Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-01-19

as may be found useless and can be abol-
ished will be 80 treated by executive Or
der.
Classification OF LocaI Officers.
In my recent message to the congress
| urged consideration OF the necessity OF
placing in the classified service all OF the
local officers under the departments Of
the treasury, the interior, postoflce and
| commerce and labor.
The next step which must be taken is
| to require of heads OF bureaus in the de-
partments at Washington, and OF most of
the local officers under the departments,
| qualifications OF capacity similar to those
| now required of certain heads of bureaus
and of local officers. The extension OF
the merit system to these officers and
| needed reimbursement of salaries will have
important effects In securing greater
economy and efficiency.
In the first place, the possession by the
| incumbents of these positions OF requisite
qualifications must In itself prmote eff
| cheney.
! In the second place, the removal of To-
cal officers from the realm of political
patronage in many cases would reduce
the pay roll of the field services At the
| present time the incumbents of many OF
| these positions leave the actual perform
| ance OF many OF their duties to deputies
| and assistants. The government often
1 pays TWO persons IOE OOlnB WOTk Lual
| could easily be done by one. What is the
| loss to the government cannot be stated,
| but that II is very large cannot be denied,
| when it Is remembered how numerous
| are the local officers in the postal, Gus
| TOMS internal revenue, public lands, and
| other field services of the government.
| In the third place, so long as local Of
| ncers are within the sphere OF political
| patronage 1t is difficult to consider the
question OF the establishment or discon-
| tinuance OF local offices apart from the
effect upon local political situations.
| Finally, the view that these various
| offices are to be filed as a result OF
| political considerations has for its con-
| sequence the necessity that the president
| and members of congress devote to mat
| tiers of patronage time which they should
devote to questions of policy and admin
| istration.
SuperannuatIon.
Attention has been directed in recent
years to the need of a suitable plan of
! retiring the superannuated employees in
| the executive civil service. In the be-
| lief that it is desirable that any steps to-
ward the establishment of such plan
shall be taken with caution, | instructed
! the commission to make an inquiry first
J into the conditions at Washington. This
| inquiry has been directed to the ascer-
tainment Of the extent TO which super
| annuation now exists and to the con-
sideraton of the availability of the vari-
Gus plans which either have been pro-
posed for adoption in this country or have
actually been ado tied in other countries.
shall submit in the near future, for
the consi9 lflon of the congress a plan
for the - &c nment Of aged employees in
the civiH srvice which will safeguard the
interests of the government and at the
same time make reasonable provision for
the deeds of those who have given the
best part OF their lives to the service of
the state
Business Methods.
In every case where technical pro-
cesses have been studied It has been DEM
onstrated beyond question that large eco
Monies may be effected. The subjects
first approached were those which lie
close to each administrator. viz, office
practices. An illustration of the posi-
bilities within this field may be found in
the results of the inquiry into the meth
DDS of handling and filing correspondence.
Every office in the government has re-
ported its methods to the commission.
These reports brought to light the fact
that present methods were quite in he
reverse of uniform Some offices follow
the practice of brieflng all correspon-
dence; some do not. Some have fiat
files; others fold all papers before fling.
Some, use press copies; others retain only
carbon copies.
Need for Labor-Saving Office Devices.
The use Of 1abor-saving office devices in
the service has been made the subject of
special inquiry An impression prevails
that the government is not making use
Of mechanical devices for economizing
labor to the same extent as are efficiently
managed private enterprises. A study
has been made. of the extent to which
devices OF this character are now being
employed in the several branches of the
government and the opportunities that
exist for their more general use.
The efforts of the commission resulted
also In the adoption by several bureaus or
departments of improved methods of do
ing copying. The amount of copy work
heretofore done by hand each year in the
many offices Is estimated to aggregate
several hundred thousand dollars. The
commission exhibited, at it's Offices. APP
pliances that were thought to be especial
ly adapted to this kind of government
work Following these demonstrations
methods Of copying were introduced
which have brought about q saving OF
over Is per cent. In offices where used
for six months. This change In one small
cross-section of office practice will more
| than offset the whole cost of my inquiry.
Waste In the Distribution Of public
Documents.
Going outside the office, one of the
business processes which have been in
vestigated Is the distribution Of depart
ment documents. This is subject with
which both the congress and adminis-
tration heads are familiar. The prevail
ing practice in handling departmental
publications Is to have them manufac-
| tured at the government printing office;
| each job when completed is delivered to
| the department.; here the books or PAM
phlets are wrapped and addressed; then
are then sent to the postofhce; there they
are assorted and prepared for shipment
| through the mails; from the postoffice
| they are sent to the railroad station,
which is only a few steps from the gov
| eminent printing office. when they
started. The results OF this laborious and
| circuitous method is to make the use or
| the best mechanical equipment impractfc-
| able and to waste each year not less than
| 8 quarter OF a million dollars OF govern
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