Evening star., 1953-02-22
Government Poyrolls
Definitely Being Cut
Writer Sees President Booking
Economies Of Congress
BY Fronk R. Kent

usual happened In Washington
Government agency was abolished but
its LOO employees were not transferred
to any other governmental agency or
department. That has been the in
variable custom for the past 20 years.
This time it was not followed. This
time the entire 1,700 will be dropped
from the payroll.
They constitute the stan Of the Wage
Sterilization Board. When President
Eisenhower cut short the life Of this
board by abolishing ceilings on wages
and prices. he pulled the rug from
under the 100. Ordinarily, these vet
eranS of the Federal payroll would
have had no difficulty in transferring
to some other agency. Many Of them
had come to the WSB from other agen-
cies. bettering themselves by the
change. This inability to effect an
Eisenhower order which has frozen"
the Federal jobholder situation so far
as adding to its number Of employees
or filling vacancies goes.
In addition to this quite unique ex-
perience so far as the Federal jobhold-
ers are concerned, second one on exc
actly similar lines appears to be sched-
uled. Recently bill was introduced by
Senator Harry F. Byrd. Democrat. Of
Virginia, in sponsoring which Senators
Bricker, Republican. Of Ohio; Robert
son, Democrat. Of Virginia; Ferguson,
Republican, Of Michigan. and Williams,
Republican, Of Delaware. joined. The
purpose of this bill is to abolish
the Reconstruction Finance Corp.
which has been in existence % years
and has more than 1000 employees. II
this bill becomes law there will be no
place for these 1000 employees to go
except of. The more than 5000 million
loans which the RFC now has out
standing are to be liquidated as rapidly
as possible and the proceeds applied
exclusively to reduction of the national
debt.
An exactly identical bill was intro.
duced by Senator Byrd at the last ses-
sion Of Congress and failed by an ex.
ceedingly close-39 to 36-vote, al.
though the RFC at the time was in i'll
repute because of exposures of infiu-
ence used by various individuals close
to the White House to obtain loans for
friends and clients. The Truman adj
ministration, then in power, was OPP
posed to the Byrd bill and as stated.
it did not get through. This time,
despite disclaimers from his press Sec
retary that the President has taken any
position in regard to this bill, there is
reason to believe that both he and his
Secretary of Treasury, Mr.. Humphrey,
are in accord with 1t. At any rate,
~ ic l1Vy Ial 4 x,,in Iz~
enacted, though, of course, there will
be opposition. Always in Congress there
is opposition to any economy measure.
Always an economy move steps on
somebody's toes. Always somebody is
hurt.
However, there seems no way to stop
this bill now. nor to block the remain
ing portion Of the Hoover Commission
recommendations For the first time
since 1882 the country has in the White
House man genuinely concerned
about waste and whose campaign
promises to curtail were fully meant.
His weight certainly will not be exerted
against the Byrd BILL; probably will be
exerted for 1t. This makes all the differ
ence. AS Senator Byrd frequently has
said, no real step toward economy can
ever be made without White House
leadership. In the past 20 years White
House leadership consistently has been
in the opposite direction, which made
it infinitely harder to chop of and
vastly easier for the spoilSmen to hold
onto their spoils.
True, the abolition of the RFC and
the WSB are not major economy opera
tions, though they certainly are not
trivial. And 3,700 Federal employees Is
small number in total of 2.5 million.
But. that any unessential, though long
established agency can be abolished
, and its employees dropped from the pay
roll instead of merely being trans
ferred-that isn't little thing. That
really is big thing. It is the direction
that is particularly significant.
OF course, it is tough on the men and
women who lose their jobs after q
tenure so long that they had come to
consider them theirs by right. But un-
less the growth Of this gigantic and
swollen bureaucracy Is really checked
the whole governmental structure will
ultimately bog down under its own vast
weight and our democratic form Of
government be reduced to chaos It
isn't too far from that now.
modationS, expert service and with the