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Show COMMENT ON CONGRESS I Colliers Reviews Important Subject What Democratic H I Senator Thinks of Utah Senators. I During the week or two succeeding the crisis with Germany, Congress had one of the moods which cause observers ob-servers to feci a little sorry for the preponderance of criticism which is measured out to that body by commentators. com-mentators. Congress did not do anything any-thing spectacular; its actions were characteristic of a body which lias no agrcssivc leadership within itself. Of course it is conceivable that if Congress hail had one kind of leader, it might have' done something more effective Jf it had had another kind of leader, it might have done some thing rather damaging. What it did H wis to subscribe fully to leadership H outside of itself, that is to say, to Hi President Wilson. Within the field H of foreign affairs, preparedness, and M all that pertained to the crisis Con- iQ grcss voluntarily became echo and H servant of the President's will. Doth H the Senate and House made it appar- U cut that they would do literally and promptly whatever the President re- quested. The complete deference to I the President was made the mure H striking from the fact that at the (Continued on Page 4, 1st Soc.) I I i COMMENT ON CONGRESS B , 2 (Continued from Pago 1, 1st Sec.) B 5,'j rii'tnomcnt when the crisis came, Con- H w 7grcss was practically in the act of as- m $ strting'iiidepcm'pncciof thcPrcslfk'nt. 1 W ,lMr. Wilson had Vctocitthc . Immi- B I Juration Bill. The billjiad' conic. brk m I Ito Congress atulMt wnsjcntirely ap- H I i fparrnt that liii veto was 'going-to be H I 'overridden by the two-thirds vote B " t-yvhich is necessary to pass a measure B over the presidential veto. In spite i of the intention and the ability to BB " ' overrule Mm on a matter as to which BB , difference of opinion was not impor- BB tant, Congress instantly showed that BB I . it would be unanimous in doing ex- actly what the President might ask BB within the field of foreign affairs and B ' preparedness. H A PICTURE BB . On the floor of the Senate, Senator H ' William Hughes of New Jersey talks BB t forcibly and easily. His speeches BB when reproduced are ainoni; the few BB which make easy reading One day BB last month soiiiething that came up BB in the order of business caused him BB to speak informally about inefficiency BB ; and extravagance. Portions of his BB .speech, somewhat rearranged, gic BB what is almost an artist's picture. BB Why, we have no conception, and BB the people have no conception, of the BB true condition of affairs in the Gov By ' erument service to-day, and as it has Bj been for a number of years. ' I re- BB member being driven over to the BB i station one day by one of the cab BB drivers out here, and I got to tpicst- BB iouiug him as to how be managed to BB make a living It had always been BB ' more or less of a mvstcry to me bow BB those cliaps out in the iitadranglc cx- BB) isted from year to year on the small BB ninount of business they seemed to BB do. He told me that be bad a fixed BB compensation which came from two BB. I 'men whom he drove to the Pension BB j Office every morning. It was a dis- BB I reputable-looking sort of a rig that BB he drove, and I could not imagine any H. i highly paid members of the Pension BH Office staff being driven to and from BB their work in this sort of an arrangc- H , incut. I (iiicstioned him a little, and H I found out that they were not driven BB i down there because they thought they H, I ' could afford to drive to and from H I their wotk; hut two of them engaged H this man to drive them down there H because they could not walk from the BB , house to the carriage and they could H ' not walk from the carriage to the BB , Pension Office. Kacli morning he BB ; reported to their houses and helped BB y them out and into the carriage, and BB he helped them from the carriage to H v the Pension Office; and at night the BB operation was repeated in the other BB direction. BB That will give you some sort of an BB idea of the way the Government's BB work is being performed. Not so BB very long ago, in my service in the BB other body, the man at the head of BB one of the departments appeared be- BB fore one of the committees and tes- BB tifled that if the elevators did not run BB 70 per cent of his force could not get BB to work. (Laughter.) Arc. we going to continue to let these things go on? If we arc, it is only a itcstion of time, and a very short time at that, when the civil service ser-vice will absolutely break down. We will be unable to get the work of the Government transacted. Somebody will have to tike over the responsibility responsi-bility and the duty of consolidating and shifting and adjusting. There had been an effort going on during all of my service in the House to bring about a consolidation. It was shown, year after year, that the maintenance of certain customhouses custom-houses cost fie or six thousand dollars dol-lars a year, and that sometimes they would(collect as much as eighty or ninety cents in a year. (I,augltcr.) That matter was notorious. It was scandalous. It was debated before the Houses; the newspapers called the attention of the country 4o it; but the Bcntlrincn who were interested interest-ed in those customhouses in various narts of the country pooled their forces for-ces and retained them. 1'inally the consolidation was had and the