The New York herald., 1921-06-08
WEDNESDAY. JUNE s. 1921.
SpigotSaving Bunghole Wasting.

The country's indignant demands
upon the National Capital THAI it
practise economy as well as preach
1t are beginning to bear fruit. But
as yet it is very small stuff at that.
BY July 1 there will be 1000 fewer
bureau clerks in Washington than
there were at the first of the year.
And the cold truth about such petty
saving is that it Is only a drop in the
bucket. At an average OF $4,000.
1000 clerks off the payrolls will rep
resent in cold cash SS,000,000 year
out of total Government spendings
Of s5,000,OoO, 900.
1t a minimum the Government
clerks in Washington alone ought to
come down 20, 90 instead of 1000.
Before the war the number never
exceeded $4,000. On January l there
were $4,000 on the payrolls. But II
10000 did come off in Washington
and If another 10000 came Off else
where, the 10000, at an annual aver
age of $4,000, would make saving
of only Se0,ee0,O00 out of the $4,000
100000 OF general expenditure. So
even that would be saving trickle
at the spigot and wasting full flow
at the bunghole.
All the useless clerks ought to be
swept out just as all the useless
chiefs and assistant chiefs, and assis-
tants to the assistant chiefs ought
to be swept out. The useless investi-
gators, the useless specialists, the
useless swivel chair gentry all ought
TO be swept out. But IL the super
fluous departments, the overlapping
bureaus and the duplicating divi-
sions and subdivisions we're scrapped.
all the useless pay envelope receiv-
ers and public fund spenders that
swarm In them would go automat-
ically with them.
But this closing up or slowing down
the spending machinery itself is just
what the Congress members as p
whole do not want to do. Govern
ment bureaus by the dozen may be
no more useful than junk so far as
concerns the public service but every
one OF them can be for some mem
ber or group Of members a political
fortification, garrisoned by payroll
subordinates, all of whom have vot-
ing families, friends and acquain
tances back home" SO the abuses
are perpetuated and the squander
they cause goes on.
A clear eyed, hard headed Senator
SMoor plans to put the whole Gov
ernment institution on sound busi-
ness basis. A blunt, courageous SEN
ator BoRAH denounces the scandalous
waste as a moral crime. A trained
and experienced Secretary MELLON
tells the honest truth about the plight
into which the reckless and selfish
spenders are forcing the National
Treasury. President HARDING enjoins
economy upon the administrative de-
partment and the legislative appro-
priators. But when it comes down to
delivering big, broad, effective pro-
gramme to save hundreds Of millions
from the bottom up there is he
roic retrenchment among the hun
dreds of departments and bureaus to
the dumfounding extent of 1000
clerks representing at the highest pos
sible estimate not $10,000,0o0 and
more likely only $s,O00,0O0!
IL there is not some real reduction
Of the cost OF government where it
counts in ten figures so that the re-
suits can show impressively to the
relief of the staggering taxpaying
public, there will be some tragic sto-
ries to recount seventeen months
from now in the Congress districts of
these United States.