Evening star., 1924-05-04

A mandatory ana Whlcn lnclOQeS many
letters from those who have informa-
tion of corruption to convey to the
| bureau.
Research to Be Broad.
'As 1 view the conditions which
obtain in the public service, the
great value of the bureau, as a per-
, manent organization, supported by
the citizens and adequately equipped,
will be to supplement the work of
the Civil Service Reform League, but
in larger field for it's research and
investigation will be in all depart
ments of the executive and admin
istrative branches of the federal gov
ernment. AS chairman of the COM
mittee on public service in the House
of Representatives, during Gov. Nc
Calls administration, when the bill
to extend the civil service in Massa-
chusetts was passed after stubborn
fight in both branches of the legis-
lature, l had opportunity to study
at close range the defects in public
administration.
THE opponents of the civil service
claim that there is no sufficient
agency to Investigate and weed out
the undesirable, employees who have
come in under the examination sys-
tenn and who, once in and protected
by the civil service tenure, are found
to be temperamentally unfit or in
competent to assume responsibility,
or, worse yet. are soldering on their
inI
Sees Check to Waste.
Here lies the opportunity for the re-
search bureau to discover and expose
incompetence and corruption, and the
need is even greater in the higher ranks
of the service which are not under the
merit system, and political influence
and favortism are considerations and
sometimes controlling factors in secur-
ing appointment / am convinced that
II such an organization as is now being
effected had been actively and efficient
! iy at work during the past ten years
much of the squandering of public funds
and grating by favored individuals
and large corporations could have been
prevented. The reduction in the federal
taxes would be an easy task IL the hun
dreds of millions that have been wasted
during and since the world war could
be recovered. The amount of money in
volved in the Teapot Dome contracts is
| inconsiderable compared with the vast
age in the Veterans Bureau, the Ship
ping Board, the aircraft bureau and
other departments of administration.
Co.
that there are undoubtedly and in
| evitably instances of corruption in the
Treasury Department with its manifold
duties and its vast number of employees.
| That a new unit of organization could
have been built up in that department
to perform the new duties and enforce
the drastic prohibitions required by the
Volstead act without corruption was not
to be expected. With its large person.
mel, drafted largely from untried and in
experienced applicants. for employment.
and with unprecedented opportunities
for vast profits as the reward of dis
honesty, the incentive to fraud was pro-
portionately enhanced. To ascertain how
extensive the corruption has been. and
iio" IL Ce1ii NC CApoSeu anu prevented, Is
task which may well engage the best
effort of the departments concerned,
and in which they should welcome the
participation Of any citizens organiza-
ton.
"The legal department of the citizens
federal research bureau will be con-
Quoted to fix responsibility for corrup-
tion within the federal service in an i'm
partial and non-partisan manner, and
it's efforts will be an aid to all those in
the federal service who are honest
themselves and who are seeking to en-
force honesty in the branches of the
service for the administration Of which