THE WASHINGTON POST BUSINESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R000500170008-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 18, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

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IRS Held Worst Offender
House Unit to Seed Paperwork Cut
By Larry Weekley
Washington Post Staff Writer
A House committee is ex-
pected to issue a report this
week, calling for major re-
forms in Federal paperwork
imposed on business.
Never before has the
Government tried to assess
the cost to businessmen of
making reports, filling out
forms and answering surveys
for the Government.
Prentice-Hall Inc., the busi-
ness advisory service, said
Rep. Arnold Olsen (D-Mont.)
has given the following pre-
view of the report. Olsen was
chairman of the House Sub-
committee on Census and
Government Statistics in the
88th Congress.
The quarterly employe earn-
ings report for Social Security
will be replaced by a yearly
report. This quarterly report
was found to be the single
most burdensome report for
small businessmen.
Businessmen will be able to
tell which Government forms
must be filled out and which
are voluntary. Many agencies
in the past have used a gim-
mick of stating at the head of
a questionnaire the words,
"Required by Law," when this
was a very broad reading of
the law.
All forms sent out or spon-
sored by the Government will
have to be cleared with a cen-
tral paperwork clearinghouse
at the Bureau of the Budget
in the Executive Office of the
President. Although agencies
are required to do this now,
many have not complied. This
also would cover information-
gathering by State or local
governments with Federal
funds or by universities and
contractors making studies for
the Government.
The IRS will be asked to
set up a studly group to assess
the time and cost to business
of filling out IRS forms. Con-
gress may be asked to take
action to require the IRS to
simplify its reports from busi-
ness.
A special industry commit-
tee in the Commerce Depart-
ment studying the paperwork
problem in foreign trade will
be strengthened. Paperwork
for foreign trade was found
by the committee to be partic-
ularly onerous.
Reporting activities of Fed-
eral regulaotry agencies will
come under closer scrutiny.
The committee would like to
see "fishing expeditions" of
some of the agencies cur-
tailed.
Congress may keep closer
check on the paperwork prob-
lem in the future by making
specific appropriations for
any surveys of business.
The Government will study
new ways to reduce the re-
porting burden of small busi-
ness.
Prentice-Hall quoted Rep.
Olsen as saying that last year
the Government printed 21/z
billion public-use forms - 12
for every person in the Na-
tion. A billion of those were
for the Treasury Department
alone, and the committee
found the Internal Revenue
Service to be the worst of-
fender.
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Johnson
Federal Furniture Frozen 0
biets
'loses on Filing Ca
Case
By Laurence Stern
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Great Society may
create affluence in the land
but poverty in Government
offices.
This is the unmistakable
import of President John-
e I son's latest call for a "mor-
atorium" on filing cabinets
r in the Federal bureaus
t across the Nation.
e' Mr. Johnson's war on the
s file case was declared quiet-
- ly on Wednesday during the
ei announcement of plans for
i his newest messages on
s arms control, n&tional de-
fense and foreign aid.
This latest engagement
supplements the President's
various campaigns against
proliferation of Government
questionnaires and reports
and the lighting of light
bulbs.
It was launched with the
advice and consent of
Acting General Services
Administrator Lawson B.
Knott Jr., the supreme
commander of offices and
supplies for the Govern-
ment's white-collar brigades.
Here are the dimensions
of the crisis that might be
called the Filing Case
Explosion: Government now
owns about two million of
them-roughly 1.5 file cab-
inets for each Federal em-
ploye. Uncle Sam has been
buying them at the rate of
100,000 a year at an average
unit cost of $50.
Against this background
the President wrote Knott:
"I agree with your recom-
mendation that we declare
a moratorium on the pur-
chase of new file cases for
use in the fifty states and
the District of Columbia.
"For the duration of this
moratorium, agencies will
meet their current need for
file cases by accelerated
disposal of old records
either by destruction or by
transfer to Federal Records
Centers."
One loophole not covered
by the President's m o r a -
t o r i u m are U.S. Offices
abroad. There problems of
cost and logistics make it
more practical to replace
than repair.
The foray behind the car-
bon paper curtain would also
apply the economy blitz to
many traditional symbols of
bureaucratic caste: the rug.-
on the floor that s p e 11 s
s-t-a-t-u-s, the splendiferous
executive desk and the
souped-up electric type-
writer.
"Federal agencies are
spending approximately $60
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million annually for new of-
fice furniture, file cabinets
and typewriters," the. Presi-
dent pointedly observed.
In his best Scotch uncle
maner Mr. Johnson is now
admonishing the bureaus to
repair instead of replace
official equipment and de-
stroy rather thann store old
records.
