The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-08-25
Governmental Inconsistency
(Washington Starr


Part OF Secretary Roper's defense of
the governments inconsistency in re-
ducing salaries and ordering layoffs
of personnel while urging industry to
increase pay rolls and raise wages
rests on the point that
We are dealing in the depart
ments with a future continuing
and permanent program, and UNI
der national recovery with a tenn
porary and emergency program.
The continuing and permanent
program of the government, of course,
Is to keep its budget in balance as a
necessary part Of preserving national
credit.
But 1t is highly debatable point
how temporary will be the recovery
program Of the government. That
program has already been hailed as
the long awaited revolution. Certain
~ 1t marks revolutionary changes in
hitherto accepted concepts of the role
OF government, so much so that some
doubt there can be any turning back.
The deeper the government goes into
its direct partnership with industry
and agriculture, shouldering respon-
sibility for wages and employment
and guaranteed profits, the more
solid will become the relationship and
the less chance there is of severing
1t. And, as everybody knows, such a
partnership only means a constantly
increasing activity by an expanding
army Of federal employees.
The sort Of economy that Is being
practiced in Washington under the
various economy expedients follows
the traditional method Of cutting
costs that were part and parcel Of
the depression. It would have been
entirely consistent for the govern
ment to practice, and to preach, the
theory that the only way out Of the
depression was by the painful method
Of liquidation and adjustment to new
levels. That was what business and
industry generally had been doing
before the beginning Of the New Deal.
and there were some who believed the
bottom had been reached with the
advent Of the New Deal.
The inconsistency Of the govern
ment policy today Is that in some of
its branches 1t Is practicing with a
vengeance, sometimes ruthless, the
now discarded theory Of debating to
low levels, but in others Of its branch
es 1t is whooping it up for the new
theory that the way to recovery lies
in creating a higher level of prices
and lifting ourselves to that level by
spending money. It is impossible to
pursue both theories at the same
time and remain consistent. And 1t
is an ironical truth that the only
method by which some Of the neces-
sary and established functions OF
government are being maintained
under the rigors Of economy is to Sc
cure the necessary funds from that
agency Of the government which be
lieves in spending our way out Of the
depression. Some of the savings Of
agencies under the economy provi.
Slons have been more than Offset BY
advances to the same agencies from
the public works administration.
The inconsistency Of cutting Nav,
Yard workers over and above the I!
per cent salary slash while insisting
that contractors who build new ship!
shall pay decent wages has already
been laid before the president, whit
indicates that 1t will not be allowed
to remain. And there are other in
constituencies OF the same sort. On
OF the most glazing Of these is thu
TACT that while tried and experiences
civil service career employees hav
been discharged. new employees ar
chosen to man the recovery machin
cry without testing their qualifica
tons under the merit system. MI
Roper estimates q reduction in tn
regular establishments in the Distric
OF about 1852 employees since June
1882, most of it since last March
Other estimates have been mucl
higher. At the same time one ne,
agency Of the government has hire
about 1900: another will probabl
take on 1900. But Of those who los
their positions, less than q thousan
have been given new ones. And tn
new agencies OF government are nc
taking advantage Of the beneficis
economy represented in q strict merl
system-maintained for the taxpay
ers and not for the politicians.
Gen. johnson frankly admits tn
inconsistency of the government
position. It will be better in the lon
run II the Inconsistencies are admit
ted and efforts put forward to remov
them.