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Show NEED FOR UNITED EFFORT To win this war we must have unity of effort. "The do-as-I-tell-you-not-as-I-do" attitude will never mobilize mo-bilize national power or bring speedy victory. This need for united effort was emphasized by the President in his recent call for a 40 per cent reduction reduc-tion in the use of government automobiles. auto-mobiles. Take the use of tires and gasoline by various federal agencies. agen-cies. A report of the Joint Committee Com-mittee on Reduction of Non-Essen-tial Federal Expenditures says: "Despite the growing automobile crisis, both in tires and gasoline, the investigation of the committee indicates indi-cates that for the first four months of the present fiscal year the various agencies of the government, exclusive exclu-sive of the Army and Navy, continued con-tinued for the most part to use as many passenger cars, to drive as many miles, and to consume about as much gasoline as did these agencies agen-cies in a comparable period of the previous year, notwithstanding the efforts of the government to reduce the consumption of gasoline and conserve con-serve rubber. Same Standard for All "The committee believes that the same standard of strictly essential driving should be applicable to government gov-ernment employees as now applies to individual citizens." The committee gives figures upon which its conclusions are based. In the last fiscal year the government govern-ment owned 17,305 passenger automobiles, auto-mobiles, exclusive of the Army and Navy and exclusive of trucks and motorcycles. It now owns 18,953 passenger automobiles. In the last fiscal year the cost of operating these automobiles was $4,243,602. According to the use of the first four months of the present year the cost will be $3,924,069. In the last fiscal year these government-owned cars traveled 203,550,280 miles. According to the first four months of this year, government-owned government-owned cars will travel, this fiscal year, 199,830,930 miles and consume 12,853,533 gallons of gasoline. The report also quotes from a statement of the Director of the Budget, indicating that "until now government cars have had an average aver-age of six and one-half tires each." The Committee's finding "that the same standard of strictly essential driving" should apply to government employes as is applied to individual individu-al citizens is too downright sensible to require discussion. Why More Payrollers? Another example of the need for united effort is found in the problem before Congress as to whether excessive ex-cessive profits qn war contracts require re-quire new bureaus and additional payrollers or whether the Department Depart-ment of Internal Revenue can do the job. The average citizen struggling with high taxes and a shortage of manpower answers: If necessary, amend the Internal Revenue Act for this purpose. To win the war we must spend money and use materials wisely. We have enough manpower to do our essential jobs, but we have neither the manpower nor the taxes to hire special payrollers to do work that can be done better by established agencies. t |