By following this prescrip-
tion the President thinks the
Federal Government can
save at least $5 million an-
n u a l l y This presumably
could be invested in the War
on Poverty, the War on Ugli-
ness, the War on Ignorance
and the War on Sickness.
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The Problem of Tw'o Million Federal
By ROBERT WALTERS
Star Staff Writer
They give bureaucrats a feeling
of accomplishment, overwhelm
visitors from the outlands and offer
refuge to bashful secretaries trying
to straighten their stockings.
They line the marble corridors at
the Justice Department, are built
into the walls of the new Rayburn
House Office Building, and once
were stashed in abandoned bath-
rooms in the poverty program's
first home.
Once as solidly entrenched as the
Rock of Gibraltar, the ubiquitous
filing cabinet appears to have met
the same fate as the burning White
House light bulb. President John-
son has decreed it to be passe.
Could Save $5 Million
In the name of economy, Johnson
last month told Lawson G. Knott
Jr., acting administrator of the
General Services Administration,
that the government could save at
least $5 million yearly by declaring
a moratorium on the purchase of
all filing cabinets.
"The GSA is authorized to fill
requirements for file cases which
cannot be met by records disposal
under an austere standard of issue
from inventories of excess file
cases and current warehouse
stocks," Johnson said.
"While this saving may appear
modest in relation to the over-all
costs of government, it represents
the kind of managerial prudence
which can save us much larger
sums if applied to all aspects of
government operations," the
President added.
Some in Archives
If the sheer size of the problem
is a reliable indicator, the Presi-
dent may meet with success in
Viet Nam long before he wins the
battle of the filing cabinet.
According to John E. Byrne,
GSA information director, there
are approximately 25 million cubic
feet of records stored in federal
filing cabinets.
About 16 million cubic feet are in
the hands of federal agencies
which claim they are necessary
current records, while the remain-
ing 9 million are being stored by
the GSA.
Filing cabinets line a corridor in the Department of Justice Building.-Star Stott Photo.
Of that 9 million, 1 million are
classified as "enduring, 'permanent
records with historical interest"
and are stored in the National
Archives.
Alexandria Warehouse Used
The remaining 8 million cannot
be thrown out because some day
somebody might need them, but
they are inactive files, stored in 15
Federal Records Centers around
the country.
"The rule of thumb is that if a
file drawer is opened less than
once a month or if the records are
more than four years old, they can
be transferred to a Records Cen-
ter," Byrne explained. "But that's
only a general rule and each
agency must tailor standards to its
own needs"
In the Washington area, an
abandoned warehouse near the
Alexandria waterfront serves as a
records depository, with files
stacked from m floor t ~o Cc il:uungrt. A
backup facility is located in the
Franconia area of Fairfax County
and a new center is to be opened in
Suitland, Prince Georges County,
Md.
The Records Centers were
opened in the early 1950's as an
economy move, . Byrne explained.
To store one cubic foot of files
there, the government pays an
average of 28 cents yearly.
Bought 100,000 a Year
A cubic foot of records in a
downtown office building, with high
rent and maintenance expenses,
costs the government $3.77 annual-
ly, he added.
There are approximately two
million federal filing cabinets,
most of them with two or five
drawers. Until Jan. 13, when the
President called a halt to the
process, the government was
buying an estimated 100,000 a year.
Because of the size of its opera-
tion, the Department of Defense
probably uses more filing cabinets
than any other federal agency. In
response to an earlier call for
excess filing cases, the Army alone
found 3.500 spares.
The Records Centers are but one
effort being made to cut down on
the number of filing cabinets used
in downtown buildings. Last year,
iJ1DAY ST (D.C.} 7 Feb 65
CabineTs
the government turned out 6,468
rolls of microfilmed records, which
take up far less space than the
originals.
Microfilm Also Involved
But scientists have yet to solve
the problem of deterioration which
has plagued early microfilm
attempts, and last year the GSA
ordered that originals of all micro-
filmed records must be retained
until a solution to the problem is
found.
The result: Agencies now need
space to store not only the origi-
nals but also the microfilm.
Agencies such as the Internal
Revenue Service and the Social
Security Administration, which
must maintain records for virtually
all of the country's 190 million'
citizens, have turned increasingly
to punch cards, magnetic tape and
other electronic means of records
storage.
But another facet of the problem,
according to Byrne, is that filing
cabinets are frequently misused,
serving as a repository for every-
thing from carbon paper to em-
ploye lunches.
Rep. Arnold Olsen, D-Mont., a
foe of excess federal paper work,
has taken another approach to the
problem, claiming that the Presi-
dent's order "is to lock the barn
door after the horse has been
stolen."
