The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-09-29
BY JAMES THRAsHER NEA Stan Correspondent

BY JAMES THRASHER
 NEA Stan Correspondent
 The United States government is saving money.
 No, your glasses don't need chang ing, and it's no mistake of the print CTS. You read it right the first time. The United States govern. ment, with the biggest budget and the biggest national debt in history is saving money.
 It isn't saving much, to be sure. But you can take the solemn word of MT. Harold D. Smith, director of the Bureau of the Budget, that Uncle Sam is managing to salt 6 little away. It is the Budget Bureaus job to see that he does.
 Maybe you thought the bureau spent its time in adding up all the money that everybody in government wants, and in presenting the stag gering sum to Congress in weighty annual volume called 'The U. s. Budget" Well, it does that, of course. But among It's other func- tions is ito bring about more ef- flcient and economical conduct of government"
 Along these lines, MT. Smith and his staff are constantly checking on various government operations to see if time and manpower and ma. terial resources, as well as money, can't be saved.
 Mrs. Smith thinks that the gov- ernment is. setting @ good anti-in- flationary example, even though he is "keenly aware that mistakes have been made and failures have oc- cured, and frankly some mistakes and fumbling will occur in the fu- ture."
 He points out that, while our pres ent danger of imitation is greater than it was in the last war, we have so far done a better job of economic stabiliZation. If living costs then had been begged at 1914 levels dn- stead of more than doubling them selves by June, 1920, as happened) [, MT. Smith estimates that one-third of the war cost could have been saved.
 BUREAU SHOWS WAY
 What the Budget Bureau is doing today is not too big or complicated for the ordinary citizen to under stand, the director feels. In fact, he thinks that this same citizen can cut the bureaus example down to his own size and gain a few valu- able pointers, both on how to stretch available supplies as far as possible, and how to save money to invest In War Bonds and fight the rising cost of living.
 Take that money, for instance. The Budget Bureau in the fiscal year 1943 held $341, ,000, ,000 in reserve from various departments and agencies. This is to be saved or, if necessary, used in an emergency. Of course, 34l millions isn't lot of money, as government money goes. It wouldn't even run the war for two days. But 1t might come in handy. And you, the budget director points out, can do likewise.
 Also you might poke about in your attic and closets and come up with something usable. You can't quite expect to find such treasures as the Budget Bureau did; they unearthed, among other things, several cases of light bulbs and paper clips, con- signment of office desks, 10 carloads of nails, and one railroad locono- tive. Still, it's worth try.
 The business man might get a pointer or two from the way the bu- reau goes after problems of per- sonnel management, working effl- ciency and employe morale. Here, says MT. Smith, the objectives are to simplify and eliminate as many records, procedures and other pencil pushing activities as possible, and to help supervisors manage er1- ployes properly SO that the govern ment will get maximum amount of work at the least cost"
 CUTTING CORNERS
 The bureau cuts corners in @ lot of other ways, too. It put the squeeze on printing and use of gov- ernment letterheads, and saved some 9500,000 pounds of paper and $2,- 900, 900 a year. It saved 3,000,000 square feet of scarce Washington office space by moving 41,88l fed- eral employees to other cities.
 It quickly shipped leftover IVA and eco facilities to help build mill tary airfields and the Alaska High way. It studied operations of pri- vate truck lines, and saved the gov ernment motor fleets an estimated 750,000 gallons of oil In eliminat- ing two proposed investigation pro- grams, the bureau saved the work of 1000 persons in one instance, and ST. 800. GOO in the other.