The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1920-11-26
TO GUST $4,000
U. S. EMPLOYEES
Wedding Out of Many Depart
ments at Washington Aim of
House Committee.
EXPECT MORE EFFICIENCY.
Estimates Must Be Cut to the Bone
Declares Representative Wood,
Whose Committee Will Push
Retrenchment Movement.

Washington INFLAMMATION of 5000.
employees from the government pay
roll will be the aim of Representative
Wood Of Indiana, chairman of the sub
committee of the House Appropriations
Committee, which is conducting hear
ings on the annual executive and ju-
dicial appropriation bill
Representative Wood declared that
he would make every effort to reduce
the total number Of employees In the
District of Columbia from the present
figure of more than 10000 to some
where near 60.000 Mr.. Wood express
ed confidence that not only could this
be done, but that the efficiency of the
government service would be promoted
thereby. That wholesale sashng of
the government payroll is possible in
this manner even in advance of any
reorganization of government depart
ments and bureaus is Mr.. Woods opin-
don.
The annual legislative, executive and
judicial appropriation bill carries the
appropriations for all the civil service
employees Of the government in the
various departments with the single
exception of the Department of Agri-
culture. The total amount Of the pay
roll last year as passed by Congress
was approximately $122,000,000. Adj
vance information as to estimates of
government departments for the COM
ing fiscal 7ear leads Mr.. Wood to be-
lieve that the total requests for the
same purpose will amount to at least
$14000,000 additional, or total of
,$136 100000. 1t is Mr.. Woods theory
that by making cuts all along the line.
such as he propCses to do, the total
can be kept down to about 100000
900.
''If have anything to say about II
the estimates will be cut to the bone,"
said Mr.. Wood. "They promised us
last year that it would be possible to
make greater reductions this time, but
instead of that all the governmental
and bureau chiefs are coming back
asking for more than they had before.
'All business firms nowadays are
making cuts in their forces Of from 10
to % per cent or more. | know one
firm that made a cut of one-third and
now gets greater efficiency out of the
two-thirds remaining than out of the
force. There is no reason
why the government cannot do the
same thing. There are too many en-
ployees now. BY cutting off the use
less employees we will give chance
to those who remain to do more eff
tcient work.
-"At the beginning of 1919 there were
$4,000 employees in the District of
Columbia. In the legislative, execu-
tive and judicial bill of last year we
cut out nearly 10000 employees. De-
partment chiefs, howeve., managed To
get thousands of them back on the pay
roll by appearing before committees,
such as the committees on military and
naval affairs, which handle other up-
preparation measures. The net redJc-
ton in the number of employees thus
has only only been about 10000"
"a fight on the floor of tie house TO
eliminate commercial attaches of the
Department of Commerce and to CEN
ter foreign trade promotion activities
in the State Department. Representa-
tive Wood was asked whether the same
fight would be made again this year
in view of the action of the house last
time in restoring the commercial at
taches to the Department of Commerce
following contrary, action by the COM
mittee.
Discussing tax legislation, Repre-
sentative Wood expressed the belief
that there should be a refundng of all
government obi CATIONS over a long
period.
zone of the chief tasks of the new
administration should be TO reorganize
the numerous government departments,
boards and other scattering agencies.
he said