customhouses cus-tomhouses were abolished by a sort of trick. I mean by that it was done as it is at tempted to be done here, by giving the President some power; and the people who gave the President the power did not understand the power they were giving him, or they never would have given it to him. At any rate, the power was given to somebody. It was given to President Presi-dent Taft, as I recollect The customs cus-toms divisions were consolidated and a number of useless offices were abolished, ab-olished, and the greatest roar of righteous indignation went up from the various legislative bodies that constitute this Congress that ever touched my ears in all my service. Mr. President, I venture to say that we arc spending $140,000,000 needlessly need-lessly this fiscal year. I venture to say that we arc paying out for services ser-vices more than $140,000,000 to people who are unable to render the service to the Government for which they are being paid. LIFE IN A BUSY OFFICE SENATOR KNUTK NKLSON of Minnesota is much less an artist in words than Senator Hughes, but be gave one completing touch to Senator Hughes's picture: ' I have seen them. (Perhaps it is not very gracious in me, approximating approximat-ing old age, to speak of these things, and yet, after all, it has struck me as peculiar. I have seen old men and women helped on the cars and helped help-ed off the cars going to their offices, and I have gone into those offices and found them sitting in chairs all day, reading the newspapers, and once in a while taking a little nap. (Laughter.) ONE OFFICE THAT IS DIFFERENT The gloominess of the picture, as generally seen, is undeniable; and it is sound policy to keep pointing out the abjectness of the extravagance and inefficiency of the Government. And yet there is this to be said: There are a few men who arc earnestly making mak-ing a beginning toward better things. Some of them arc in Congress and some arc in the departments, and they work together. They come from both parties, and in their efforts to achieve a better system they art-willing art-willing to ignore party differences. There is an Kfficiency Hoard at work and it is accomplishing some things. More than that, iHs being earnestly backed up by a fairly large group in the Senate. This dialogue tells something some-thing of it: Senator SMOOT of UTAH They (the Lfficiency Hoard) have reported duplications of work, and not only duplications of work, I will say to the senator, but they hac reported the proper system of accounting that should be employed. They report what is absolutely necessary to piit In- Gen '-rnmiit departments upon a business basis. As 1 have stated before, about the only department of the Covi-rntiKiit which has adopted any of the reports made by the Jirti- ciency Bureau is the Post Office De-uartmeut De-uartmeut in the city of Washington. . Senitor O M.l.lN'OER of New Hampshire Ham-pshire The senator from Utah has paid a tribute lo the Postmaster General Gen-eral two or three times during this session. Will the senator specifically state how those savings were accomplished ac-complished in the Post Office Department? Depart-ment? Senator SMOOT They have decreased de-creased the number of clerks by over one hundred in the last three'scars, and 1 am only speaking of the Post Office Department in the city of Washington. Where deaths or vacancies va-cancies have occurred they have not always been filled. No new clcrki have been employed because of a a cancy occitriiiy, but the Postmaster General has rearranged the work of the department so that to-day we find that the increased amount of work which has come to the department depart-ment has been taken care of; and, if U-'timuiiy amounts to anyihiiif, it has been taken care of in a better way than it has been in the past. Senator GAI.UNGEU I am very glad to hear that. Senator SMOOT I want to say that the Postmaster General gives the Kfficiency Bureau credit for bringing that impro-ement about. It is true that he hs been in sympathy sympa-thy with the bureau's work. If hcjiacl not been, there would have been no change in the department, as. there has been no change in most of the other departments. Senator Smoot's willingness to give praise for efficiency to a Cabinet member in the opposing party is wholesome. It is a really important fact that one Cabinet member, Postmaster Post-master General Burleson, has not only the wish to achieve better administrative ad-ministrative methods, but also the energy and personality to accomplish them. Practicall everybody in the responsible positions at Washington has the disposition. The force and business capacity to achieve are so rare as to be important. A DISTINCTION There is a good deal of partisanship partisan-ship in Congress, and in the world in general there is a good deal of criti-icsm. criti-icsm. Therefore it is not merely novel nov-el but refreshing to catch this chance phrase uttered during a Senate dc- 4, bate: AQl The senator from Utah (Mr. ' Smoot)' who in my 'judgment knows more about the details of the administrative affairs of the Government than any other man connected with it. j The man who said this is a Democrat, Dem-ocrat, Senator Joseph Taylor Robin-sou Robin-sou pf Arkansas. The man concerning concern-ing whom it was said is a Republican. The credit which is reflected upon Senator Smoot by this episodetfis obvious. The credit reflected u'n Senator Robinson ought not to pass without notirc. -Colliers. |