Evening star., 1933-02-08
Five Per Cent Economy.

What the Senate has { le IN the
name of economy, through passage OF
the Treasury-Post Office bill, can be
briefly summarized as follows: The
Senates Subcommittee on Economy,
after long deliberation, reported amend
ments to the economy act which would
save a total of $45,OO0,000. These
amendments were whitfield down on
the floor until the approximate saving
was cut to $2O,000,000. Then the Brat
ton amendment was adopted, applying
to all appropriation bills, which re-
Quires department heads to cut five per
cent from whatever sums Congress
finally appropriates. This amendment
will save S145,000,000. Added to the
$40, 100000 expected to be saved by
other economy provisions, the total
savings are expected to be in the neigh
borhood of $165, 100000.
The effect of the Bratton amendment
on Government personnel is not clear.
Accompanying it is the Costigan
amendment which prohibits further
wage cuts or furloughs. But, while
Senator Costigan sought by this amend
ment to preserve wage scales and hv-
ing standards, and while the Senate
voted down the proposed additional
pay cut of 125 per cent, the re-
quirement that department heads
save per cent of total appropriations
will mean the outright discharge of
an unestimated number of employees.
The Post Office bill may be analyzed
roughly as follows:
Salaries ...................7 10 per cent
subsidies ..................5 per cent
Rent, supplies, miscellany. . per cent
Transportation of the mails 20 per cent
Nearly one-third Of the total represents
fixed charges that cannot be reduced
A good part Of the per cent to be
cut must come from salaries. as there
Is practically nothing else that can be
touched. And the. e.only way of cutting
the salary total is to discharge workers
outright.
Senator Bratton believes a "wise and
humanitarian" administration of the
laws would make it possible to save the
i've per cent without discharging per-
sonnel. But 1t has. not been shown
how this can be done. 1t has been
argued, in addition, that the almost die
tatorial powers of reorganization voted
BY the Senate yesterday to the Presi-
dent, to be exercised by the President
elect. contemplate savings by reorgani-
Eation amounting to at least five per
cent, and, as it is impossible to abolish
and reorganize Government bureaus
without discharging personnel, the
Senate is merely stipulating savings
that must be made, anyhow, by ex-
pected governmental reorganization.
The interesting feature of the Brat
ton principle of effecting economy, how
ever. is its method of delegating to ad-
ministrative officials the responsibility
for making cuts that Congress itself is
unable to make. Carefully pruned esti-
mates are sent from the Budget
Bureau to Congress, where they are
gone over by committees, which devote
months to the task. Then they are
brought to the floors of both houses and
gone over again. But. under the Brat
ton amendment, the total that finally
Is appropriated is subject to an addi-
tional five per cent cut. The five per
cent cut Is ordered before Congress
even knows what the total will be-
And, obviously, it means that whatever
total Congress finds to be justified is
not, in reality, justified at all. Con-
gress is appropriating with the knowl-
edge that only nintyf five per cent of
the sums 1t authorizes is justifiable
expenditure. The. remaining five per
cent. according to this theory, is waste,
which can be eliminated by depart
metal heads. The amendment repre-
sents a radical transfer of authority.
II 1t prevails, the tendency by de-
partment heads and by Congress itself
will be to ask for five per cent more
than is necessary for departmental
maintenance in the knowledge that this
five per cent must later be eliminated.
1t Is curious and somewhat aimless
form of economy.