
penalty Tor making false affidavit.
With the report are the comments Of
the war and the navy departments,
made at my request. The report of
the commission has my approval, and
the suggestions therein for change in
the law on the subject are submitted
with request for action in accordance
Herewith.
Filing of Correspondence.
The handling and filing of correspon-
dence constitutes one of the business
processes of the government to which,
as pointed out in my message of jan
tha ,f1a ton 4
cial attention. The Investigations Of
existing conditions have brought out
clearly that, in many cases, present
methods are inefficient and entail
large, unnecessary costs. The features
of present practices which stand out
most prominently as entailing large,
unnecessary labor and expenses per-
tain to the briefng, press-copying and
| recording and indexing of communica-
tions. A statement has been prepared
giving the results of an investigation
of the salary cost entailed in per-
forming these operations in the several
departments at Washington. It is the
opinion of the commission that the
operations of briefing and press-copy-
ing letters can be entirely eliminated,
and that the recording and indexing of
incoming and outgoing letters can be
reduced at least SO per cent.
Distribution of Government Docu-
ments.
Attention is called to the report of
the commission, transmitted to the
congress with my message of February
5, and to the supplementary statement
sent herewith (appendix No. 81 on the
Capitalization of distribution of govern
ment publications. BY adopting this
recommendation 1t is conservatively
estimated that $242,00O can be saved.
This is exclusive of the saving which
could be made by handling the con-
gressional documents in the same man
ner. An account kept for 81 days with
the volume of this business of handling
congressional documents showed an
average of 81 tons per day. These
documents were first taken from the
printing Office to the Capitol, then from
the Capitol to the post Office, then
hauled back to the Union Station, the
latter being but short distance from
the printing office. An up-to-date plant
at the printing Office which could
handle all this would entail an in
creased capital outlay for permanent
equipment of only about $4,000. The
recommendation for centralizing the
distribution of documents from the de-
partments, If acted on, will affect the
appropriations of seven departments
five independent establish hments, and
the Washington post Office.
Outlines of Organization.
The outlines of organization of the
government, which were transmitted
with the message of January II, have
been sent to each of the departments
with request that orders issue which
will require that the outline be KEEP
up to date (appendix No. 81. Thi:
will not only make available at al
times the information needed by con
gress or the administration wher
called for, and assist materially IL
the preparation of estimates of appro
priations, but will make unnecessar,
the publication of the official register
thereby saving approximately $4,000
for each issue.
Conclusion.
In submitting these reports, will
recommendations, l will state that IL
my opinion each of the foregoing rec
concentrations, If acted on, will con
tribute largely to increase efficiency
Directly and indirectly the change
proposed will result in the saving o
many millions of dollars of publ
funds. This will leave the congress
free to determine whether the amour
thus saved shall be utilized to reduc
taxation or to provide funds wit
which to extend activities already cal
ried on and to enter on beneficial Pre-
jects which otherwise could not b
undertaken for lack of funds.
: Again / urge upon the congress tn