Show REMOVING RED TAPE TUHXIXG CmCtniLOCBTION OFFICES OFFI-CES UPSiDE DOWN John Smith nUll His Load of Hay Point a Moral nml Adorn a Tale of Possibility of a 10 Per Cent Reduction iu the Employes Washington Dec 8Ther is a story currant In Washington which runs something like this John Smith was postmaster some years ago of a town in the northwest He turned over his office to a successor and turned in his accounts to the government The accounts went to the auditors office and were put in a pigeonhole duly labeled to await their turn They were reached in the course of business in a few rears and the comptroller who passed on them finally disallowed several hundred dollars of John Smiths expenses The matter was referred to the district attorney In the district where John Smith had had the post ofke and he was instructed to take steps to collect By the time the account ac-count had been audited and the papers had reached the diitrict attorney John Smith had left the town and no one seemed to know where he was living One day the district attorney heard that John Smith had come to town with a load of hay He was a zealous district attorney and he hurried to get out an attachment on the horses and the wagon and the hay When the officer to whom the writ was given attempted to serve it John Smith was very much surprised and when the matter was explained to him he said But Im not that John Smith Arent you the man who kept the posts iiice here once said the officer who was a newcomer in the town I never kept a postofiice in my life said John Smith Well all I can do is to serve the writ said the officer you can settle the matter with the district attorney But when John Smith came to settle the matter he found that he would have to go through a long legal process pro-cess to get possession of his property and he thought that the quickest way wits 10 pay use amount due the government gov-ernment and get it back again when he could prove his identity So he paid the money with this understanding and sold his hay Who should appear presently but the expostmaster He had nothing to attach John Smith No 2 went to the district attorney and explained the matter to him expecting that hie money would be handed back My dear Mr Smith said the dis trict attorney you are mdoubtedly right and the money should not have been taken from you But unfortunately unfortu-nately it has now come into possession of the United States and has been covered cov-ered Into the treasury The only way that it can possibly be got out is foe Congress to pass a bill for your relief I dont vouch for the accuracy of the story said Expert Haskins the other day but that is about the way the government does business Mr Haskins is one of the experts who are now engaged in an effort to reform the department methods at Washington and to bring the department depart-ment work up to date There are three of these experts and they are working under the supervision of the commission commis-sion composed of three senators and three members of the House appointed appoint-ed by Congress to investigate department depart-ment methods The first of these three experts is ilr Reinhardt the president r of the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe a railroad The railroad company pays him 575000 a year for his services and the commission pays him nothing so he devotes most of his time to the railroad rail-road But he exercises a careful supervision super-vision over the work of the other two experts Mr Haskins and Mr Sells Both of these gentlemen have had experience ex-perience in railroad work both are skilled accountants Mr Haskins is the large roundfaced man with the bristling blonde mustache the rather bald head and the healthy complexion who moves about nervously in his chair when he is talking and gets up occasionally occa-sionally to take a turn up and down the room Mr Sells is the smaller man with the smooth face the twinkling eye and the expressive mouth They balance each other welL They are a strong team Ever since 1SOO the government has been endeavoring to simplify the methods of business of the departments depart-ments The work was usually undertaken under-taken by Democratic officials and they had even reason to be satisfied with the existing condition of affairs so reforms never went very far The experts who are doing the work now are not department people They have no interest with the department people and no sympathy with department methods In fact they have about as strong a disgust for the system as tbpy can possibly have Department methods are unique A man who has been accustomed to them for a number of years usually thinks that they are very excellent methods and quite impossible of improvement im-provement A man who comes hereto here-to take a department position hears that they have prevailed for a century cen-tury and he looks on them with some respect Your expert fresh from the management of real business matters for active business concerns looks into l the department methods and is filled with horror A few days ago in the + course of the investigation which is Ix being made into the work of a narticu I J fir office the head of the office a recent re-cent appointee was asked to make a report on the system that was used He made a most glowing defense of it Where do you get your facts said the experts He had relied on his division chiefs he said And they Well it proved on investigation that as they too were new to the department i depart-ment work they had relied on the old clerics In their offices And the old clerks Oh they were perfectly satisfied sat-isfied with the existing condition of f things They had pottered along doing l do-ing half a days work a day for so long that they thought that it was 1 quite the thing in fact they believed that they were rather overworked if anything A change of method might mean additional work So they were opposed to a change The experts have got through only two offices up to datethe sixth auditors audi-tors office In the postoffice department and the customs division of the treasury I treas-ury department In the sixth auditors audi-tors office they recommended a great I t many changes all of which have been agreed to by the postoffice department and the treasury departmentso they A are to go into effect almost immediately immed-iately Then they wanted to have the postal note abolished and the rate for the money order reduced and a number num-ber of other important changes in the I postoffice departments methods made The first assisstant held up his hands and the head of the money order division held up his hands and both exclaimed against the proposition There was a pretty lively session in the office of the postmastergeneral ink in-k which the experts and the commission and the postmastergeneral and the department officials took part When ° the annual report t > E the first assistant was made public a few days later he bad recommended what the experts ° suggested Aid as I said the changes c In the methods of the sixth auditor are n to be made and the work Is to be 1 J c I Q 0 i ci i t simplified so that Instead of being many months behind it can be brought up to date Incidentally fortyone men will lose their places They will remain