Evening star., 1924-05-04
Real Workers in the National Capital

, Civil Service Commission for con-
venience sake.
eve shall send a note to the
Treasury embodying your discoveries
and giving the treasurer instructions
as to his future action" said the
Civil Service Commission.
You will not" said Brown. you
have no authority over the Treasury
or any other department.
Brown won, for Congress tool, a
hand, divorced him from the Civil
Service Commission and created the
bureau of efficiency, of which he is
the pivotal point. But a dispute
which is now at it's greatest heat had
its origin right there.
The Civil Service Commission and
the bureau of efficiency are at swords
points today on the question of the
final authority over the $1,000 classi-
fled government employees in the Dis
trict Of Columbia. Each has it's sup
porters, of course, and few support
ers of either are able to be moderate
in the language employed.
"The Civil Service Commission
says the Civil Service Commission,
should have final authority over the
employees in the departments"
THE heads of the departments
should have authority to discharge
denote or promote" say those who
follow the lead of the bureau of eff
cheney, otherwise discipline in the
departments will go blooie."
Saved Half a Million.
Congress will decide the case ulti-
mately. But in the meantime Brown
and the bureau of efficiency are hard
at their job. Just the other day,
according to Chairman Madden, the
bureau saved half million dollars
in one department In another Lord
of the budget wanted to cut costs,
but a protective coloration put up
by a bureau head hampered him. He
did not know where TO cut. Brown
took the job over, revised the meth
ods of the bureau, saved a quarter
of a million dollars and speeded up
the system. That's his failing. He
likes to make the business methods
OF the government really efficient.
He saves money where he can.
He had the right sort of training
for that sort of job. He began life
as a railroader. and a railroader who
has loose ideas about thrift is sure to
find a dark man crossing his life
line. Then he went mining in Mexico,
and that taught him how to save
pieces of string in a country where
string cannot be bought. Then he
| went to Kansas City to study law,
but the opportunities offered by a
generous government daZZled him.
Government clerks in those days quit
work at 4 o'clock. That left practi-
caliy an entire working day to a
young man like Brown, and so he
came on to Washington to do his
studying. Right away that natural
bent Of his was disclosed. He is a
born Investigator.
Back 10 Government Job.
Once he was dazzled away from the
government. Some one offered him a
lot more money to handle a private
business concern and he accepted.
| But he kept coming back to the gov
| ernment offices on Sundays to help
his friends investigate, and that
hardly seemed worth while. So he
quit his nice new job and returned
| to the bureau of efficiency, which
| Congress made especially for him, and
| has been happy ever since.
| Oh. controversial. of course. He
and his fifty-two experts are contro-
versins all over the place. And, per-
haps, unpopular. as Mr.. Madden said,
| but undeniably happy.