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Show I Where Your Taxes Go I How Uncle Sam Spends Your Money in Conducting Your Business I By EDWARD G. LOWRY LB fil.2n(l Economic Artlclti to Uidhig Perlodlc.Ii nd WHim n iXr0! ',M Authority rath N.tlOTUOoTemmtnt-.BuiineMMettodi: Kgnlte4 "" Copyright, Western Newspaper Union " "J ! B xn. WHY GOOD MEN QUIT L today In'0 thc Trcnsury depart. H l the Department of Agriculture. '. Dopartmcnt of Commerce, or Into R, otter establishment of the govern. fit aolng Important technical work, Kubtr wi" tclt yu tlmt tholr cl,,cr Krultr Is to rctnln competent cm-AtfM cm-AtfM In the supervisory nnil tech-Ki tech-Ki positions. Their turnover Is nb-KraBllr nb-KraBllr high I" these Positions. Exert day mcn ,cnvo M, 8Crv,C0 sB iccept PrlTn,e employment ut ma-sKriillr ma-sKriillr Increased snlarles, so tlmt the Kmrtments nro continuously going .Knari i process of selecting nntl LflLinin" executives nnd technical cm-HTks! cm-HTks! only to lose them, ns they bo-K-tt realty valuable, on nccount of K Inadequacy of their compensation. Tle second factor which contrlb-Hi contrlb-Hi to the present Ineffectiveness of Cfoxernment as a business C3tub-Eotnt C3tub-Eotnt Is found In the Improper or-Elullon or-Elullon of thc executive branch of TJoTernment for effective service. Hij ire familiar, nt least In a general Hi;, Kith the defects of the present Kinutrstlre machinery. too know for example, that the In-Kor In-Kor department now has Jurisdiction flU i peat number of bureaus of n Ecellaneous character that have Eung to do with each other or with HL (auctions which thc Interior de- ' LflrttMBt was originally established to , Erftrm. tea know that many agencies hnve Bea located In the Treasury depart-Bit, depart-Bit, the great fiscal department of Hctovemraent, which are purely non-Sat non-Sat In character, such as the coast Hud, the public health service, the Hptrrblng architect's ofllce and the Hrcaa of war risk Insurance. flta know that the great bulk of Bt jhll public works of the govern- Hut are executed under the super-' super-' Boo of the War department, although ' flt bureau of public roads Is located Bile Department of Agriculture, und ' Brttltmatlon service In the Depart-' Depart-' fl1' ' toe Interior. Boa know, furthermore, of the In i Beodent existence outside the Juris- i fltloo ot any of the great executive ; flinraents of vome 40-odd hontds, t Amissions, olllces nnd bureaus. Bine are merely examples of a con-r con-r Boa that would require volumes to I Bflte fully but It Is generally Bra that the executive branch of the Btromcot Is it thc present tlmo II- i fllci"f ia$ uncconomlcnlly organ- , Hi Is many Important particulars. . K tiould be remembered, howover, that even with an ldnl personnel nnd if 'the I "rThM"n U " 'lo''" , If the high degree f economy und I efllcleney that chnracie.ize, ,?r o business can ever be attained In t lei government olllces. This is )ecullSe economies made by goW w ofll. ' dnls are not trnnsfonnvd Into rlivl I dends for themselves au they are In prlvute business. There Is an Impression In congress and throughout the country that men of great ability are not found In government gov-ernment service; that the sulurles are not sulllclent to utlrnct und hold them. On the contrary, there are u great many people of distinguished ability In the government service. One Is jnore and mote Impressed by that fact, especially since the war sent to Washington Wash-ington so niuiiy men of large means and famous names with whom thc government employees could bo compared. com-pared. The comparison wus time and aguln to the advantage of the government govern-ment employee. Hut the salaries are not the attraction; It Is the work Itself. It-self. This Is weJl understood by some eminent observers of public life. Secretary Sec-retary of Stute Hughes declared htm. self as follows before the advisory committees of the war risk disunities bureau: It has been my experience that with the higher officers, the oltlccra of greater Institutions, where elllclency is reuurJeJ by public representation while the field Is a limited one because of the great opportunity op-portunity to men of ability-It Is stUI entirely en-tirely possible to draw to the public service serv-ice men ot great ability and dlsiTncllon, because of the desire to ronder public service, and the number ot men who are available for that purpose, while relatively rela-tively small, Is still sufficient It the appointing ap-pointing officer wanls men of that class. In order to obtain them, however, he must give a free field, lie must not In-terfera In-terfera as to political action to control administration tendenclos and must permit per-mit them to be given the reward which a well-conducted otflce of Importance will give to Its lncumbi.nl In the public estimation. esti-mation. Now the difficulty Increases when you pass those Imads that get the credit and como to the technical expert who has got to do the regluar work and upon whose elllclency the operation ot the department de-partment finally depends. These men are little known. The public hasn't time even to learn their names. They are Interested In work to a degree ot being willing to make sacrifices. There Is active competition for men of Drains and great ability of that sort, and tlio government will ntver be served unless un-less It pays the price far those men. Now I think that Is a plain situation. You may be able to get a director in the bureau bu-reau of war risk Insurance for 13.000 a year, or for nothing at all, but you cannot can-not get an actuary. You cannot get In surance men. You cannot get superintendents. superin-tendents. That would tie my Judgment. |