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Show fluf in . ,i t . - . t ..-., , IBflB " - ... .J"'J Where Your Taxes Go How Uncle Sam Spends Your Money in Conducting Your Business H u By EDWARD G.LOWRY HflH AJif "Wilnton,CloM.lpt." "Banks and PlnaneUt 8rstenu.Mete. C.(rlKt-. H PoUUcal and Economic Art leWi .to ; L.dln, PfollU wT? Write, of &taS fljflj Authority on ths National Uovsramrat's Business Methods. v"'""a Bj Copright. Wtra Newsptjxr Union ' I XI. OUR COSTLY NEGLIGENCE "Co-ordination" U a tired, haggard, nervous wreck of a word that was nearly worked to dcntJi at Washington during tlic early days of the war. It wh (he llrat of the dollar-a-year words lo come forward to do wur work, and K was worn to a fraszle. I hnte to drag tho poor wan thins out from tliu quiet retreat In my dictionary whero It ha been resting and recuperating, hut I must wty that this lack of coordination, co-ordination, lack of organization, duplication, du-plication, Inelllclency, waste, iiml http-tturanl http-tturanl hodgo-podge structure of the HflMonul governmental muchlnu Is no aecret to those at Wushlngton, who run and mnnngo It for us, and yho are eve moro directly responsible than wo are for the condition Into which II lis fallen, t submit pleos of avoidance and confession from both bemocruts and Hopuhllcans. It Is not a tnnttcr of politics. It Is a matter of proved and confessed negligence on tho pnrt of tho men nc have hired to run Ilia mn-thine, mn-thine, and have kept year after year hi places of trust and power and rc KlKMislhlllty. They haven't kept up the plant. The form of organization I" grotesquely Inadequate. The morale mor-ale of the working force Is badly lm. tuilred, as I have set forth nt length In previous .articles. We Imvo pnld I he prlco for this, grossly and hugely, In money nnd In poor service. This has been costly negligence on our part. I Mid I had confessions. Here they are, toed Smoot, Itcpubllcau and a Hcntitor from Utah, speaking: The administrative brandies of the government have undergone no fundamental funda-mental chAnao ilnce (he ouranUatlon was devised by Alexander Hamilton. No other government- In the world could liavo none on as oura Ima done, and pnld the bill Involved In our wasteful melhoda or administration. We have been able lo da It -because (till country has had resources and wealth unparalleled. But the wavhns brought us nt last lo realise that these will not last always. W need a complete survey of the whole lluallon de nivo by a committee of men willing to reroanlie that It Is a task of day and night for a year, and very tlksly, two years. . , , There Is endless duplication of work among; dUTertnt departments, and even In the same department . . . It Is Hie snme through all the government functions, and now, when the burden of carrying our enormous debt la welulilna-an welulilna-an the people, we can no longer neglect lo alve It cona'deratlon. When ho said theso things, Mr. Smoot was urging a concrete proposal to bring about the refonnatlon so bad' ly needed. And now Franklin D. Iloosovelt, for seven years assistant secretary of the navy and recently the Democratic can-dldate can-dldate for vlco president: The entire system of relationship which exists between congress and the executive execu-tive departments Is fundamentally wrong. Let me Illustrate: I made an offer on spring to the appropriations committees of both house and senate, telling them that t would tomorow discharge IS per cent of the employees of the Navy department de-partment If they, (he committees, would give me complete authority to take one-half one-half of the salaries of the employees so discharged and add It to the salaries of tho other S3 per cent of the employees still left In the department. ... Of couise, however, under the prrsent eya tern congress would not think of giving executive discretion of this kind. Congress, for various reasons, has so lied the hands of the executive officers of the government that they have no discretion dis-cretion In the fundamental questions of employment. . . My own wonder Is that, considering the existing circumstances, circum-stances, tho emp oyees of the government govern-ment are as efficient as they actually are. Congress legislates for every minute Item of employment. . . , There Is a lot of work being dohe In other departments which ought properly to be under the Navy department, and In the same way there Is a lot of work done by the Navy department which could perfectly properly prop-erly be transferred to other departments. After seven years down here In an executive ex-ecutive position ... I cannot help the conclusion that our governmental methods meth-ods are cumbersome and wasteful. The first Improvement must come In what Is, after all, the source of governmental activities ac-tivities that Is, the legislative branch. . . . This must come from congress. We need also a reclassification and redistribution of the work of the executive departments. depart-ments. Tills can only come If congress, working In accord with Itself and with the executives, wilt discuss the whole question simultaneously nnd not merely piecemeal. Well, there you ore I A Republican who has been In the legislative branch of the government for seventeen years, utiil n Democrat who has been In the executive branch for seven years, both telling the same stoiy of how badly the national business Is managed. Tho odd thing about It s that out ngcuts nnd representatives at Wash Ington who let this waste nnd Inefficiency Inef-ficiency run on, year after year, pay no penalty. We pay the piper to the tune of millions and billions lltci ally that much. And tho condition will endure en-dure until wo make a real roar about It. Congress' Increasingly shakes Its hend over tho situation nnd brings Is various proposals of reform, and says how wrong It all Is; but lacking a lively, Inflamed public pressure, nothing noth-ing gets done. |