Arizona republican., 1920-12-14

strange weed in your garden. When that letter reaches the department IL becomes an officia! document. It is answered by the scientist of the bureau of plant industry who knows most about such weeds. And then long after you have forgotten all about t. your letter and a copy of the answer lie dusty but safe in the department archives.
 Ten or twenty years from now the department may apply to congress TOT ? permission to destroy your cores pondence and other papers which no longer seem of value. A committee would consider the advisability of this step, and if it approved, congress would probably pass an act authoriz- ing the destruction. To destroy pub lie documents without going through this ceremony, or even to mutiiate them, is penitentiary offense-
 Carloads of Records
 One small bureau which employs only about 50 clerks has a carload of papers filed away, many of them in bundles tied up literally with the pro- verbal government red tape. To sort out those of value from the worthless papers would take more time. says the chief. than he can give now. There are tons of such papers stored in the bureau ''morgues" awaiting period ical sorting out and congressional ap- proval for a bonfire. From time to time the bureaus do get permission to reduce the mountains of old cor respondence and records. The Civil Service commission, for instance, keeps its records of papers of persons who were found ineligible for gov ernment position for several years, until there is no possible chance of these papers being wanted.
 offhand. this looks like red tape at l it's reddest. A government officist says not. He tells us that 1t is pro | lection to the government employee and of the people of the country. 1T there were no such stringent law re- | garding preservation of government papers, dishonest clerks could too | easily cover up crookedness. Time and again in an investigation of irregular | dealings the records are called for. II | the chief or some other official had | the authority to throw away these | papers after a correspondence was closed there might be no written evil dence available. As it is there have been cases where officials who had 1 destroyed or altered records were dis covered and sentenced.
 Protecting Government Money I people think is red tape is the require ment that employees who collect money under the treasury department such as customs officials-make re- turns daily. The official, whoever he is. turns in his money to a bank, and sends a report to the treasury department. The bank also reports at once to the treasury each amount l deposited. This is a single step in the l vTff tn knaVa the of1fPS . money affairs straight. The treasury department has the most perfect ac- 1 counting system in use. At every point where money is handled 1t is
 checked to avoid error or dishonesty. A government official may spend pub lie funds unwisely. but 1t Is practi
 cally impossible for him to take dollar of the money entrusted to him. and put it directly in his pocket.
 Still another place where formality
 is carried to an extreme for protec-
 tion is in the state department. Of ficials and clerks in this department
 are more careful of what they say in answer to the most casual question
 than employees of any other govern
 ment office. Nearly every statement
 for the press is carefully written by the state department press bureau. approved by some high official. and copies made to be distributed to the newspaper correspondents If news is given verbally it is just as carefully
 prepared. Any slight change in word
 ing might cause an international mis- understanding. Even an adjective a trifle stronger than the one intended to
 be used might possibly offend some foreign representative.
 On the other hand, ceremonies no
 less elaborate are being performed by some other bureaus without any legitimate reason back of them. The
 budget bureau. if it materializes. will
 be required as one of it's definite du- ties to make detailed study of the departments and establishments for
 the purpose of enabling the president
 to determine what changes (with a
 view of securing greater economy and
 efficiency in the conduct of the public service) should be made in (11 the existing organization, activities and methods of business of such depart
 ments or establishments, (2) the ap- propriations therefor (S) the assign
 ment of particular activities to par tieular services. or (4) the regrounin P
 of services. The results of such stud '
 shall be embodied in report or re-
 ports to the president. who nav trans- nit to coingress such reports with his recommendations on the matters GOV cred thereby"