Evening star., 1923-03-21

The Secretary Of Commerce, Herbert
Hoover, believes in a campaign of
education as the best means of de-
veloping good judgment in both buyer
and seller of all kinds Of merchan-
disc. Ignorance of conditions is wnat
makes for haphazard guessing and
blind speculation. He would there
fore eliminate speculation by giving
genuine and reliable information as
| to market conditions to all legiti-
| mate trade-such data as has been
available heretofore mainly to big
business only.
He is therefore planning to compile
ali trade statistics gathered, not only
by the Department of Commerce, but
also by the numerous trade associa-
tlons, and publish those data for dis
i trlbut1on to the trade associations
and all parties interested. This will
PROVIDE sort of clearing house of
legitimate data for legitimate trade
bflng contraction in the spread Of
cost of distribution from producers to
consumers. The plan has the hearty
llndorsement and cooperation of the
Manufacturers' Association, but prob
ably not of the bulls and bears of
Wall street. The stock in trade of
the latter class is the secret informa-
ton they gather, and especially the
| Ignorance of facts by the general
public. 1t is hard to bet on a sure
thing when both parties know what
| is what.
X X Xxx
How much does Congress cost per
hour? 1t could be figured more
closely than the present rough COM
putation used herein to illustrate the
extravaganza of congressional econo-
{ <,1f y
to start some accurate accountant to
| checking up the pennies.
| Ihere are 435 representatives draw
ing $500 a year and perhaps an
average of $500 mileage. To that add
clerical expenses of, say, $4,000 a
year, making, for very rough calcula-
! ton. Il total cost of not less than
| S4,7s5.0O0 a year for the House alone.
Probably the actual total is a million
more. Congress is in session about
SIX months year, averaging hve
hours day, aside from time in their
oftices-a total of LAO hours, costing
s4785.00o, or s3,3225O an hour for
every hour Of persiflage and states
manlike discussion
| In the closing hours of the last seS-
sion a bill was up to raise the salary
of the House janitor $500 d year.
me Senate Janitor gets $500 more
than is paid the House janitor.
Nearly an hour of precious time was
that $500 item and proving to the
constituents back at home how eco
nomical are their great representa-
tives. The poor janitor lost his $500
and the public lost at least $4,000.
| This same House spends hours and
hours-costing over s3,322,50 an
lhour-discussing local city affairs like
a common village council rather than
| intrust such petty responsibilities to
some local body or commission. If
refuses self government to Washing
tOnianS and once a week or once a
month spends from $4,000 to $4,000
| of time on evicting negroes out of
alley tenementS, or paving certain
streets, or refusing to build school
ihouses because they cost money.
The Senate may be equally "eco-
nomical," for it is noted that "by
Unanimous consent" the last issue OF
1.-THE Congressional Record comprise d
20S pages of speeches which the
courtesy Of the Congress had given
members leave to extend" and OF
that great mass of verbiage fifty
lpages were monopolized by one
senator. The cost of publishing the
Record is $50 a page, so the speeches
of that one orator-which were never
actually delivered anywhere-cost for
that one publication no less than
!$2500. 1t is pretty safe to estimate
that they will not be fully read by
twenty-five constituents and not by
half a dozen other citizens, but the
taxpayer pays the expense. The to-
tai circulation of the Congressional