'Old Forms Never Die'
According to Olsen, the problem
is not the cabinets themselves, but
what goes into them. Federal
agencies now require one billion
reports each year, or five for every
person in the U.S., he said last
month.
In fiscal 1964-65, the Government
Printing Office turned out more
than 2.25 billion public use forms
for federal agencies, added Olsen,
whose House Census and Statistics'
Subcommittee has been investigat-
ing excess government paper work.
"Old forms never die, nor do
they fade away. They outlast their
author, their recipient and, in most
cases, their purposes," Olsen said,
citing figures to show that last
February more than 13,000 federal
employes were at work "in the
vineyard of. government records,
reports, statistics and other paper
work."
'Olsen said that stored some-
where in federal filing cabinets,
were at least 40 billion pieces of
paper, all of them being shuffled,
reproduced or ignored at a cost of more than $6 billion yearly.
To prove his point, the GSA
issued a five-page detailed memo-
randum on how the White House
filing cabinet decision was to be
implemented by each agency. It
presumably was filed in scores of
cabinets all over Washington.
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there could be improvements in the
U.N. Charter.
To adopt the De Gaulle suggestion,
however, would lead' to more rather
than less trouble. He urges a conference
composed of representatives of France,
Britain, the United States, Russia and
Red China. Why Red China? Peking
still is technically at war in Korea with
what remains of the U.N. army there
-a war of aggression which began
almost 15 years ago. The Red Chinese
continue to threaten the use of force
to achieve their aims in Asia. Whether
with the United Nations could be
remedied without any conference if
the major nations, France and Russia
particularly, had a genuine interest in
reform. But there is precious little
evidence of this, especially in the matter
of Russia's veto-veto-veto performance
in the Security Council.
General de Gaulle is quite aware
of this fact and his five-power pro-
posal, consequently, is highly suspect.
He is cooking up a fish fry for his own
purposes, and the United States would
be well advised to decline the invitation.
Drop in Production
Some years ago, the late Pat Frank
fashioned a best-selling novel, "Mr.
Adam," from a situation which began
with a newspaperman discovering an
inexplicable drop in big-city birth rates.
The burden of that fantasy was that al-
most all the males in the country had
become sterile.
Nothing of the sort, we venture to
guess, is involved in the fall-off in Chi-
cago, where births among a stable
population have dropped about 17 per-
cent since 1959, from 98,144 births that
year to an estimated 82,000 in 1964. And
just to be sure, we checked our own city
health officer.
Well, the fact is that the figures for
1964 in Washington are not in yet.
According to Dr. Murray Grant, how-
ever, the District had 19,967 births in
1959, and 19,845 in 1963. Just about
even. And just about what everyone
expected.
The Chicago experience was not
expected at all. It has touched off a
lively debate. Donald J. Bogue, of the
University of Chicago's Community and
Family Study Center, says "the in-
creased use of family planning is un-
mistakably the reason." And the head
of Chicago's birth-control organization
concurs, pointing out, in fact, that her
group gave birth-control devices last
year to 16,000 people-just about the
number of the decline in births. Chi-
cago's health commissioner, however,
says there is "no complete answer to
the riddle," but "a multipilicity of fac-
tors that needs more study."
Dr. Grant says that quite a sub-
stantial "statistical study" has been
built into the District's fledgling birth-
control program, in order, after five
years or so, to be able to answer pre-
cisely the sort of questions now creating
all the fuss in Chicago. We're glad to
hear It.
And while you are about it. Dr.
Grant, let's push along those birth
figures for 1964. Just in case.
Dropout Repeaters
The fact that 188 of the 509 drop-
outs lured back to District high schools
last fall have again left school is of
course disappointing. But not surprising.
Indeed, the nearly 65 percent of the re-
turnees who are still in the classroom
constitute an excellent record, which
fully justifies the extraordinary efforts
which were made in their behalf by paid
and voluntary workers last summer.
Nor, in fact, is this necessarily the
end of the road for the 188. With funds
available through the aid to federally-
impacted areas program, Superintend-
ent Hansen intends to establish a spe-
cial evening-hours "dropout school" to
give them yet another chance. The cur-
riculum will be oriented to job-training
more closely than in the normal class-
room.
Not all of them, of course, will make
it-even in a class tailored specifically
to their abilities and needs. And there is
a limit to what can be done. But at least
this last effort to salvage as many as
possible must be made. The cost to soci-
ety in terms of unproductive citizens is
simply too great to give up.
