One Way to Save Money

BOARDS & BUREAUS

Like a worried householder, the U.S. Government has often shaken its head and clucked over the cost of its housekeeping. But it has rarely done anything about it. One of the prime reasons is patronage; efficiency and economy would save money, but they would also cost votes. If the U.S. is going to spend more on its neighbors abroad, however, it must economize at home. The U.S. is now getting the first chapters of the most comprehensive guidebook in its history on how to streamline operations and save money.

For 14 months, a bipartisan commission, created by Congress, has been tracking down waste and inefficiency in the executive department. It has been a journey through organizational chaos for 24 teams of experts. The commission's chief is Herbert Hoover, whose administration somehow got along on $4 billion a year (now it takes $43 billion) and with about 604,000 civilian employees (now there are more than 2,000,000).

Far too fast for efficiency, the U.S. Government has expanded into a complex array of domestic and worldwide activities. It now sprawls out in 23 departments, 104 bureaus, 460 offices, 631 divisions, 40 boards. Over the globe it owns more than 5,000 buildings (139 in Washington alone) and more than 1,000,000 motor vehicles, worth about $2 billion. Its records would fill six buildings the size of the Pentagon. Overlapping and duplication of effort abound. Example: a Columbia River salmon, swimming upstream to spawn, comes under the jurisdiction of twelve different federal agencies concerned with fish and wildlife.

Last week, 74-year-old Herbert Hoover emerged from this governmental jungle to give Harry Truman a preliminary report at the White House. He had a number of recommendations. Shedding of unnecessary red tape on small Government purchases could save $250 million a year. It now costs $11.20 to process an order for a $10 purchase. Perhaps $3 billion could be saved by regrouping 60 administrative agencies into about 15.

Harry Truman gave his blessing to the reorganization plan; he would be glad to save the people's money and his own time. But the big test on establishing efficiency and economy lay not with the President but with Congress. Early in January, the Hoover Commission would make its full report. Most of the proposed changes would require congressional approval. Thousands of jobs would be wiped out. It remained to be seen how far politicians would go to save money.

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