Evening star., 1924-03-03
CAN YOUR TAXES BE CUT?
A Series Of Articles on the Cost of Government
Where the Money Goes, and Why.
: BY JOHN r. SINCLAIR.
Author Of Can Europe Hold Together"

department spent $34s.ooo for the fis-
cal year 1923, and expects to spend
about $375.o0o for 1924.
Construction Item Rises.
(O The only other big work of the
Department of Commerce is that of
public works. Under this division is
carried on the building Of new light
houses. fish hatcheries and other prof.
ects of such nature. For 1923 there
was spent $632,000, while for 1924 the
estimated amount to- be spent is
100000.
These, then. are the big works now
carried on in the different bureaus
of the Department of Commerce.
It required the service, in 1928, of
2,794 persons in Washington and of
s,S7S persons outside Of Washington,
to do this work. 1t took $21,038.000
and the services OF 11.472 persons to
the Department Of Commerce for the
fiscal year ending June 80, 923.
Under Hoover. who is primarily a
shrewd. keen and able business man.
the business emphasis will be placed
ON private enterprise.
Help private business to develop
more efficiency and more sales-both h
at home and abroad" is the basic
principle of the department under
Hoover. His department will spend
three times as much on business pro
motion IN 1924 as was spent In 1928.
In his own department, Hoover sees
the need OF complete overhauling.
Under the tentative plan Of reorgan-
ization now being worked out by the
bureau OF economy and efficiency,
n hfrIp ha -,tf frx,
later. the Commerce Department
would have three major functions.
% Promotion of trade.
(2) Promotion of industry.
ca Development, regulation and
protection OF the merchant marine.
except the merchant marine which
would remain as an Independent de-
partment having In charge the gov
ernment fleet.
Duplicatfons to He Cut Out.
In this plan, the bureau of min es
and the patent office would be taken
from the Interior Department and
given to the Commerce Department.
And they should. To put the bureau
OF mines and the bureau of stand
ards together would wipe out many
Implications. 1t would mean more
patent office work likewise is closely
associated with standards and mines.
They should all be together.
Then again. The War Department
today is doing much work not really
war work. The lake survey, the in
land and coast course, waterways
service, the supervision of New York
harbor and compilation of the statis-
tics of internal commerce on the
lakes and rivers Of the country. in
order to judge the value of river and
harbor improvements, all this is now
carried on by the engineering bureau
of the War Department. This would
go to the Commerce Department. So
would the photographic Office and
the Navy Department. With these
changes. the photographic and geo.
detic services Of the entire govern
ment would-instead of being unde
three departments as at present-all
be under one department. that of
What practical results would fol-
low? Let US see. The photographic
office has had offices in sixteen cities
in America In five of these cities
the coast and geodetic survey also
has offices. Separate ones. of course.
vey maintains offices. Now, each one
Of these offices collects and distributes
marine information. Under this new
plan. all this duplication would be
one thing-better service at inwer
cost.
Treasury Now Has Life-Savers.
Again. The life-saving service.
another aid to navigation. on the
lakes as we'll as on the high seas,
would be transferred to the Commerce
Department from the Treasury. I'm
agine the Treasury Department hav-
ing charge now Of the Iife-saving
service.
The Treasury Department would
also lose to the Commerce Depart
ment the Inter.America High Com
mission.
These HAP men and women work
ing In the Department of Commerce
under the driving power of Hoover
last year. They spent $4,000, 900
But that relatively is small For
each 500 raised in America in 1928
for the government of the United
States this department spent S1.75 OF
it. We must look elsewhere for our
big expenditures.
There is one point I want to make
especially clear: 1T has lately been
much misunderstood;" Secretary Hoov-
Widespread sp az notion that the h govern. prsrrs
ment is doing too many things. 1,
is concerning itself with too many
activities. Especially is this true re-
garding certain development work in
this department., the Interior Depart
ment and the Agriculture Department
/ want to say that every bit of this
development and constructive work
repays a hundredfold. Instead OF
contracting such work in the govern.
ment. we should increase it, just as
amount spent for such work is not
over $1o0,000.000. We spent thirty
times that amount last year for all
purposes"
81 for Commerce, $54 for War.
You mean that if any cuts in gov.
ernment expenditures are to be made
they should not come out of our ex.
penditures for constructive work;
For every dollar spent by your de-
partment in 1923 the War Depart.
ment spent $50. the Navy Department
spent $24. Perhaps, then, these cuts
should come out Of our expenses fol
the Army and the Navy" suggested
Hoover looked out of the west win.
dow of his ONCE. The sunset after.
glow had painted the sky in myriad
colors. He pulled on his dead cigar
Then smiled rather sickly smile
Better see DENLY and Weeks abou,
that" I did.
Copyright. 1924, in United States and Great
Britain by North American Newspaper ALI
ance. All rights reserved.)
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