Winston Churchill became the
living link uniting his moth-
er's land with his in the grand
alliance which at last made
tyranny not only tremble, but
ignominiously tumble! To be
sure the horror of Pearl
Harbor cemented the union
which alone could say "They
greatest pleasure that the
statue should. stand 9n both
American and British soil and
I feel that it will rest happily
and securely on both feet."
And, before many more
months have passed it will
rest securely, even as he
stood, on both feet when all
FROM THE STAR FILES
cried, "Here am I, send me!"
And when the very ground
trembled beneath men's feet
as if ah that seemed so firm
was to be shattered, there was
a man sent from God whose
name was Churchill, who, in a
storm-swept world stood
securely on both feet.
North-South Peace Talks Fruitless
100 Years Ago
A peace conference between
the North and South, with
President Lincoln and Alex-
ander Stephens, vice Prdsi-
dent of the Confederacy, being
the principals, was held at
Hampton Roads on February
3, 1865. The delegations met
aboard the Union transport
River Queen, but the talks
settled nothing. Lincoln's
terms stressed three things:
Reunion of the states, no
backing down on emancipa-
tion and no cessation of
hostilities short of an end of
the war and the disbanding of
forces hostile to the Federal
Government. The Star of
February 2, 1865, reported in
an "Extra": "Today at 11
o'clock President Lincoln left
Washington by special train
for Annapolis for the purpose,
it is understood, to join
Secretary Seward at Fortress
Monroe or City Point to hold
an interview with the rebel
`deputation', Messrs. A. H.
Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter and
John A. Campbell ...... The
following day: "Fortress
Monroe, Feb. 3: Alexander H.
Stephens and several others of
the peace commissioners
arrived here this afternoon
from City Point on Gen.
Grant's special dispatch
steamer, Mary Martin.
Secretary Seward was there
in the steamer River Queen
awaiting their arrival, im-
mediately upon which both
vessels proceeded to an
anchorage . . . side by side.
... " The Star said Richmond
papers "make frantic appeals
to the Confederate people not
to listen to any terms of com-
W
promise short of Confederate
independence. . . ." In an-
other "Extra" on February
4, 1865, this paper stated:
"The President and Secretary
of State arrived back this
morning from Fortress Mon-
r o e . . . . The conference
occupied four hours and
resulted in no change of the
attitude either of the Govern-
ment or of the rebels...."
Commenting on the fruitless
meeting The Star observed:
"T h e President. . . . has
afforded to the country the
best evidence of his diposi-
tion to do all that may be done
consistent with the national
honor to put a stop to the
further effusion of
blood.... The rebels, or
their leaders at least, are not
yet prepared to accept the
only terms we can offer, i.e.,
to lay down their arms and
return to the Union. It is well
that the mask has been thus
effectually stripped from the
face of these assumed peace
commissioners. All parties
here will now recognize that
there is to be no peace short
of fighting the thing squarely
through. While Lee's army
remains intact at Richmond
there can be no peace worth
having. So, push on the
column! Forward Peace
Commissioners Grant and
Sherman." The Star of
February 6, 1866, added: "No
details have been made known
(about the conference) nor is
it probable that they will
transpire, the President and
Secretary Seward being the
only parties present on our
side, and the conference being
entirely informal, more in the
character of a general
conversation . . . than a
grave diplomatic discussion."
50 Years Ago
Work on the Arlington
Cemetery Amphitheater was
about to start. The Star of
Feb. 5, 1915, revealed. Con-
gress had appropriated $250,-
000 for the project and limited
its cost to $750,000. It was first
planned to include a crypt for
interment of distinguished
public figures, such as done in
Westminster Abbey, but this
idea was abandoned.
The British Cunard liner
Lusitania safely crossed the
Atlantic, from New York to
Liverpool, on Feb. 6, 1915. The
Star reported the U. S. flag
had been flown in place of the
Union Jack to make German
U-boats and warships think
the liner was a neutral vessel.
Names in lights at local
theaters 50 years ago: Mary
Pickford in "Mistress Nell,"
at the Garden; Annette
Kellerman, "The Perfect
Woman," at the National;
Evelyn Nesbit in "Sensational
and Catchy Songs," at
Keith's; William Hodge in
"The Road to Happiness," at
the Belasco.
'Those U.N. Dues'
SIR: Regarding your editorial, "Those U.N. hues,"
there has been a concerted effort by certain elements
throughout the world to lead people to believe that,
this is a "deadlock between the United States and the
delinquent countries," when in reality it is a dispute
between the United Nations Charter and the delinquent
nations.