re-main in the office until June 30 because be-cause there iSjan annual appropriation which provides for them up to that time But when the recommendations for the following year go in these fortyone salaries will be omitted This question of cutting down the force in the offices is a pretty serious one for the clerks But taken in the aggregate It is a pretty important one for the government too The number of employees in the office of the sixth auditor is 409 In round numbers the reduction of the office force is to be ten per cent The number of clerks in all of the departments is 17599 It Is not 17600 or 17595 Congress appropriates > appro-priates a specific amount for each clerk and only the Senate has a contingent fund for the employment of additional clerks The department clerks are provided pro-vided for specifically throughout the government service Calling the average aver-age salary 1000 it is more than that but possibly the average of those who will be removed under this reorganization reorganiza-tion will be about thatand figuring on a ten per cent reduction in the department depart-ment generally you have a reduction of the working force by 1760 men and a saving to the government annually of 1760000 That is a rather tidy saying say-ing for a Democratic Congress to make If It can only make it It remains to be seen whether ConTess will have the nerve to make the reduction Heretofore attempts have been made to cut down the force here or there but that has always meant a curtailment of patronage and Congressmen have fought it for themselves and for their friends in the service People who talk about the work of the present commission commis-sion nod and smile and say Oh yes but we have had commissions before There have been other commissions but there has never been a better commission commis-sion than this If Congress will holdup hold-up the commissions hands there will be great changes at Washington before longAfter After reporting on the condition of the customs division the experts dived into the offices of the auditors and comptrollers of the treasury department depart-ment There they are working now and they are digging up interesting evidences of the congestion of business in these offices every day Here is a report of the president of a soldiers home said expert Has kins when I sat in his office talking with him about his work a few days ago He had just told me the story of John Smith the postmaster and John Smith the owner of the load of hay This report continued Mr Haskins was made in 1S90 They have a million mil-lion or so charged against this man but that does not mean anything It has been accounted for in his reports but they have not got to his reports yet I found that they were advancing as much as 100000 to an Indian agent who had perhaps a million and a half charged against him and who gave only 100000 bonds but when I said that I was surprised they said that It was all right they had not got down to his accounts yet Well they had got to the account of this president of I a soldiers home the other day and they threw out an item of 700 for provisions to stock a private car used by the majorgenerals of the army in making their inspection of the home The auditors would not accept the Item because it did not give particulars par-ticulars It Is to be sent back to the president of the home and if he cannot can-not furnish the individual Items of provisions he will have to make good the amount himself Now I dont call that fair If they called on the man within a reasonable time to make explanation ex-planation of his accounts it should be all right but a man cannot remember the details of an account for years I found the account of an Indian agent the other day which had been m the handsof the auditor since 1887 I asked why If had been allowed to go unaudited so long and they said that it was because the man was no longer in the service They had been work ing on the accounts of people who were still doing business With the government govern-ment If they find something wrong in that account they may get hold of the man and demand an explanation of himsix or seven years after It is enough to keep men from doing business busi-ness with the government at all We have been looking into this doublecheck system at the treasury which they are so proud of continued Mr Haskins There is nothing in it The clerks in the auditors office go over the accounts carefully and perhaps per-haps throw out an item here or there The accounts then go to the comp trollers office and a 1200 clerk there takes hold of them and goes over them again He is more than likely to disagree with the auditors findings and to throw out some entirely different dif-ferent items Does the account go back for revision to the auditor then Oh no The decision of the 1200 cleric in the comptrollers office is final In the 2nd 3rd and 4th auditors audi-tors offices the work does come back but it comes to the bookkeeping division di-vision merely to be entered It does Jot come back for review I asked Mr Haskins if the commission com-mission was working to cut down the expenses of the departments That is only an incident he said The commission is trying to simplify work so that it can be done more rap idly and more effectively With simpler sim-pler methods it can be done by fewer clerks in some offices But what we want is to place the departments in position to do current work If you take a claim for back pay or bounty to the department now they put it in a pigeon hole in what they call their open filesand there it lies for two years before it is even taken up for consideration The business Is simply sim-ply congestive With a different system sys-tem there is no reason why the work should not be brought up to date Colonel Ainsworths card system of keeping the war records is an excellent one He thinks it can be used in keep ing accounts I do not know whether it can or not They adopted it in the second auditors office two years and a half ago and now comes a new second sec-ond auditor who does not like it and he has ordered that he work of two years and a half shall be transcribed from thecards Into the books And so it goes It will probably be necessary to reduce the force in some departments depart-ments and it will not be necessary to reduce it in others In the sixth audi tors office we found that the work could be done much better If the force was reduced There is a proposition that the hours of work ofthe department clerks be increased in-creased There is a law which fixes the work at seven hours a day The law used to provide for eight hours a day in winter and ten in summer It will take an act of Congress to increase the department hours They are now from 9 to 4 and the clerks have half an hour for luncheon Possibly the hours could be extended to 430 without with-out congressional action But to make the employees of the government work I the number of hours that are exacted of clerks in business houses here or I elsewhere will take affirmative action by the House and Senate An attempt I was made in the last Congress to extend the hours but the influence of the clerks with the congressmen defeated the proposition j GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN |