The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-08-06
GOVERNMENT WASTE.

The government is guilty of practice it
condemns in others. Estimates prepared by
the different government departments indi-
cate that upward of 90,OOO,00O pounds of
paper of all grades, but chiefly of expensive
fnlsh will be required to meet their needs
for the coming year. This is four or five
times the amount ordinarily consumed, and
Is roughly one per cent. of the entire paper
production of the United States.
The increase, of course, is largely due to
the war. Some of the governmental agencies
have been expanded to ten times their or
binary size; a dozen or so new bureaus and
divisions have been added to the list, and
the committee on public information, of
which George Creel is chairman, is conduct
ing the most extensive propaganda work in
this and in foreign countries That is where
the additional paper is going, into countless
records and letters and booklets and state
ments.
There has recently been created as part
of the war industries board what is known
as the paper committee which is empower
ed under broad law recently passed by
congress to curtail the production and dis
trlbuuon Of paper as war necessity Regu-
latlons are being formulated whereby all
paper consumers, the newspapers, CONNER
cial establishments and individuals who
write only few letters a year are to be
restricted in their supply.
All of which is causing the very pertinent
question: as the government wasting pa
per? And will the government, as we'll as
the public be restricted in paper consump-
tion?"
Even a casual survey of the government
activities reveals the fact, and is being COM
mented upon in no uncertain terms, that the
government is actually wasting paper to a
very large degree in many ways. In the ag-
gregate, it is estimated, hundreds of thous
ands of pounds of paper could be saved by
the government during the present crisis, il
economics such as those which will be prac
ticed willingly by the public were undertake
en- in the various bureaus and departments
To begin with, thousands of letters arr
sent out from Washington every day. Car
bon copies, as many sometimes as five or six
are made of all of them. Long envelopes ar
used for the mailing when small envelope
would do just as we'll.
Another method of waste is through tn
army of press agents, disguised as "informa
ton bureaus" employed by almost every de
partment and internal bureau of the govern
ment In their mad scramble to get tn
activities of their chiefs into print thes
press agents food the newspapers of tn
country with long statements and specie
articles, most of which are utterly worth
less They simply go into the waste basket
Furthermore, much paper is wasted i
booklets and circulars. Many of these ar
printed on one side of the paper only, an
..heh in large type. Book paper too, is use
the same way. There is no doubt, in add
ion, but that millions of these publication
IRE sent to persons who have no use 70
hem whatever, and who throw them ava
unread. Once a name gets or mailin
ist it remains there, apparently.
The attention of the paper committee ha
,een called to the wasteful practices of tn
arious government departments, and it
IN expected that policy of conservation wi
pc applied there as we'll as elsewhere.