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Show Facts On The Hoover Report , specifically to make the contents ) of this magnificent document an actuality rather than an ideal. The Committee believes that an informed public will demand action by the Congress to the end that last'ing good Government will secure se-cure the future of our nation. Join the Citizens Committee in your community and work for its objectives. Write the President and your Congressman that you want these reforms that will bring economy econ-omy and efficiency to the federal government. Savings of from $3 to $5 billions a year are possible if the Hoover Commission's recommendations are fully adopted and vigorously applied. $ Soiled playing cards can be cleaned by dipping a small sponge in spirits of camphor and rubbing card gently. This will restore the newness. Criticism is the child and handmaid hand-maid of reflection. It works by censure, and censure implies a standard. R. G. White S"hardly can be explained by in-$ creases in costs of labor and material," ma-terial," the Commission wryly commented. It need hardly be pointed out to you, as a citizen, that the rec-commendations rec-commendations of the Hoover Report Re-port with reference to the Department De-partment of the Interior should be adopted. It means money in your pocket. You can't afford to let these and the other reforms proposed by the Hoover Commission Commis-sion go by the board through public pub-lic indifference. The Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report was organized The following article Is the Eighth in a series telling of the findings of the Hoover Commission. Commis-sion. Department Of The Interior Present "disastrous conflicts and overlaps in the Department of the Interior cost the taxpayers enormous sums annually," the Hoover Commission revealed. . Back in 1924 the Joint Congressional Congres-sional and Presidential Committee on Reorganization recommended that most Federal Government conservation and construction activities ac-tivities be consolidated in a single Cabinet department. The proposal was again made by President Hoo- 4. ver in 1932, and again by President Roosevelt's Committee on Administration Ad-ministration Management in 1937. "Had such a department been created 25 years ago," the Commission Com-mission declared, "hundreds of millions pf dollars would have been saved to the public over these years. Today it is a complete necessity." ne-cessity." The Interior Department's Bureau Bur-eau of Reclamation and the Army's Corps of Engineers are in constant conflict. They are rivals in the business of building and operating multi-purpose dams for flood control, con-trol, navigation, irrigation, domestic domes-tic water supply, hydro-electric power. They duplicate each other's surveys and other activities, try 0 outbid each other for local support sup-port at the Federal Government's expense. They prodigally waste natural resources .by failing, between be-tween them, to make the best possible pos-sible development of the nation's river basin's. The lamentable division of authority for public works has also resulted in over-all Government Govern-ment failure to check adequately on the worth of proposed construction construc-tion projects and to determine their proper timing. Economists agree that the Government should hold ' its public works to a minimum mini-mum in prosperous times, reserving reserv-ing them to stimulate the economy when private jobs and construction begin to slack off. But such planning plan-ning and control are difficult when several rival agencies are attempting attempt-ing to promote their individual building programs. Now, in a time of relative prosperity, pros-perity, the current apporpriations for major Federal construction projects total $1,300,000,000. To complete those already underway will cost more than $5,500,000,000. Projects authorized by Congress but not yet initiated may cost $7,300,000,000. Within the next five years Federal Fed-eral plants will probably be producing pro-ducing 15 or 20 percent of the nation's na-tion's electric power. Nearly 5,-000,000 5,-000,000 acres of land are now watered by' United States irrigation irriga-tion projects. The Army Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation each drew plans for a project at Hell's Canyon, Can-yon, Idaho. Each set of plans cost about $250,000 and differed in essential es-sential particulars of construction and by over $75,000,000 in cost of erection. There is a consistent understatement understate-ment of costs in Federal construction, construc-tion, the Commission disclosed. For instance, Congress was informed in-formed that the Colorado-Big Thompson project would cost $44,-000,000. $44,-000,000. It eventually set the Government back $131,800,000. The cost of the Hungry Horse Project in Montana grew from an estimated $6,300,000 to an actual $93,500,000. Such discrepencies |