Pueblo chieftain., 1921-08-06
UNCLE SANS BUYING AND SELLING

ever the work of the CO .ordinator or
the supply division generally. The
corps areas were taker merely for the
F., sake of the convenient division of the
country. and no department will have
| a greater interest or influence IN this
| work than any other.
One of the important duties of the
CO ordinators Is to fix prices ut which
supplies shai. be transferred from enc
Cerartment to another, Tho old sys-
TEN of haggling and attempting 10
hold up other departments is abolished.
| The co-ordinator has the final word In
| fixing a fair figure for the transfer of
property, and there is no appeal from
his decision.
General Dawes and his staff are
| Particularly anxious not to appear to
be criticising the officials OF any por-
| tion of the government. For that rea-
son General Dawes believes IL would
b. unwise and create bad feeling when
what he most seeks is ooopera ton. to
set forth any of the instances which
occurred by the hundreds which forced
the change In system as step toward
economical running of The govern
| men. machine. However. many of
these have come to light.
One waste under tho old system was
the duplication of effort on the part OF
many of the departments. Representa-
tice Fess. of Ohio. once pointed out
In the house that in many cases a
dozen bureaus of the government were
duplicating work, and that = der the
old system congress is called upon to
appropriate money ten or twelve times
over for the same work where IL is
thus performed in these dozen different
places. Tho budget system Will remedy
this among many other evils when the
first budget is presented to congress.
A Film Film Finn
A recent instance Is known OF where
one branch OF tho government desired
to obtain a quantity of moving picture
fiim AS the old system provided no
means OF this departments knowing
that another department. right here
in Washington. had a surplus stock OF
iilm and that an exchange might be
objected the department. seeking the
film went into the open market for 1t.
A private Individual discovering tho
excess supply In one department and
the need for llm in the other. bought
the film In his own name and sold It
back to the other branch of the gov
ernment, making n comfortable profit
for himself which was. OF course. n
dead loss to the government Under
the new systom, n co-ordlnntor would
have fixed a fair price FOR the film. and
the transfer would have been made di-
rectly from one department to the
other without any delays and naGEling
over the amount of funds to be
HN a. 'bllhlb'lbN lNi Nu'
film supply.
Probably the greatest loss in the
matter OF sale of supplies is charge
able to the War Department. II was
almost inevitable that the War Depart
ment should be overstocked with food
stuffs at the end OF hostilities and after
tho American Expsditionary Forces
were returned TO this country and de-
mobilized. Everyone is familiar with
the manner in which the War Depart
and many families benefited thru the
purchase Of canned goods and other
surplus stock at very low prices
War Department supplies also In
cludcd vast quantities of blankets.
textiles of all sorts, automobiles, and
almost everything else. Thousands and
thousands of dollars worth of this ma
terial were sold to any purchaser for
fractional parts of their real value. Tho
old bugEsoo arose Of the department
having the surplus stock demanding
much higher prices from other de-
partments which needed them than
were demanded in open sales to the
public.
While all this was going on the ship |
ping Board. for one example. was buy
ing food supplies for the crews OF it's
ships I'm the open market. Thc7s>is nd !
doubt that much of the old Vhr De
partmcnt stock purchased by private |
for "A song was resuld to |
the other branch OF the government. |
the Shipping Eoard, at prices which |
were reasonable enough but represent
cd handsome profit to the individuals |
who bought up quantities of War De- |
phrtmert surplus stock for this very
purpos~ |
This sort of 'NinE is impossible now
Each department is to have director
Of purchases and n director of sales, |
both Of whom will teep in close touch !
with the chief co-nrdinator Comics of |
The surplus property reports of each