Evening star., 1928-11-16

Merger Report Also Being
Written by Bureau of
Efficiency Probers.

Findings of the Bureau of Eficiency
as a result of its exhaustive investiga-
ton of the fiscal relations between the
Federal and District governments and
the transit merger agreement pending
in Congress are being written today
and probably will be made known in
several weeks.
Tabulations of the vast amount of
data collected by bureau representa-
tives on these two subjects are being
used as basis for the conclusions. No
indication was given, however, as to
what the recommendation would be,
but bureau representatives expressed
the belief that they would be Of vital
interest to, every .taxpayer and every
street car rider In the District.
Merger Report Separate.
The report on fiscal relations Is being
prepared for the Budget Bureau and
the District committees of the Senate
and House. The merger report will go
directly to Senator Capper, chairman of
the Senate District committee, who re-
Quested the bureau to make a thorough
investigation of the merger plan i11de-
pendent of the study being made by
DR.. Milo Maltbie for the Senate COM
mittee.
The investigation of these two sub
jectS has been broader in scope than
any inquiry in District affairs ever
undertaken by the bureau. 1t has
covered a period of more than four
months. Information was gathered
from a number of cities in the coun-
try comparable In size with Washing
ton, and the reports will go into
minute descriptive detail of the con-
ditionS both as to the methods and
rates of taxation and to the operating
systems of the street railway lines in
these cities.
Other Cities Visited.
Most of the data was collected by
visits to these cities by bureau in
vestigators.
The report on the merger agreement,
it was said, will treat comprehensively
every phase of the plan of consolida-
tion and most likely will recommend
approval of a unified operation of the
transportation lines. However, certain
notifications probably will be recon-
mended in the financial arrangements
between the transit companies and the
$50,000,000 rate base proposed in the
uniflcation agreement.
The only comment bureau attaches
would make on the fiscal relations re-
port is that 'it will do the District no
harm"
Gibson Returns.
Representative Gibson of Vermont,
chairman of the special subcommittee
of the House District committee which
has been making comprehensive sur
vey of the municipal administration of
the National Capital. has returned to
his Office and is getting in touch with
officials of the District Government and
the Bureau of Efficiency preparatory to
continuing his survey and the drafting
of remedial legislation to be presented
at the approaching short session of
Congress-
Because of the keen interest taken
in this survey by Representative Gil
bert of Kentucky, the ranking Demo-
crat on the investigating committee,
who will not be in the next Congress,
Chairman Gibson is particularly anx-
ious to get cleanup through new
legislation and administrative action on
many of the conditions shown during
the survey thus far. He desires to use
to the fullest possible extent the results
of the careful application of Mr. Gil
bert to these subjects. He expects to
invite Mr.. Gilbert to return to Wash
ington as soon as possible, so that they
can map out preliminary to the con-
vening Of Congress the program on
which the Gibson subcommittee will
work during the next three months