If the course of appeasement you suggest were fol-
lowed it could only result in contempt for the U.N.'s
failure to live up to its own charter. This same course
of appeasement and abrogation of their own charter
in a time of crisis in 1935 led to the ultimate failure
of the League of Nations.
All of these delinquent countries agreed to abide by
this charter when they accepted membership. Are we
to believe that each time a country finds it contrary to
their own interest to abide by the charter that the
charter must be changed?
Any kind of a "package deal" that would undermine
the U.N. charter can only lead to disastrous results
for the U.N.
'The Lonely War'
SIR: As I read Richard Critchfield's article, "The
Lonely War," in The Sunday Star, it became obvious
that something is quite wrong with the way America is
treating its own men in South Viet Nam.
American building materials are being made avail-
able to the Vietnamese to construct a marketplace, yet
are denied to troops who want barracks instead of
shacks to live in.
An AID man is quoted as saying, "A military man
is a military man and likes to look after his own....
Our main job is to show the villagers their government
is doing something for them."
How about showing the American GI that his gov-
ernment is doing something for him? Let's start look-
ing out for our own.
Strip-Mining in Maryland
SIR: This is in regard to the proposal to strip-mine
in Maryland's Savage River State Forest. I had been
under the impression that this proposal had been turned
down-or at least tabled. However, I've just received
a letter from the Maryland Board of Public Works
which indicates that this appalling idea is still under
consideration. As indicated, in the letter, a hearing is
scheduled before the Commission on Forests and Parks
on February 9.
Keep the public informed on this potential atrocity.
It seems unbelievable that Gov. Tawes would tolerate
strip-mining on state lands, which have been set aside
for public purposes; and it is completely unbelievable
that the operators will, as the Board of Public Works
intimates, do an adequate job of returning the land to
its natural beauty.
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14sshingtc+n Star Jan 1965
THE FEDERAL
sDorLrr.HT
By jOSFpn YOUNG
star Staff Writer
cl,arrnly critical House
ShOCK HouP ~ AciencieS , . ___ ? .,..ronricfc
~lrn^a?
Reports Required Anyuann
;~`
BSI
agencies require one . billion
rrepb'rts each year or five for
every person in the United
ttaates.
.t'rhe paperwork situation in
kederal agencies is far worse
n '(n 1%7han
ipla 1 1L wau - d --__Co-
he second Hoover mmission's
urged that the agencies cut
+down on unnecessary and
xce'ssive paperwork," said.
Arnold Olsen, D-Mont.,`
n of the House civil
r
ma
chai
ati
gating government reports and
gating
paperwork.
is obvious that a major l
ov thaul of the entire federal
reporting system is indicated,"
he declared. "What's good in;
the `system should be retained
ancimproved. What's useless or
excessive should go-and fast."
Qlsen referred to President
Jol~n son's action last week in
orring the General Services
Adreinistration to cut down or,
abinets
il
.
e c
pur> teases of f
The Montanan commented'
"We all support the President's
efforts to cut down on waste and
inefficiency in federal agencies,,
but -to cut down on the number
of file cabinets is to lock the
barn door after the horse has
beef Stolen."
Qisen said his subcommittee
wds "genuinely shocked" when'
it 1 arned about the paperwork
regtrements inflicted oni
business, industry and the
public by federal agencies.
Internal Revenue Service.
accounts for one-half of all.
federal reports. Other major
federal paperwork agencies
cited. by the House group art
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The Washington Star
Jan 1965
Buying of File Cases
Johnson Acts to Halt
MORATORIUM DECLARED
Glared a moratorium on buying
new file cases for government
offices in an effort to. trim the
$60 million federal agencies have
been spending anhually for new
office furniture and equipment.
-In addition, the President has
ordered efforts to reduce new
purchases of typewriters and
desks by repairing old ones.
To keep from buying new file
cases, Johnson told the agencies
to accelerate disposal of, old
records, by destruction or
b trans federal records
ers
He outlined the measures
designed to save at least $5
million a year in a letter to
Lawson B. Knott Jr., acting
administrator of the General
Services Administratb n. The
White House made the letter
public last night.
which cannot be met by rec-
ords disposal under an austere
standard of issue from invento-
ries of excess file cases and
current warehouse stocks."
Speaking of office furniture,
typewriters and file cabinets
generally, the President said "it
is particularly important to
obtain as much equipment as
possible through timely declara-
tions of excess property for
prompt redistribution."
While the savings to be
achieved in this way "may
overall cost of the government,"
the President said, "it rep-
resents the kind of managerial
prudence which can save us
much larger sums if applied to
all aspects of government
operations."
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rr `'There'so Ryon To File This white House
Order Prohibiting Filing Cabinet Purchases ... "
Q
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