23
NEW SPENDING SPREE
O N THE WAY
From Good Government
It is in state and local government
that special watchfulness is in order.
The recent report of the National Civil
Service League warns that the number
of employees in these governments,
which decreased 3
p6r cent since
Pearl Harbor, will increase substan
tially as new public projects are under
taken on an enlarged scale after the
war. In a great many instances unfilled
vacancies will be filled whether or not
they need to be.
" It is estimated,” says the report,
"that the total number of employees
in all branches of government five years
after the war may approximate five
million, with an annual payroll of eight
billion dollars.”
"Predatory political machines,” the
report warns, "will be tempted to use
a large part of these five million public
places for partisan patronage, and all
the more so if opportunities for em
ployment lessen in private enterprise.”
This is putting it mildly. Predatory
political machines already are tempted,
are now wasting public funds in prodig
ious quantities to "take care of” friends
and relatives, and have ever-present
plans to use every situation for their
selfish advantage.
Many comparatively well informed
persons are prone to believe that the
appetite for political spoils has dimin
ished, and they cite the impressive
spread of the merit system in civil ser
vice, the council-manager plan, the
career ideal in public service and simi
lar specifics. Unfortunately, it just isn’t
so. The truth is that there is widespread
evidence of the shameless misuse of
public funds. It is done more artfully
than in "the bad old days” and the
political bosses don’t talk out of the
corners of their mouths any more. A
great many of them have graduated
from college instead of the corner
saloon.
No less an authority on state govern
ment than A. E. Buck of the Institute
of Public Administration contends
that "political jobbery is still rampant
in more than half of the states” and
(Continued on Page 24)
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