New-York tribune., 1919-01-28

not to assume that this is typical Of
the whole country"
Or. Devine then takes up the difi
culties under which the allotments and
allowances section labored from lis in
ceptlon. The work at the beginning,
ne admits, was prodigious, and tremen-
dous efforts were required to handle
efficiently 10000 checks each month,
amounting to more than $50 600 600.
Excuse Fails to Satisfy
wives and mothers,' DR.. Devine
comments, "who use up their savings
and then their credit and then perhaps
move to cheaper quarters and finally
apply to the Red Cross for an advance
until the long overdue remittance is
received cannot be expected to con-
slider the excuse given by the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury that the gigantic
nature Of the organization problem
with which the officials of the bureau
have been struggling is a sufficient eX-
cuse for the delay in the settlement Of
their individual problems.'"
The bureau claims that SIS per cent
of the allotments have gone forward
TO their proper destination Witho
hitch, and DR.. Devinc sees no reason
for questioning this.
The physical difficulties of the bu-
rcau were heavy. In the first place,
DR.. Devine says, the work was dis
trlbuted among thirteen buildings, one
of which was the New National Mu-
scum. From the beginning, also, the
bureau was handicapped by lack of
office equipment.
more than once" DR.. Devine says.
Sthe entire staff has remained on duty
for twcnty-four hours at a stretch, to
get out the monthly chccks'
Men Also Are Blamed
Another tremendous setback was the
condition IN which the blanks, filled out
by every man as soon as he entered
the service, were received at Washing
ton. Without delaying to check up on
the claims presented in these the first
months checks were sent out.
"a deputy commissioner" DIR. De
vine relates, "who was not connected
with the bureau at the beginning, says
hand that probably half of them
came back. Addresses were often in
correct. Names also were incorrect.
Many men, moreover, had omitted to
mention one of more of their near
dependents, while others had named
women without any legal clam in
preference to their wives"
Soon thereafter further complication
arose through the establishment in
as a means of identification.
"By that time" says DR.. Devine,
'betwcen 100000 and 100000 appli-
cations had been received by the bu-
reau and it had the task of attaching
the numbers as issued to the proper
records on file. This task was need
lessly increased by errors in telegraph
ing the first list of numbers assigned.
Secretary of Treasury Blamed
"The main official responsibility, -
added DR., Dcvine, In summing up the
situation, "lies obviously with the
Secretary of the Treasury, on whose
behalf the law was framed and intro
duced, who selected the director of the
bureau and who has had all the credit
for the merits of a popular measure.
zone last uncomfortable inquiry re
mains,' he concludes. "Should We
insurance bureau? Is there any such
thing as efficiency. or any good reason
why there should be? If efficiency
could have been relied on, would not
Germany have won this war? Who
wants efficiency, anyway?
"If the schools were efficient we
would not have had illiteracy in the
army and allotment blanks would have
been filled out properly. If churches
and social agencies were efficient there
would have been a stronger sense Of
family solidarity and fewer rival claims
on allotments. We put up with inetfi-
cheney in office, shop, farm, kitchen,
railway, mine, classroom and nursery;
in official, industrial, domestic and
charitable relations. Why should we
have expected Mr. McAdoo to mail a
million checks month to the right
people?
"What is called for is not post NOR
tenn, but series of perhaps major sur
gical operations on living organism
in which there is a promise Of a long
and useful life"