Evening star., 1920-01-13
WASTE IN FEDERAL
WORK CRITICISED
M. O. Leighton, Chairman of
Public Works Meeting,
Gives Address.

Criticism of was,erulness in gov
ernment departments was made by
NJ O. leighton of this city. chairman
Of the executive committee OF the Ma
tional Public Works Department AS
! sociatfon's convention. during ou ad-
dress to delegates =; the W liilfu
Hotel today. Foremost engIneefi3g
mon of the county are attending tho
convention.
Our government has always been
wasteful in the conduct Of its bNs'-
ness" Mr. Leighto-: laid. This has
not been the result o. any wrongful
intent. but throughou: IL !onG psrlod
Of years It has oeen accepted by
the majority and tho occasions nave
been sporadic when much thought
was given to 1t.
Each Citizen Pays.
Every individual of moro than
nominal earning capacity IS pre-
sented by the internal revenue office
with a bill for his share. And when
our annual peacc-tirne budget runs
,up to $4,000, 100000, as presented by
the Secretary OF the Treasury a few
days since, we begin to think about
that leakage
THAT five billion-dollar estimate
will be pruned-severely pruned. That
means that We must go without some
things that wise and prudent men
think we need or that it would be to
our advantage to have. Are we then
SO moor as all that? No one believes
tnat we are. and yet our bill is 50
large that it pinches us to pay The
answer is that we are paying too
much for what we get. The appro-
priations committee in Congress will
spend the greater part of their time
for the next three or four months in
pruning those estimates laudahle
and necessary thing to do under the
circumstances. But those hardwork
ing men are saving at the spigot and
wasting al the bunghole."
Gov. Lowden's Paper.
a paper prepared by Gov. Frank O..
Lowden of Illinois, who was unable
to address the convention. was read
at the meeting. 1t stated that when
the governor entered office he found
l25 Independent agencies of the state
government working either under
board. commission or sometimes an
individual official. Whatever form
these agencies took, he wrote, they
We're entirely Independent of one an
other. Each was a law unto itself,
lanswerable only to the governor. To-
day, his paper states, these 125 agen-
cios are grouped in what is known
as the department of public works
and buildings, with individuals at the
head of each department. This was
done upon the theory that it is indi-
viduals who do things and not boards
or commissions.
"A board may be desira Bile for
Legislative or judicial powers, or as
an advisory body" the paper said.
"In practice. however. it is the indi-
vidual always who takes the initla-
tive. Hence, an individual was put
at the head of each of these DEPART
ments. and we called him director of
the department" he added
Budget System.
The governor also wrote that the
next step in putting the business of
the state government on a business
basis was the inauguration of the
budget system. Under this system
one man pays all the bills instead of
each official who expended pubic
money, to submit his own voucher.
This new change Of government has
put the state on an efficient business
basis.
In illustrating the efficiency of the
state government the general prop
erty tax rate for state purposes has
been reduced 90 per cent, as COM
pared with the tax rate, OF. 191Si and
GO per cent. over 1917. These reduc-
tions were due partly to an increase
in direct revenues but largely to in
creased economy under the budget
system. Gov. Lowden wrote the en-
gineers.