Show where your taxes go how uncle sam spends I 1 your money in conducting your business 1 by EDWARD G LOWRY aguior uy UPS bink banks and am financial ta to contributor butil rU til call toon onale article articles to alding periodicals Pr iUt ud and a writer of izod 1 autho Ao rity on a tu business moth methods W deeters U ul 1 I WHY YOURE interested I 1 wih wish you would take hat ll 11 written here a as a personal report ad drejer directly to you from me bui aboul your business dont think of it i atad it as an article about politic poli tim 0 or reate public affairs at warning washing ton it Is not that at all it Is abal r I 1 k yu you t to think it lk a karmna r business report t to you relating t to youl P conens ns your k abtil yur your welfare I 1 bava bays B no that lateresa than to tell you tho the eraci truth assume that you have sent me nue t washington to find out for you whal your agents are doing how they an managing your affairs and spending your money I 1 call them your abenti for that Is all they are the president the th members of the cabinet th W senators and all the members of tb thi house or of representatives you hirt them you pay them and you can fin firt tham ye yoa you may think of them in renet and awe as a group of eminent states den ma or you may call them in md too hasty contempt a lot 0 01 politicians but whatever you cal them they are your hired men the fabend to your collective business which la Is called the public business query are they doing it efficiently lj 9 end and with a single minded deo devotion tion tc t your interests perhaps the largest item in the cost of living la Is the tile high cost oi 01 government and far find and away th largest item in the high coltof cost of govern ment IR the high cost ot ol armament preparation for war about 80 90 pel pet vent rent of all government revenues and an that means the monley taken from you yot as taxes goes to pay for far wars past predent and future isedore I 1 haw have concluded this gerlej of aftic articles les I 1 expect to show you con elusively dusl clU vely that the impelling motte that induced president harding to cal the vie present conference in washington tor to consider limitation of armaments was financial the pressing need ol 01 considering alderIng con a proposal for a tion or limitation by agreement of wai expenditure was nas not made entirely or the ground of morality or righteous ness hut but as a plan for cutting doar the operating expenses of the govern ment it if the united states government were an individual we ue would mould say that it was broke for its expenses exceed elcee 4 its income your interest Is simply this thai that whatever decision Is made you will have to ko pay the bill if today wl w dlen t have these army and navy ex benses you would have to pay in less than a year instead et of 5 that means wi w would have about mor morg a year to spend on our private needia and pleasures I 1 frankly confess thai that I 1 would enjoy having four fifths of raj ml taxes knocked off wouldn t you secretary weeks of the war da d apartment part ment gave public warning a ditth while ago that the government would t Ivi require luire of about in the baxt thirty months to meet cur rent expenses and other obligations arson Pr son who have given close study to that possibility say that the need will 1 be nearer than WO ML the great bulk of that Is fot for past and prospective war nor expenditures for this you and congress and the th departments at washington are we responsible you more than any body else for it Is your money that la Is king being spent and you can stop it IL in its simplest terms the procedure Is this tou earn the money congress takes it away from you in ip the form of taxes and nd then congress and the executive 1 departments spend it A great part at of it Is wasted this Is established conceded confessed and acknowledged by congress which authorizes the expenditures and by the executive officers of the goern mena who do the actual spending it I 1 13 money that you have earned in your business on m your farm or by the labor of your hands that Is being expended f and wasted at washington every elery cent that Is extravagantly or needlessly expended by the govern ment you could have in your pocket to meet the increased Inc reaRed emt cost of food ioda ing and clothing doctors bills and anniie ments or to put away and save against a rainy day it if you only de rounded determinedly and that governmental extravagance should cease I 1 can tell you some of the conditions of t governmental govern mertal spending and how bour our money Is chucked about and I 1 can tell you liow how you can stop it the power Is yours and until you exercise it waste and extravagance will not stop UNCLE SAM AS EMPLOYER the united states is tile lie largest single employer of men and women in this country at the present one time la in the executive civil service of the federal government and exclusive of the army and navy there are ein em aloyed approximately workers one ne to in 73 of all residents on amerl mil call oil ten en ears ot of ape age or 0 over er en ell in gainful occupations A little while hil ago go u when ben the number of 0 federal employees was even larger than it la is now one per person n out of every ga in tile united stes who abo had any sort of a job at all fill was working for the government these calculations are based on recent estimates of the bureau of the census in anticipation of the results of the fourteenth general census prior to the outbreak of the war in 1014 the number of men and women in civil chil positions ions in the executive service was approximately in it had grown to in 1917 after our entry into the war it was nias on june 30 1819 1919 the number was the number on juk jul 31 low 1920 was these figures are confessedly approximations since the signing of the armistice the number of federal employees has been decreasing un the decrease in force will continue 94 be mad made for months to come but the growth of f the gave government business la in the tb past few years hab has two such aj as to make it a larger employer in to th the war period than it bad ever eer been in the prewar pre war period chece thousands thoua ands of men and women working nor king for the every type of ana intelligence their duties cover a range of activities that far exceeds that exercised for ther other public or private employers for besides belld its task of lawmaking and law enforcing of national defense and national finance the tbt government Is charged with promoting the health and welfare of its people ef of promoting their home interests their agricultural mining manufacturing shipping fish ing and transportation interests to do it must investigate control and eradicate diseases that attack persons plants and animals it must inspect Ili livestock estock foods and drugs it must study condition and progress lu in education labor and commerce it must prevent individual men or groups of men from using unfair busil gsg methods whether in banking por port atlon tation trade or manufacture the government must administer public lands and the affairs of the indians and educate children in alaska it grants patents of invert tion it sets gets the clocks of the coustry coutry forecasts the weather and mabbs observations ot the stars and heu heavenly venly bodies it constructs buildings docks decks toads roads bridges irrigation worta builds canals and aeroplanes aero planes makes ordnance and ammunition clothing and aba other supplies for its soldiers and isal lOrs it makes all its own money jad does au its own printing rl nUng it dla dis alfA airmail mall and many packages ge s the government does everything that any employer in the united states does in addition to a great many things that no other employer does how does it treat its people Is it a good employer or a bad employer empIo are its employees contented these are questions that I 1 should advise the railroad men the miners and other workers who he seek nationalization of industry to look into before they CODI com mit themselves es I 1 ret et them find out for themselves what hat goern government ment ownership would mean to them the first thing they will disco discover ter as I 1 discovered when nhen I 1 began the present inquiry Is that nobody knows and nobody in the government service la to charged with ith knowing the exact number of employees in the service from day to day E even on more astound ing nobody knows or Is charged with knowing even eien approximately the sum of el 1 the odthe of the united statts stalks it Is not possible to find out within hundreds of thousands of dollars liow how much the united states pays yearly or monthly in salaries and wages I 1 went nent to the treasury department to the appropriations committee of con gress tress and elsewhere where here I 1 thought though t the information might be lodged but nobody knew I 1 was told vaguely that the government was not run on an asset and liability basis and therefore it was as not necessary to know the exact number of employees on the payroll if the average compensation Is 1100 the federal civil service payroll now amounts to more than seven hundred million dollars annually the largest single branch Is in the post office department with nearly cm em plo the war department has more than civilian employees the navy department about 80 90 and the treasury department about iso no other branch has as many as 25 employees any institution that cm em ploys one in seventy three of all this count country rys s vior workers kers and calls for the expenditure of such a large part of our annual revenues Is entitled to your serious consideration you and you alone put up the money |