Arizona republican., 1922-06-04
UNCLE SAM SAVES RENT

its economy begins at home. Tt has
no crew of stenographers. clerks and
messengers. Three years ago when it
started 1t was given an initial appro-
priation Of $4,000 by congress and
1t still has $1,000 to its credit in the
bank.
In three years it has saved the
government more than half a million
dollars in rents by moving bureaus
out of rented buildings into govern
ment owned offices. Thus the COM
mission notes that the veterans bu-
reau personnel is shrinking daily
and it finds that there is room in the
War Risk building for the entire force
of the alien property custodian. This
official and his staff have been oc-
cupying six-story apartment house
at a cost to the government of $50, 900
year rent. The commission ar
ranged with the bureau to move and
credits itself with saving the coun-
try $4,000.
Unless there Is a sharp reaction
from the present tendency toward ef-
ficiency and economy there will be
no more elaborate monumental ef-
fects in department building. Six
teen foot ceilings, fireplaces, thick
walls and laboriously carved room
decorations such as are seen about
the State, War and Navy building,
and other early government edifices,
are conspicuously absent from rec
ent government construction.
Time Was no Object
An example of the old style ponder
BUSINESS which characterized the first
federal buildings is found in the
granite pillars on the Treasury fa-
cades. These huge pillars were
quarried in Maine and shipped to
Washington on sailing vessels. IT
took IS oxen and eight horses to carry
each one of them to the building.
Time was no obstacle in those days.
Seventeen years were spent in con-
structing the State, War and Navy
building. The new Navy and NUM-
tions buildings were run up in five
and a half months.
The State, War and Navy building
cost $10,000.000 at time when labor
was cheap. The new buildings av-
erage about $3,000,000. They have
Ionic and Doric columns and they
are shiningly white, but they are dis
tinctly businesslike in appearance.
They suggest, rather than initiate,
Athens and Old Europe.
1t is probable that the day of the
beautiful, be-columned marble post
OlAlNt 10 PttSl+ GolICo 1919 IDGIe mas
been no public buildings bill to pro-
vide at one time several hundred
postoffice buildings for the country.
These bills had very little to do with
economy. 1t was not uncommon for
a town of a few thousand souls which
was represented by a live congress-
man to win $40, 900 postoffice Each
congressman voted for the appropria-
ton bill because it contained some
item in which he was interested and
to disapprove of any clause was to
ditch the whole measure.
Congress was criticized for this
sort of pork legislation. The most
successful postoffice getters retorted
that a federal building of beauty and
dignity was an inspiration to the cfti-
zens of a town. and that from that
point of view it was worth while
investment. The European war put
a stop to such argument and to the
marble front postoffices.
A few postoffices are still being
constructed from the provisions of the
1913 bill, but no construction work
for the government is being done in
Washington. Nor is there much
prospect Of any new government
buildings for a year or more. The
Important Archives building waits
only for the word OF congress. Two
recent fires in the Treasury have
shown that the old buildings are not
invulnerable, and that documents OF
great value stored in them are far
from safe. But economy is rampant
and it will doubtless be many months
before congress can be persuaded to
spend money for a building program.
even to insure the safety Of the ma
tional records.