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Show REORGANIZATION I QF DEPARTMENTS I Senator Smoot Has Bill Providing H for Sweeping Reductions in H Executive Departments. H MEASURE WOULD SAVE H COOL BILLION A YEAR Hailed by Press of Country as One M of the Greatest Pieces of Lcgis- M lation Ever Promulgated hy the H Republican Party. H Washington D. C, Apr. 27, 1020 H Heralded aa one of tho greatest re- H forms and constructive measures to come up for consideration at this H session of Congress, Senator Reed jH Smoot's bill providing for sweeping H reorganization of tho executivo do- H partments of the government is at- 1 trncting nation-wide comment. 1 Wide approval has been given tho H bill by members of Congress and M newspapers have characterized the B measure as one of the greatest pieces H of legislation ever promulgated by H the Republican party. H At n time when profound peace reigned the annual governmental B expenditures were around ono billion HHl dollars n year. On that basis the late HBl Senator Aldrlch declared a competent HBl reorganization would save tho gov- HB1 eminent $300,000,000 n year. On the same ratio the Smoot plan would save HB the government a round billion each HH "Senator Smoot, recognized as one HB of the foremost nil round business M authorities in the government" to use H the words of the New York Sun and M Herald purposes the appointment .of M a joint congressional commission M three senators appointed by Vice M President Marshall and three rcpre- M Kuntativcs named by Speaker Gillctt H to survey tho whole administrative ' H mcchnnism nnd report n plan. ' JmmtM The resolution went to tho approp- i.WWm rintions committee and Senator iHH Smoot is making every effort to get fPH it reported nnd acted upon at this r"'l-1IM session. He anticipates tho work v vltB will require from one to two ycara "The commission would recommend 1 legislation necessary to carry out its il reform program" said Senator Smoot fM "It is a huge task now absolutely III necessary. It need be no surprise if the commission would find nt the end jjH of a years day and night work thnt it jH could only present n tentative and in- tjl complete report nnd ask for more M time. 1 "So far as concerns the broad lines H of this organization and adtninistrat- , IH ive system of our government hns not A' jH been fundamentally changed since W. H it was devised by Alexander Hamil- fr H ton at the beginning of constitutional ' H government. Methods that were mar- s H vclously adapted to the conditions of "-' M the country for which Mr. Hamilton H planned them and which have consti- H tutcd ono of his chief claims to famo M among the great administrators of H all time, are necessarily archaic and H anachronistic now. - fH "The government hnd added nenrly -Wm as many departments headed by cab- iH inct officers us there were nt tho bo- 41 ginning of constitutional organiza- Ll tion. Everything has been added to jH the original Hamilton organization Wm but instead of being ndded in a prop- -WW cr, systematic and efficient way, new 11 features of tho government have jl grown on as exceresceiicea and ex- M travagnnt disfigurements. "There is endless duplication of H work among different departments ljH and even in the same departments, H "Can anybody give n possible rca- ,vH son why the Department of the In- ifl tcrior should be running an insane 11 asylum or why there should be - twenty-seven engineering organiza- NhI tions under our government? Or why HH the governments efforts to encourage 'H foreign commerce should be divided '"V5ttUlcW among the activities of four or five ?iM departments, perhaps more "It is the same through all tho IIH government functions and now oven H the burden of carrying our enormous " debt is weighing on tho peoplo wo f fl can no longer neglect to give it con- t siderntion." (From the N. Y. Sun nnd Heruld) dfl Senator Smoot's proposal to reor- llfl ganize all tho government depart- WM menta on a sound business basis may QH ensily save the country n billion H dollars a year. There is nothing like W that sum to be dumped out of tho H payrolls, heavily as they aro over- H oaded. Thero ia nothing like it to IB be squeezed out of the lenky spots J H in tho bureau petty cash, much as IjH now drips away. Nevertheless tho col- UH ossal wastes flooding out tho over all flH get back to theso departments. They H arc caused by the heedless way the CH departments nsk for money, They are f!H caused by the indulgent way congress rnM gives them money. They are caused ffl by the riotous way they spend it Hfl Tho United States Government in JH tho conduct of tho public afairs of Efl the greatest and richest nation in tho wH world ought to bo operated like a m (Continued on fourth page.) .B9 REORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENTS (Continued from first paRe) Bound business proposition; but tho United States Government whether estimating, planning, appropriating 1 or spending, is nnything DUt n sound ' business proposition. It is n go-ns-you-plense scramble of incompetency, extravagance and squander. The departments do not work out their programmes of expenditures ex-penditures wisely and scientifically as the successful business man must work out his. Congress, tho appropriating power does not allot the money asked of it with tho care and discrimination a Bound business house must use in providing pro-viding for its expenditures. The cx-ocutjvo cx-ocutjvo departments as tho final spending power do not spend their appropriations when they get them as a sound business man would spend his if he wants to keep out of the poorhousc. Men who do not know how to allot money for a given cnusa nnd men who do not know how to spend it so as to get tho biggest and best results re-sults are the costliest factors in business busi-ness for the stockholders or partners. In government they are tho costliest factors for the Amoricnn people. It isn't that tho government worker is not honest; they arc. It isn't thnt they want to bankrupt the treasury; they don't want to. i isn't that they don't enro what happens to the pockets pock-ets of the Americnn people; they arc sorry about it. But they simply don't the government ns thcrccete mt'hshm know how to conduct tho business of the government ns it ought to be conducted. Saving a billion dollars a year looks like a whnle of n contrnct but it isn't when its the government. If Senator Smoot's plnn goes thru so that the public's money will be asked for on n sound business basis nnd will be spent on a sound business busi-ness basis it enn be worth to tho American people not merely a billion dollars a year; in the long run, at the break neck speed we have been going would be worth billions. |