Evening star., 1932-11-29

ADVISE Cle housewife OF the best meth
DDS Of hanging lace curtains, or might
this function better be left to the State
or county Governments, or TO the
housewives neighbour
Should the Government help private
industry to determine the resistance of
chinaware to breakage or aid in i'm
proving the design OF automobile
engines?
Scope Extensive.
The present scope of Federal activity
is immense; so great, in fact that few
people have an adequate conception of
it. In many directions the Government
has extended beyond the usual func-
tions of protection. law enforcement
and regulation. 1t yes aid in surpris-
ing variety to business, industry and
agriculture and, chiefly in an advisory
capacity, has entered the social and
educational field to considerable
extent
Most Of these extensions Of the Fed
eral sphere of action have occurred in
the last is or 20 years, many of them
In the nine years OF the postwar,
Repubhcan-prosperity era. Now that
Uncle Sam finds himself under neces-
sity OF recutting his garment = suit a
reduced amount of cloth, some of them
well might be held dispensable, If some
courage to point out which ones these
are.
This job Of pruning ought to be done
deliberately and not in the hurly- -burly
OF congressional action, for the danger
Is that the popular pressure for econ
omy will result in injudicious slashing
OF appropriations or else enable inter-
ested groups to cripple regulatory ac-
tivities that happen to annoy them.
Demands for economy may easily
become mere parsimony and may ma
terially cripple basically important and
n e essary Government activities
warned Henry P. Seideman of the Brook
ings Institute of Government Research,
at the recent meeting of the American
Academy Of Political and Social
Science.
Efficiency Threatened.
1t has been shown in a previous
article that the blind slashing of the
budget by the last session of Congress
already has placed that Government on
famine rations, threatening its eff
cheney. With few notable exceptions, it
Is impractical to reduce the routine
cost OF the Government much, If any
farther, except by actual abolishment
of some Of it functions and services.
The exceptions referred to are i'm
portant, but do not promise much in
the way Of economies. Most outstand-
ing are the subsidies paid out to the
States with the idea Of inducing them
to carry on certain activities which the
Federal Government itself cannot un-
dertake but which Congress thought
advisable to encourage. The chief of
these subsidies is the Federal aid high
way appropriation of 100000, 900. But
a dozen others run the total UP to
about 100000 annually. Some of
these already have been reduced and
further, reductions are likely. The high
way subsidy, however, Is not apt to
be touched because it excels all other
Federal expenditures In the extent to
which it provides employment.
subsidies paid to air and ocean trans
port companies also are open to reduc-
ton, but these amount to a net of only
about 100000. A reduction doubt
less would compel curtailment of
service, as the Postmaster General al
ready has authority to cut the subsidies
whenever the costs of the shipping and
air transport companies permit.
Post ONCE Opportunities.
Two notorious opportunities for cut
ting the cost OF the present Government
machine without impairing its efficiency
are to be found, however, in the Post
ONCE Department. One of these in
wolves the political postmasters, of first,
second and third grades, whose services
in general are so little essential to op-
Grafton of the Postal System that Ber-
nard M. Baruch has recommended they
be wiped out entirely. The other con-
Germs the $106,000,00 rural free de-
livery service, which never has been
thoroughly reorganized since the end of
the horse-and-buggy era and is known
to be woefully overmanned. Thus far
1t has escaped the economy ak because
it is politically potent.
In the War and Navy Departments
are two other notorious instances of
political extravaganza. These are the
so-called political navy yards and Army
posts maintained in various out-of-the
way corners Of the United States in
deference to the desires of Congress-
men. A respectable saving might be
achieved from this source without i'm
pairing the efficiency of the Govern
ment a whit. The congressman con-
cerned, however, never yet have been
able to see it that way, and are un-
likely to do so now.
Elsewhere in the Government are
other instances Of extravaganza due to
politics, but these are minor or so i'm
bedded in the Government machine as
to be an integral part of 1t. They
merely serve to bear out the general
proposition that further real reductions
In the cost of the Federal Government
must come from an actual reduction of
the Government, and not from at
tempted economies in its operation. !.
(Copyrisht, 1892, BY North American News
paper Alliance, Inc.)