South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-06-19
STA TESMEN
REAL AND NEAR
BY FRED c. KELLY.
BY FRED c. KELLY.

BY FRED &. KELLY.
Every little whie you hear some
/ body say:
1T isn't the expense 1 mind. It's the
I principe Of the thing"
United States Treasury oft1cials
/ have found that the country is over
run with persons who feel just that
way.
For example, not long ago a coal
dealer in Grand rapids, Mich.-either
/ Grand Rapids or Detroit-brOke a
! window in the basement of the Fed
eral building, or rather the dealers
driver broke it, owing to carelessness
in backing up his team
So the Treasury department sent
the coal man a bill for 40 cents the
cost of repairing the window.
| Now 40 cents was not an insur-
mounable sum to the coal man, but
I he felt that the broken window was
not the fault of himself or his driver.
He, therefore, declined to pay the 40
cents, and the correspondence on the
question went back and forth for a
few weeks. and piled UP until the
item had cost the government about
S19 in the form of wasted effort-all
on account of the principle of the
thing.
At that stage of the proceedings,
one OF the minor treasury officials
brought to the attention of Assistant
Secretary. Byron K. Newton, a form
al inquiry asking if ii would not be
entirely practicable to deduct 40 cents
from the next voucher mailed to the
coal dealer in payment for his coal.
Newton scrawled on the corner of
the note of inquiry these few simple
words:
GO to it,"
Tn immedi2 ely threw one whole
wing of the Treasury Department in
TO CONSERVATION. For never tefore in
the history of the department had an
Assistant Secretary or any other high
official issued an order in any such
informal language as that. One after
another read the words and tried TO
figure out their meaning. Go to it.
1t was like something from for
eign tongue. You see, the point is
that government officials become so
accustomed to. and so bound up with
formal precedent. that it is extreme
y difficult to make a sudden shift OF
viewpoint. If Newton had dictated
note saying:
The Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury feels that it would be per-
fectIy proper and according to law
and order as in such cases made and
provided TO deduct the sum of 40
cents from the voucher of John Smith,
coal dealer. etc
If he had expressed himself like
that all might have been we'll But
no one about the department had the
remOtest idea what he meant by, GO
To it" They did not know whether
he was trying to say yes or no. And
what was more. no one had the nerve
to go and ask him. II was feared that
a confession of failure to comprehend
an Assistant Secretary's meaning
might be construed as a lack of Of
fetal respect. And, furthermore.
there was no form or precedent for
asking a high official what he meant
when he said a certain thing.
So YOU can imagine the furry and
futter of excitement. For all I know
they may not yet have figured out
what To do.
This 40 cents controversy recalls
another famous case i'm the Treasury
Department. Some years ago the crew
of government revenue cutter gave
an entertainment of some sort and,
according to custom. assessed the cost
Of the affair among those aboard.
Each mans share was taken from his
pay. one young man was not in SYM
pahtv with some feature OF the en-
tertainment and objected to having
TO pay his share. 1t cost him only
30 cents. but il was the principle Of
the thing.
lie began to write 20 the Assistant
Secretary Of the Treasury VINO had
charge of the revenue cutter sc-1ict.
aud demanded justice
That was about seven years ago and
the man has averaged about two let
ters n week avCr sine. He NUMBERS
his letters. and the last one was lum-
beTed seven hundred and son ethins.
Two or three years ago ne resigned
from tho revenue cutter service and
is now hSIuS i'm NeN York. hut a.
is still after his 30 cents lud the
esta blishment Of great principle.
When Charles Dewey lIiiles was al
Assistant Secretary IF the Treasury
he sent the man his personal check
for 50 cents in the hops that il would
end the long correspondence, but i
did not. The man promptly sent back
the check, saying that he did not want
the money. but justice, and that the
I 50 cents must come from the govern
ment itself.
And so the correspondence goes on
with no sign OF ever letting up.
+ Copyright. 1914. by Fred &. Kelly.