Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1912-01-24
WASTE AT WASHINGTON.


President Taft has answered most conclusivelv
all those who wish the federal government to
assume new duties and burdens with consequent
additions to the payroll and service lists He
says nothing about the proposal to add the tele-
graph and, ultimately, the telephone service of
the country to the posofice departments work
but he gives hundred reasons why it should not
be done, all OF which may be read between the
lines OF the message economy and efficiency in
the government service which he communicated
to congress last Wednesday,
This message is based on the results of the
inquiry congress authorized on June % 1910
when appropriation of 100000 was made to
enable the president to inquire into the methods
Of transacting the public business of the execu-
tive department and other government establish
ments and to recommend to congress such legis-
lation may be necessary to carry into effect
changes found to be desirable that can not be
accomplished by executive action alone This
was task of some magnitude for the gross ex.
pendltures OF the government amount to about
a billion dollars year, and including the mill
tary and naval establishments more than 100000
persons are required to do the work of the execu-
tive branch Of the government
This investigation was carried on to a con.
siderable extent under the personal direction OF
the president and it disclosed wastefulness and
extravaganza in the public service that should
impress every citizen of this country with the
need for reform The revenue cutter service for
instance, costs more than $2500000 a year OF
which not less than $l,000000 is wasted and can
be saved. Similar waste occurs in the lighthouse
and llfe-saving services and in the returns office
of the department of the interior
Perhaps the part Of the organization in which
the greatest economy in public expenditure is
possible, the president says, is to be found in the
numerous local offices of the government In
some instances the establishment and the discon-
tinuance of these local offices are matters Of adj
mlnlSrative discretion In other instances they
are established by permanent law in such a man
ner that their discontinuance is beyond the power
OF the president or that Of any executive off
GER In number of services these laws were
passed nearly century ago Changes in econ
ome conditions have taken place which have had
the effect of rendering certain offices not only
useless but even worse than useless in that their
very existence needessly swells expenditures and
complexities the administrative system.
The president makes recommendations that
will cause professional politicians to shudder He
asks congress to deprive him and his successors
in Office of large part of the very patronage
which makes the president for the time being
the dictator of his party. President Taft says
the incumbents of local offices throughout the
country should possess the requisite qualifications
and should be removed from the realm of political
patronage This would reduce the payroll Of the
field services. At the present time the incum-
bents OF many of these positions leave the actual
performance of many of their duties TO deputies
and assistants The government often pays two
persons for doing work that could easily be done
by one. What is the loss to the government can
not be stated but that it is very large can not
be denied, when il is remembered how numerous
are the local officers in the postal customs in
ternal revenue, public lands and other field serv
ices of the government
The New York Commercial the leading finan
cla and commercial newspapers of the nation
truthfully portrays the facts as regards the pub
lie officers and deputies. 1t says:
50 long cas- local officers are within the sphere
OF political patronage il will be difficult to dis
continue local offices or reform the service be-
cause of the effect upon local political conditions
Paying political obligations with appointments 10
such Offices makes it necessary for the president
and members Of congress to devote to matters
OF patronage time which they should give 10
public questions and work
President Taft would treat the administrative
Officers at Washington in the same way as those
n inferior positions. His views ON this subject
are radical He holds that all these officers
should be placed in the classified service and
Those provisions of law which give 10 those II.
neers hNed term of years should be repealed
no long as a fixed term is provided By law tbe