Evening star., 1946-05-27
Agencies Told
ToRid Fi|esof
Useless DATA
President Orders
CIeanout to Provide
Needed Office Space
By Rudolph Kouffmonr II

President Truman today told Gov
ernment agencies to get rid of old
records and copy material gathering
dust in Government files at once so
that office space may be turned back
to private use.
In a memorandum to Philip F..
Fleming, Federal Works Admins
traitor, the President said response
to an order that they get rid of such
excess material or turn it over to
the National Archives has not been
encouraging, due, no doubt, to long
standing intertia in the important
problem of records management, ,'I
and ordered him to prosecute the
order with all possible vigor."
w. E. Reynolds, public buildings
commissioner, who issued the order
to cut records so per cent by July l
as a space-saving move, said today
he would do exactly what the Presi-
dent said-prosecute with all pos
sible vigor."
Wants Immediate Action.
In his memorandum to Gen. Flem-
ing, the President said:
Il concur in the aims of the let
ter of April %, 1916, from the
commissioner of public buildings to
the heade of all Federal agencies
on the reclamation of record stor-
age. There is positive need for
the relase of as much of this type!
OF space asa possible in order to
further my directive to you of April
3, 1916"
The Presidents order of April g.
authorized FWA to take immediate
steps to bring about the release
for private use of as much Govern
ment-occupied space as possible as
soon as possible.
1t was or the basis of this order
that Mr.. Reynolds issued orders for
the so per cent reduction.
At the time, Mr.. Reynolds said:
"An unusually large percentage of
Office space now occupied by the
Government in Washington is given
over to storage of noncurrent rec
ords; and am informed that many
of these records are seldom, if ever
consulted in the conduct of cur
rent business.
Would Yield Needed Space.
'The disposal of all records no
longer needed in the current admin
istration of business, or their trans
fer to the national archives as their
further value may indicate, offers
the quickest means to free sorely
needed space without interference
to routine operations"
Concurrently MIR. Reynolds called /
for reduction in duplicate material
as well.
He told agency heads to report |
how they planned to reduce space
under the terms of the directive
on May Is and on June Is.
1t was learned from Public Build
tngs Administration officials today
that May passed with few agencies
reporting space reductions.
Showing how much in the way of
records and duplicate material now
exists in the Government, the Army
alone could fill five buildings the
size of the Archives Building at |
Ninth and Constitution avenue with
records, and the Navy could fill two
and half
This and other evidence was
presented to Congress last fall to
support authorization of two large
storage buildings, one for film and
the other for records, at Suitland,
Md, to cost $11,500,0OO together.
Item Pigeonholed.
Congress since has pigeonholed
the authorization on account of the
veterans housing shortage, but cur
rent efforts to clear Office space of
excess records led to speculation to-
, day whether Congress might not now
be asked for some form of legisla-
ton to ease the situation.
Buildings of this type would be
largely of reinforced concrete and,
it is held in some qaurters, would
not conflict seriously with the hous-
ing program.
Additional support for help from
Congress in the space situation it
was indicated, might stem from the
fact PBA was told in the Independ-
ent Office Appropriation Act for
1877 to cut Government leased space
by 100000 square feet by July /,
1947.