| Show maxina MENAN A imm DAFFAS AT WASHINGTO INGTON national topics interpreted by WILLIAM BRUCKART washington in this so called modern civilization of ours when we are supposed to net network work keep pace with of spies progress every one of us is confronted every day with some sort of government regulation or restriction we are told what to do and what not to do and a good many politicians want to increase the number of things we are told to do included in this modern civilization is a perfect network of spies who bear official titles of one kind or another and probably the most insistent of these spies are the agents of government who look after taxes all of which is necessary because tax payers undoubtedly will dodge a little if they can get away with it the federal government has a good many thousands of them state governments have them and county and city governments maintain a veritable army of employees whose job it is to check up on taxpayers they do their job thoroughly make no mistake about that it if the taxpayer does not come through in accordance with the orders of the tax collectors there is plenty of punishment which brings us to the point of 01 and the reason for this discussion it sets the stage for the question if the government national state or local is so punctilious about tax collections the gathering in of peoples money why is it that government is not equally punctilious about the way the money is spent this question is very much to the forefront now it is a question of paramount importance because of a proposal for governmental reorganization which president roosevelt insists must be considered by the forthcoming session of congress the federal government must be reorganized the reason tor for this reorganization according to the presidents argument is that the present structure is inefficient wasteful and generally quite unwieldy it is to be granted I 1 think that much of the present federal governmental structure is inefficient wasteful and unwieldy throughout the government one will find various agencies charged with the same responsibilities doing things in opposite directions winding and binding red tape around the citizens until some of them scarcely can get a hand free to mark their ballots the whole thing needs a thorough going over but as I 1 see the picture this going over should be done with a view to making governmental machinery workable and rebuilding only where hastily conceived governmental ern mental agencies and functions have demonstrated that they are acting as a deterrent rather than an encouragement to the nation as a whole burr with I 1 have no quarrel el with mr roose boose velt concerning the need tor for changing some changes the governmental proposed machine I 1 have a very definite objection jec tion however to some of the changes he proposes I 1 object strenuously for example to his move to destroy the present setup tor for protection against improper spending ot of the taxpayers money specifically cill I 1 can see no possible excuse tor for mr Roosevel ts demand that the general accounting office be made subservient again to the whims of politicians by placing that agency under the control of a political appointee poin tee karnely canely nar nely the secretary of the treasury that is exactly what is proposed and if the presidents governmental reorganization program Is accepted by congress in its present form the president of the united states whether mr roosevelt or his successor again will be able to determine to a large laree meas ure how the taxpayers money is spent that may appear to be an exaggerated statement one may ask about them the constitutional provision which requires that all appropriations shall be made by congress this would seem to prevent executive mismanagement of the taxpayers money such however unfortunately tuna tely is not the case because we have had proof under president Roosevel ts administration what can be done when one political party has such complete control of the machinery ot of government congress appropriated billions true but had there been no general accounting office in existence I 1 doubt it if anyone could have even guessed atwould wh have happened to those vast sums ot of money there was plenty ot of waste plenty of use of money in ways that are distinctly questionable as it was your imagination is as good as mine concerning what might have happened it has been my privilege to watch operation of the federal government almost 20 years because of that thai experience I 1 think I 1 am able to say that I 1 am more bon conversant versant with the tricks to which politicians resort in getting money out of the treasury than persons who have not had an opportunity to study the government govern meni as it actually functions and because of that experience I 1 am going to make the unequivocal statement that unless congress mr Roosevel ts plan to destroy the curb on trick and illegal spending this nation and its citizens will pay tor for the folly in waste not now conceivable cei vable vabIe 0 a a someone might arise and say that my statement is unjustified because there was not such drain on a terrific drain on treasury the treasury before the general accounting office came into existence in 1921 my answer to that is that there was a tremendous drain on the treasury before 1921 when the accounting auditing ot of bills and checks was done by individual agencies of the government the difficulty is that except tor for war time agencies the cost of running the federal government before the general accounting office was established was only about one sev anth of what it Is now none of the federal agencies then in existence were as large then as they are now none had as much authority nor as great a scope of operations and the bulk of the new agencies have been born in legislation that is haphazard and undigested to say the least the older agencies of government have scores score 3 of workers who know how to handle their business regretfully it must be said that most of the new agencies are controlled by completely filled up with men who are unfamiliar with the gigantic problems their jobs entail public sentiment Is a thing difficult to understand for example millions of people became wrought up when president roosevelt sought to increase the membership of the supreme court of the united states by the addition of six judges of his own choosing they rightfully fought back against the destruction of our judicial system fighting words characterized the criticism of mr roosevelt and his new dealers who sought to break down the system of checks and balances created in our government by the founding fathers when they provided tor for executive legislative and judicial divisions of governmental authority so I 1 am wondering why thus tar far there has not been an outburst of vehement criticism of mr roose velt with reference to the proposed destruction of the check on spending I 1 am wondering too why people who complain so violently against spies in the form of tax in in should not demand ol of their government equal protection for the funds after they have been taken away from the taxpayers 0 there are two other oter agencies ol of the federal government which mr Roosevel ts beor two good p plan I 1 a n ones doomed will eventually destroy each has proved its worth each has a rec ord of service to the nation and protection tor for individual citizens that cannot be ignored I 1 refer to the interstate commerce commission commiss i on and the federal trade commission the has supervised the railroads nearly half a century it has compelled them to be fair when some individuals in the railroad industry were inclined to cheat or take advantage of an unorganized seg ment of the population sometimes there has been criticism of the commission tor for placing the railroads in a strait jacket but the good that the has done far outweighs any damages it has caused yet it is proposed in the presidents reorganization plan to take away the independence which has characterized the history of the op orations erat ions of this agency the dent wants to place aiace over the corn com mission a political appointee cespon sible only to the chief executive through all of the years I 1 have worked in washington there has been a never ending effort on the part of politicians to get their hands on the agency that controls the railroads it takes no stretch of the imagination to see what would happen it if the politicians were able to succeed in this direction I 1 am quite convinced that it if the is sub to the political philosophy of a presidential appointee every one of us who uses the railroads will be paying toll the toll will not go to the railroads but to the politicians with respect to the federal trade commission much the same can be bc said like the the trade corn com mission is quasi judicial it is an independent agency times annum bared it has stepped on crooked business and has forced business ol 01 this stripe to play the game within the regulations on occasion I 1 have criticized specific actions by the commission as lacking in eudicia ju dicia consideration by and large how ever I 1 think no one can say un qualifiedly i that the federal trade commission has failed to do its job in the interest of individual citizens which after all is what govern ment is supposed to do a 0 western newspaper union |
