Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-27
WORK Of WAR RISK
MAY Be G|VENOVER
TOOTHER OFFICES
Senator Smoot Declares His
Proposal Will Eliminate
5000 or 5000 Clerks.
BUREAU OF EFFICIENCY
CO-OPERATES IN EFFORT
Disintegration of Big War Agency
Would Send Duties to Four or
Five Departments.

DASAAtSSA oe1oh VI oiS wal 4ASSASJ
Would Send Duties to Four or
Five Departments.
The disintegration of the war risk
bureau in the interest of economy and
efficiency is being planned.
Il propose to save in one fell swoop
the salaries of 5000 or 5000 clerks and
nave the work done more efficiently"
said Senator Smoot of Utah. ranking
republican on the Senate appropria-
lions committee and third man on the
senate finance committee, who is
drafting legislation toward this end.
Senator Smoot has secured the CO.
operation Of the United States bureau
of efficiency and. is having an investi-
CATION made in the war risk bureau
and in four or five government depart
mentS. He intends to use the informa-
ton thus obtained as a basis for
formulating the best distribution OF
the various functions of the war risk
bureau to be recommended to Con-
sress.
=: Senator Shoots plan works out in a
comprehensive way what was started
by Representative Joseph W. Fordney
chairman of the ways and means COM
mittee of the House-the revenue de-
vising committee-when he had hear
ingS and goS favorable report from
the committee on invalid pensions on
his bill to have the compensation work
Of the war risk bureau absorbed by
the pension bureau.
Method OF Distributing Work.
The plan now under consideration
and to which the support of many
prominent members of both branches
of Congress has been pledged is to
wipe out the war risk bureau as hav-
ing performed its wartime function
and to distribute its principal functions
as follows:
b Compensation-To the pension bu-
reau. Interior Department.
Allotments-To the War and NAVY
Departments.
Insurance-To the Post Office De-
partment. under the second assistant
postmaster general.
Claims-To the auditors Office Of
either the Treasury of War Depart
meDt.
Senator Smoot and his advisers be-
Heve that in this way the work of the
war risk bureau that win survive the
war may be .serxied on by well or
CANNED agencies hest qualified to do
this work efficiently, Senator Smoot
is emphatic in his belief that he can
save for the government the salaries
Of 5000 or 5000 clerks
It Ia also planned that by thus wip-
Ing out the war risk bureau, the big
new building which 1t occupies at YER
mont avenue and H street will afford
ample space for housing other govern
ment bureaus and establishments now
occupying rented properties.
Overlapping Of Duties.
Members of Congress have been i'm
pressed with the fact that the war risk
bureau was organized in war emer-
sency and that 1t overlaps the work of
older bureaus which have expert and
wen trained machinery and oreaniza-
oOn, while the giant force of the war
r1sk bureau was assembled haphazard
IN the wartime scramble and has since
inherited thousands transferred from
other government agencies
The paying Of allotments and allow
ances to enlisted men of the Army,
Navy and Marine Corps has been an
important function Of the war risk bu-
reau. but it is an activity which is
dying out Those who are planning the
disintegraticn point out that these three
military branches-Army, NAVY and
MARINE Corps-already had their own
agencies for many years in which the
omcer ana enlisted man could allot part
OF his pay TO dependents If these
agencies are expanded to take over this
work from the war risk bureau, in
creased efficiency will be given, ii is he
heved, because these military agencies
WI! see that greater care is exercised
IN the Milling out of the blanks. Those
VINO have been in close touch with the
war risk bureaus work know that con-
siderable confusion and lost effort 70
suited because blanks were not care
1ully prepared and filed
AS regards compensation-wb;,h 4;
another name for world war pensions.
The pension Office has served the gov.
eminent and the people admirably for
half century. congressman say. The
war FISK compensation work dupIi-
ca.eo pension bureau machinery. the
congressman argue. Representative
Fordney and the members of the two
pension committees say that laws
governing payments of pensions and
compensation should be harmonized
30 as to pay similar benefits for sim
liar injuries and similar conditions
AFTER they have been harmonized the
administration should be put back in
the pension bureau where they be-
long. the reorganizers urge.
Estimates as to Clerks Needed.
Part of the plan under contempIa.
ton Is 70 get an estimate from each
of the old-established agencies on how
many clerks from the present war
risk bureau would be needed to sun
PIGMENT the old-established systems tn
carry on this work. Until recently the
war risk bureau had $4,000 emnIoves
An illustration of the possible saving
is given in testimony by Edward g
Tieman. deputy commissioner of pen.
sions, before the House committees on
civil service and invalid pensions. He
put tHe pcHSioH bureau on record as
saying that with 800 additional clerks
II can take over the compensation
features of the war risk bureau on
which 1900 clerks are now said to he
engaged. Such a reduction, it is esti.
mated. would save 81 500 900 in sal
aries.
The committee on invalid pensions
had before 1t the Fordney bill to ex.
tend the benefits of existing pension
laws to the soldiers. sailors and ma.
rines who served in the world wal
and contracted disabilities in the serv.
ice subsequent to October s, 1917. ant
to their dependents. The effect of the
Fordney bill, which has been favor.
ably reported. would be to send to tn,
pension bureau for adjudication ali
claims which are adjudicated under
tho war risk act in the war risk bu.
reau.
Chairman Fuller Of the House com.
mittee made a report based largely or
Mr.. Tieman's statement, putting tn.
committee emphatically on record a.
indorsing the proposal.
The statement shows that there are
now employed in the pension burea,
$50 clerks, less than 700 of whom
can be classified as fully efficient
civil service retirement bill, which /.
expected to pass in the Decembel
session of Congress, the officials O.
the pension bureau are on record a.
having stated in the hearings tina
il these inefficient clerks now EN-
Moved in the bureau are retired ant
competent clerks appointed in thei
clerks. the work OF adjudicatin.
CONTINUED on Second Pase.I