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Show Where Your Taxes Go How Uncle Sam Spends Your Money in Conducting Your Business By EDWARD G. LOWRY Author "Washington Close-Ups," "Banks and Financial Systems." etc. Contributor Political and Economic Articles to Leading Periodicals and a Writer of Recognized Authority on the National Government's Business Methods. Copyright, Western V. OUT-OF-DATE MACHINE A committte made up of three mem- (iers of the senate and three members i)f the house Is now considering the .vhole problem of the organization of the executive departments of the government gov-ernment with a view to finding out liw to reorganize them so as to in-(Y'ea.so in-(Y'ea.so their elticiency and dec cms1 their cost of operation. It Is about time. The great executive departments depart-ments of the government have not been reorganized or greatlv modernized modern-ized since Alexander HamMton's day. Representative Ueavis of Nebra-l-a Is due of the members of this joint congressional committee that is making mak-ing the present investigation. He put the resolution through the house that brought about the appointment of the committee. He is a part of the national na-tional government machine and he ought to know what he is talking about when he says that "while the government gov-ernment of the United States is the world's biggest business. It Is likewise the world's worst managed business." That Is an indictment and a statement state-ment of fact that will stand the closest scrutiny and the most unsparing analysis. But listen to Mr. Ueavis: ' "Why should the Interior department ran an insane asylum and a college for negroes and a school for the deaf? How did It get that way Why should one personnel In the pension bureau in the Interior department be carincr for the disabled soldiers of the Civil war and the Spanish American war, "while anolher personnel In the bureau of war risk Insurance of the treasury treas-ury Is caring for the veterans of the World war? Why this hodgepodge "f totally unrelated purposes which is re-suiting re-suiting in end ess duplication and appalling ap-palling expense?" I will let Mr. ReavU go on without further Interruption. As a member of the Irnuse he has his share of the responsibility for the conditions he describes de-scribes : There are 39 separate governmental agencies handling engineering, architectural architec-tural and public works functions, all of a related kind. There is no good reason why all these agencies should not be co-ordinated in one department and about 38 of the useless organizations done away with. There are 26 government agencies engaged In surveying and mapping; there are 27 separate and distinct agencies engaged in public building operations; there are 36 agencies authorized to build roads; there are 19 engaged in hydraulic construction; there are 16 doing work on rivers; there are 10 engaged in public land functions; there are 15 doing chemical investigation connected with public work operations; there are 22 doing engineering and research. re-search. Many of these agencies have been in- Newspapcr Union active fnr a number of years, but they are keeping up their personnel In anticipation antici-pation of work in the future. We could save $3K), (-00. .";) a year, in my judgment, by doing away with useless bureaus and dupll: ;tion of activities. Some of the duplications are ridiculous ridicu-lous and absurd. For instance, the government gov-ernment seeks to protect the wild animals In the national parks. If a brown kadiak hear has twin cubs, one brown and one black, as often happens, and one should shoot the brown cub he must make his settlement with one department, but if he shoots its full brother, the black cub, he must settle with another department. If you were to shoot a fox in Alaska your settlement would be with the Department of Agriculture, while if you trapped the same fox you must make your settlement with the Department of Commerce. " The government issued last year through 1 ts Severn 1 bureaus and depn rt-ments rt-ments 16 cokMoks. The last one that was issued vvn? published hy the hoard of vocatlni.ii er'catlon. This is a board organlzfd hy te congress for the purpose of rehabiii-iting crippled soldiers of the World war. o prevent, as far as possible, their beccti ng derelicts In life. ... It may be of interest to state that while the government has been issuing 16 cookbooks and consuming vast quantities of print paper In these and similar useless publications, publi-cations, 1,300 country tov.-n newspapers have suspended in the last three months because they could not secure print paper. Mr. Ueavis and a great many others have sensed the feeling In the country coun-try and in congress that the time has come to put an end to all this sort of thing. He gives reasons for his belief: One of the reasons is that the people demand that their taxation b4 reduced. For many years we have been collecting the revenues of this government through I systems of indirect taxation. The reve-i reve-i nues have, been collected through a protective pro-tective tariff and by excise taxation on Intoxicating liquors. Indirect taxation of ! tills kind prevents the people from reallz-I reallz-I ing fully just who Is paying the expenses of the government. There was a time : when the expenses of the government ; amounted to only 12 cents per capita per I year. Today the annual per capita ex-I ex-I pense exceeds $40. This tremendous ex-' ex-' pense has made it necessary to resort to : direct taxation, and the people have sud-; sud-; denly become painfully aware of who i pays the expenses of the government. I I am very certain that the elimination : of duplications and overlapping in the departments de-partments will result in the saving of millions of dollars. There is no reason why it should not be done. There is every reason, in the presence of the strife and turmoil that prevail in this country and of the unrest occasioned by the high cost of the necessaries of life, that the government should be put upon a sane, efficient and economical basis. Whoever by public clamor or other means can induce congress and the executive departments to organize the routine business of the national government gov-ernment will have performed a great public service. Note that I say "organize" "or-ganize" and not 'reorganize," for In no proper sense has the federal business busi-ness ever been organized. |
