New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-20
ECONOMY MAKES
REDFIELD LAUGH
Secretary Tells Congress
1t Doesn't Know the
Real Article.
GIVES EXAMPLES
TO PROVE POINT
Calls II Ridiculous for Demo.
Gratis to Withhold Needed
Appropriations.
Iron the Tribune Bureau. J

Washington, Dec. 19.-Secretary Of
Commerce Redfield assumes the role Of
instructor in the third section of his
annual report to Congress, made public
to-day. His lesson is in economy. He
calls attention to the overcrowded con-
dition of his department, the short
sighted policy of Congress in creating
Federal Trade Commission and fail
ing to provide quarters for it, and
urges an appropriation 10 begin work
on a new building for the Department
of Commerce, for which a Republican
Congress provided site and plans.
Secretary Redfield also calls atten-
ton to the fact that several vessels be-
longing to branches of the commerce
service remained idle many months be-
cause of the failure of Congress to
provide sufficient funds TO keep them
in operating condition during all of the
last fiscal year
Il spoke plainly in this portion of
my last report of what is called econ
omy," Secretary Redfeld says, "and
what was then said now reaffirm. To
judge of economy by the totals of APP
preparations in any one year is mere
waste of words, meaning nothing. Wise
expenditure is true economy-to spend
nothing where expenditure is unneces-
sary, to spend little where little is re-
quired, to spend literally where the
circumstances call for it, and to have
always in mind the productiveness to
arise from the expenditure.
What Real Economy Is.
ITO any one familiar with accounting
or with business or industrial manage
ment, to say that man, or a Congress,
or a nation, Is extravagant merely be-
cause it spends largely is to put the
critic in a laughable position. Was
the expenditure needed? Was the
money well and productivity spent?
Was what was spent due proportion
of the funds available for all purposes?
These and others like them are the
questions that determine economy, but
it is the merest trifiing to take an sg
gregate and assume either economy or
the reverse from il.
illustrations are not wanting In the
foregoing report of the costliness of
what is sometimes called economy. Was
it economical TO have the Albatross lie
at the dock month after month, with
her crew under full pay. for lack of an
and coal? Was it economical to keep
in service such wrecks as the Macarthur
and the Gedney, only to replace them
when prices are high and when vessels
must be hired while the new ones are
building, lest the work needed for saw
ing human life should stop? Is there
economy in stopping the reinspections
of the Steamboat Inspection Service in
the busiest month of the year and in
giving instructions to supervising in
spectors to go about their districts as
little as possible because there is not
money enough for travelling expenses
"These and other things like them
are the results neither OF economy nor
of accurate knowledge of the work re-
quired. They mean only loss TO the
country, and the people of the country
do not, in my judgment, want this sort
of thing TO 20 on.
Humorous and Pitiful
$50, also. any one familiar with real
economy must smile at the humorous
picture presented by commercial
agent collecting knowledge around the
world and then being forbidden, save at
his personal cost, to communicate that
knowledge to meeting of the men for
whom he gathered il. The feeling is
rather one of pity than OF humor when
e subordinate employe, obliged 20 travel
in an expensive portion of the country,
must pay a portion of his travelling ex-
penses out of his own limited pocket
because the law so requires.
"W hatever the cause that led TO the
latter restrictions, the remedies sought
by them are worse than the diseases
that they aim TO cure. and the injustice
wrought by them will continue to cali
for remedy until an equitable treat
ment of them is secured. No one in