Evening star., 1927-04-19
\. D. BROWN URGES
Is
HEALTH PROGRAM
Efficiency Chief Says City
Needs Plan Like That
Used by Schools.

Advocating that a program similar
70 the five-year school building pro
gram be adopted TO advance and CO
ordinate the public welfare and public
health agencies of the District. Herbert
D. Brown, chief of the United States
Bureau OF Efficiency, in a speech be
fore members of the Monday Evening
Club last night at the Grace Dodge
Hotel said that IL was hard to sep
arate the powers of the different pub
lie welfare and health organizations,
but that a basic plan for cooperation
under one head should be worked out.
The Bureau OF Efficiency is not
composed of a lot of shoppers said
Brown; tits chief work is TO help Gov.
ernment employees work more effec-
lively. Its staff is at present working
with the District committees Of Con
gress and with the District Conn
nssioners TO improve the public
welfare and health situation. The
District government is 99,44 per cent
free from graft. so there is no need
for investigation along that line.
Free From Graft Here.
Last Winter the District commit
tee of the House undertook to study
the District of Columbia to discover
ny
r,rove the District government. They
asked the Bureau of Efficiency TO help
them. Members of Congress who are
on the District committees of the
House and Senate are the most un-
selfish and hardest working members
& our ~~-StloaEl Congress. The work
they DO for the District is almost eX-
clusively pure service
when Congress adjourned the
Commissioners requested that we con-
finue our studies, and we have, there
fore. placed at their disposal our en-
tire staff. / mention this fact because
1t is an indication of the confidence
with which the Commissioners regard
our attitude toward the District gov
ernment and because believe 1t bears
out our aim to act, not as a snoop
ing" organization, but as an aid to
more effective work on the part of
the faithful and on the whole highly
efficient District government.
II think it can be fairly stated with.
out contradiction that the govern
nent OF the District of Columbia is
99.44 per cent free from graft, a
standard of excellence which chal-
lenges municipal administration IN
any city in the United States, and |
make this statement after months OF
the most careful study of practically
every depMtment of the District gov
ernment. The bureau, therefore, starts
on its work here in the District with
no need to clean up great rotten spots,
as is frequently the case when NUM-
cipal governments are overhauied. we
do not need to waste our energy IN
putting a sick patient on his feet. We
are starting with a sound body and
oh ~
more constructive effort. This is a
most hopeful outlook and nowhere is
this condition of affairs more true
than in those departments having to
do with public health and public vel
fare
Praises DIR. Fowler.
Brown praised the work of DR.. Will
ham G.. Fowler of the Board of Health
and of George S. Wilson Of the Board
of Public Welfare. He said that the
child welfare division of the Public
Welfare Board and the Juvenile
Court, Women;s Police Bureau and
truancy law were all necessary but
Overlapping divisions and that they
should be co-ordinated.
Immediate steps must be taken to
care for the dependent and delinquent
children and women" he continued,
because the Industrial Home is to be
sold and the Detention Home is to be
torn down.
''It win be necessary to study the
industrial and other needs Of the Board
of Public Welfare TO make it more
efficient. 1t costs 81 cents per capita
in the District to care for the public
health work. In Is cities of the same
population status Washington stands
tenth. 1t is estimated by the United
States Health Bureau that it costs 50