Evening star., 1933-08-20
Governmental Inconsistency.


the Governments inconsistency in re-
ducing salaries and ordering layoffs o.
personnel while urging industry to in
crease pay rolls and raise wages rests
on the point that
We are dealing in the departments
with future continuing and permanent
program. and under national recovery
with a temporary and emergency pro-
gram.
The continuing and permanent pro-
gram of the Government, of course, is
to keep its budget in balance as a
necessary part of preserving national
credit.
But it is highly debatable point how
temporary will be the recovery pro-
gram Of the Government. That pro-
gram has already been hailed as the
long-awaited revolution. Certainly It
marks revolutionary changes in hither-
to accepted concepts of the role of Gov
ernment, so much so that some doubt
there can be any turning back. The
deeper the Government goes into its
agriculture, shouldering responsibility
for wages and employment and guar
anteed profits, the more solid will be-
come the relationship and the less
chance there is of severing it. 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 Government to practice, and to
preach, the theory that the only way
out Of the depression was by the painful
method of liquidation and adjustment
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 Government
policy today is that in some of its
branches it is practicing with
vengeance, sometimes ruthless, the now
discarded theory of debating to low
levels, but in others of its branches it is
whooping it up for the new theory
that the way to recovery lies in creating
a higher level Of prices and lifting our
selves to that level by spending money
It is impossible to pursue both theories
at the same time and remain consistent
And it is an ironical truth that the only
method by which some Of the necessary
and established functions of Govern
ment are being maintained under the
rigors of economy is to secure the
necessary funds from that agency of
the Government which believes in
spending our way out of the depression
Some of the savings of agencies under
the economy provisions have been more
than offset by advances to the same
agencies from the Public Works
Administration.
The inconsistency of cutting Navy
Yard workers over and above the fifteen
per cent salary slash while insisting
that contractors who build new ships
shall pay decent wages has already
been laid before the President, who in
dicates that it will not be allowed to
remain. And there are other incon-
sistencies of the same sort. One OF
the most glaring of these is the fact
that while tried and experienced civil
service career employees have been dis
charged, new employees are chosen to
man the recovery machinery without
testing their qualifications under the
merit system Mr.. Roper estimates
reduction in the regular establishments
in the District of about 1852 employees
since June, 1882, most of it since last
March. Other estimates have been
much higher At the same time one
new agency Of the Government has
hired about 1900; another will prob
ably take on 1000. But Of those who
lost their positions, less than thou
sand have been given new ones. And
the new agencies Of Government are
not taking advantage of the beneficial
economy represented in strict merit
system-maintained for the taxpayers
and not for the politicians
Gen. johnson frankly admits the
Inconsistency of the Government S
position. 1t will be better in the long
run If the inconsistencies are admitted
and efforts put forward to remove them.