Evening star., 1924-03-30
Real Workers in the National Capital

Il want the money, said con-
troller General McCarl Of his bond
ing company.
Company Got Its $4,000 Back.
The bonding company sent a check
for $4,000, which was the sum for
which the embezzler had been bond
ed and McCarl sent it on to the de-
partment head to be applied against
the shortage. The department head
returned it to the bonding company.
II have cleared the twelve-thousand
dollar man by an executive order"
said thedepartment head
Whereupon McCarl said that was
just where he was terribly mistaken.
That money is due the United States
Treasury. The fact had been estab-
lished. He proposed to get it. The de-
partment head said that McCarI was
interfering in the affairs of his de-
partment and McCarl said he propos-
ed to get the money, which is the
only affair that he has. He may have
plenty of human sympathy for Of
fenders-ha has the air of an in
tensely human man-but the mo-
ment that he permits sympathy to
struction of the law he steps aside
from duty. And he does not propose
to do that.
Accounting System Incompetent.
One reason why he and the law
yers and accountants in his depart
ment are SO unendingly busy is that
we have what is perhaps the most
droolingly incompetent system of
governmental accounting in the
known world. No one ever laid it
out. 1t just grew up. No depart
ment, 50 far as / know. has con-
tracing officer familiar with the
law governing purchases. Conse-
quently departmental underling
may buy-buy forty trucks. let us
say-because he needs the trucks
and believes he has the money to
the credit OF his account in the Treas
ury. He pays for the trucks in good
faith. Then. after he has used them
awhile the controller generals force
discovers that he had no legal right
to buy them.
"Put the money back in the Treas
ury," says McCarl.
The departmental officers only re-
course is to the man who sold the
trucks The man must pay that
money and take back his trucks with
all the newness knocked off them.
No one depies that this is hideously
unfair. But if the departmental Off
Ger had taken the trouble to find out
whether he had a right to buy trucks
or if the seller had tax en- that pri-
mary precaution every one should
take in dealing with the govern
ment-
Is Only Watchdog Of Treasury.
Find out if the buyer had a legal
right TO buy
There would have been no trouble
One Of these days Congress-when
il gets its mind off Investigations and
loses interest in the multitudinous
tax-boosting raids on the Treasury
now proposed-will take enough
time to correct the accounting sys-
tenn. Meanwhile, Controller General
McCarl is, as l have previously said,
the only watch dog of the Treas
ury. No one gets a dollar out of the
Treasury unless the getting has been
explicitly authorized by Congress. 1t
isn't McCarls duty to pass on the
ethical elements involved. 1t may
we'll be that the non-payment of a
/, debt might be as dirty trick on
the part of the government as it is
to steal pennies off a dead negro's
eyes. But it isn't McCarl's job to
consider that fact He only watches
the law.
"'Tis sweet to hear the watch dogs
honest bark
Well. perhaps. Perhaps. II depends
a good deal on the dog.