Milford chronicle., 1955-06-10
HOOVER SUGGESTS SAVING METHODS
Herbert Hoover's latest acknowledgement

HOOVER SUGGESTS SAVING METHODS
Herbert Hoover's latest nationally broad
cast address dealt with the works and goals
of the Commission on Reorganization of the
Government, which he heads The Commits
sion's reports have been coming out at fire.
quent intervals lately, and more are due.
Some 400 leading executives and profession
al men contributed their time and expert
ence over a 2O-month period to the 20 Task
Forces which produced them. The magni-
tude of the job is indicated by the fact that
there are about / 400 different agencies in
the government, spending total of $63 ,000,-
600 year.
The previous Hoover Commission of five
years ago. which was authorized by Presi-
dent Truman, had 70 per cent of its recon-
mendations adopted, and substantial i'm
provement in the economy and efficiency of
government resulted. The present Commits
sion was given much wider authority than
the prior one. 1t considers basic questions
of policy as well as of administration. AS an
example, one of the reports deals with the
problem of government functions which are
competitive with private enterprise. There
are between 1000 and 5000 of these. Most
of them former President Hoover said in
his address, "Were created in wars and
emergencies for some special needed task.
But when the task was completed, each had
aboard it an empire seeking bureaucracy
and large pressure group which benefited
from it. He added that all of them are ex-
empt from Federal taxes, that very few pay
any interest or amortization on the capital
the government has invested in them, and
that they have other special advantages He
also said: "The loss is not wholly the tax
payers money. 1t is also loss by injury to
the vitality of the private enterprise system.
It is destruction of freedoms"
The Commissions reports make recon-
Io4so n~~o r1fr,
concentrations to administrative agencies
which can be carried out within their present
authorities. The other is recommendations
requiring Congressional action In the first
nine reports, there are about $50 of the ad-
ministrative recommendations and about 10
of those involving legislation. Mr.. Hoover
emphasizes that this does not mean ITO sep
arate laws-about nine would be sufficient.
How much can be saved from all this? In
the reports so far completed, to qoute Mr..
Hoover again, "Our separate Task Forces
estimate that an aggregate of $4,000, ,O0O,OO
of savings could be made to the taxpayer.
And beyond that there could be returned to
the Treasury about $7,000,G00,000 of money
which could be provided otherwise. And
there are still more to come" Here he stated
that the savings would result from the elimi-
nation of waste, and mot the strangulation
of either our defense or the Sitting of pub
lie welfare
Finally, the former President emphasiz-
ed that there is more at stake than saving
money and improving governmental efficien-
cy At the end he said: "Our job is to show
safe road to balanced budget. And this
is no trivial job. It's accomplishment is vital
to every cottage in this land.
But over and above even that, many of
these reports spell out ways to strengthen
the foundations of the Republic
%~1oNE
OIIECTION on MORALS
A Senate subcommittee is investigating
charges of influence peddling involving gov
ernment workers. In the past such investi-
cations have revealed some rather lurid scan-
dals.
Government workers who engage in in
fluence peddling should be discovered and
summarily dealt with. Such people betray
their trust, bring shame to the majority of
honest hard working men and women who
are employed by the government and weaken
public confidence in all government.
But the influence peddlers are not the
only culprits. There. are also the influence
purchasers-those who pay bribe are as
bad as those who accept it. 1t is difficult to
weigh which crime is worse.
People, some of them very nice people
who would be shocked if they were described
as less than strictly honest are sometimes
ready to purchase influence whenever they
feel the need. They may never seek to gain
business contract through bribery but they
see nothing wrong with checking with local
politician to Elk" traffic ticket Such peo-
pie are buying influence and they are expect
ed to pay for it with good will toward the
politicians who provides it.
Dishonesty among those who hold gov
ernment jobs is intOlerable. Yet dishonesty
among citizens is much more dangerous The
former robs the Republic of its treasure; the
latter saps the moral strength of its citizens
and is an offense against the belief that
people are good enough and intelligent
enough to govern themselves