WAR ON FILING CABINET CUTS PURCHASE 65 PCT.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R001000410001-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 16, 2014
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 17, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I
Declassified and Approved For Release e 50-Yr 2014/05/16: CIA-RDP70-00211R001000410001-6
.:''! ?
14-+
ar on Filing Cabinet
Cuts Purchase 65 Pct.
By Mike Caus6e
One of Uncle Sam's more
successful population control
programs has been the relent-
less, often dirty, war against
filing cabinets.
The war was
declared Per-
sonally by the
Commander-in-
Chief 22
months ago. .
The kill ratio
in the anti-cab-
inet campaign
has been won-
derful, officials
C ausey
say. It has ex-
ceeded even the wildest
dreams . of economy-minded
strategists.
Since the President's ban on
the purchase of unnecessary
file cabinets, the total num-
ber bought by the General
Service Administration for
Federal,- offices has plunged
65 per cent.
Although area commanders
caution against undue optim-
ism, it appears there ds no
longer much danger of file
cabinets outnumbering the
filers. A rough estimate or
...?...-"\-the cabinet population puts it
at around 2 million, which
compares favorably with the
2.7 million Federal workers.
The exciting story of the de-
cline of the file cabinet can
best be told with' figures. From
January, 1966,1 through Sep-
tember, 1966/GSA bought al-
?most 68,000/file cabinets, at a
cost of ,$.3.3 million. That
sounds like a lot, but it's a far
cry from the boom period that
preceded it, when nearly 128,-
000 cabinets joined the Gov-
ernment, at a cost of $9.7-mil-
lion.
In current Pentagon jargon,
that represents a "cost avoid-
ince,? in this case, about $6.4
million worth of avoidance. It
should mean there is also
more space for people in Gov-
ernment offices.
Economy wasn't the only
reason for the file cabinet
edict. Archive's Record Serv-
ice had complained that there
were too many old records
hanging around Federal agen-
cies. It suggested that they be
retired, destroyed, or sent to
records centers for microfilm-
ing. The easiest way to do it,
it was felt, was to stop letting
people have all the cabinets
they wanted to store away
junk they didn't need.
Some offices, however,
while adhering to the no-new-
cabinet order, have developed
other filing systems. These in-
clude paper bo and book-
z
less book cases.
Before it mo d to its new
headquarters, the Office of
Economic Opportunity even
had records and papers stack-
ed in bathtubs arid sinks in
several offices, which former-
ly had been hotel rooms. One
Health, Education and Wel-
fare employe reports that
whenever his office needs a
new filing cabinet, it . orders
a bookcase.
Now a new drive on excess
furniture, Operation Cleanup;
has been launched in Federal
agencies. GSA and employes
from the agencies concerned
are now walking. through of-
fices, determining which of-
fice has excess furniture that
can be returned to a central
pool. .
A similar drive, Operation
Hideout, has been launched by
some harasied clerks and sec-
retaries. They are trying to
hide, or justify, office furni-
ture they aren't using at this
very moment, but which they
are sure will come in handy at
some later time.
Hatch Act: Sens. Daniel
Brewster (D-Md.) and George
Murphy '(1t-Calif.) have been
named to the commission that
will study the Hatch "no poli-
tics" law covering Federal
workers. Reps. Arnold Olsen
(D-Mont.) and Ancher Nelsen
(R-Minn.) will represent the.
House on the 12-member com-
mission.
Robert Ramspeck, former
member of Congress and Civil
Service Commission chairman,
and Oscar 'Jones, professor of
political science at Arizona
State University, have been
named by the House as private
members of the commission.
The remaining six members
will be named by the Presi-
dent, and the Senate.
1
National Association of Gov-
ernment Employes has asked
the President to call Congress
back to enact a pay raise for
Federal workers. NAGE Pres-
ident Kenneth T. Lyons, says
Federal pay lags from 3 to 45
per cent behind private in-
dustry salary rates.
Willard, L. Johnson Jr., has
been named assistant adminis-
trator for admission by
GSA. He had worked for 'De-
fense and most recently was
director of the local office of
the Stanford Research Insti-
tute_
Declassified and Approved For Release
50-Yr 2014/05/16: CIA-RDP70-00211R001000410001-6
Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2014/05/16: CIA-RDP70-00211R001000410001-6
-0AANDUM
Continued From Page A-i
way down and closed, though
whether the slats should be
closed up or closed down the
mem0 doesn't say.
The antiwaste prong is much
longer, and was evidently
illustrated by a Johnson City
sixth grader. The theme is
"Your Office Home ? Take care
of it." It went out to 3,000 HEW
supervisors across the country.
The text explains, in gram-
mar that would make a Johnson
City sophomore blush: "In the
attachment there is depicted
numerous ways in which each
employe can help in keeping
government operating? costs
down."
Some of the numerous ways
depicted include:
"Walls ? Tacks and tape are
damaging. Do not soil with
pencil markings, handprints,
etc." One cartoon shows a truly
Bunyanesque thumb demolish-
ing a wall by tacking up a
calendar. The other drawing is
a panorama of improbable
doodlings, including a straw-
hatted stick figure labeled Peter
and a crooked tick - tack - toe
game containing six Os and
three Xs (which the Xs won!).
"Ventilation ? Keep windows
closed," is illustrated by what
appear to be a banana and two
American Eagle feathers float-
ing in an open window, under
which someone has unaccounta-
bly stacked a short kngth of
railroad track.
"Receptacles" is the real
puzzler, though. "Never empty
an ash tray in the wastebask-
et," it warns. When coupled
with "Floors ? Dispose of that
cigarette in the ash tray," this
policy has frustrated one local
supervisor to the point where he
circulated a facetious memo
speculating on what in the
world a heavy smoker is sup-
posed to do when his ash tray is
full.
"Until receptacles for this
purpose are provided, we see no
alternative to emptying ash
trays either a) on our desks, or
b) in our desk drawers," it
concludes.
There is another possibility, of
course. They can all empty
their ash trays into a large mail
sack and ship it over to the
White House with the daily load
of announcements. It probably
never would be noticed.
ECOe MY AND BEAUTY eple)
Tidy HEW Keeps It
By DAVID BRAATEN
Star Staff Writer
Somewhere in ' Johnson City,
Tex., a high school senior had
better start packing his bags.
Here - the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare
has liunched a two-pronged
attack on waste and ugliness ?
primary administration targets
? and nobody even thought to
put out a press release, much
less let the White House an-
nounce it.
This is just the sort of thing
the President had in mind the
other day when he threatened to
replace Executive Branch
public relations people with
young Jaress agents from the
Peden ,as.
Both prongs of the HEW
attack took the form of quietly.
;circulated memoranda, which is
hardly the Great Society man-
tier. The antiugliness prong was
issued Sept. 7 to all headquar-
jters personnel of the Food and
iDrug Administrat* on and is
442
uiet
HEW's Advice on Tidiness
titled "Placement of Venetian
Blinds."
"The Department has request-
ed out cooperation in making
further improvements in the
appearance of the buildings we
occupy to meet the objectives of
the President's BeautifjOtion
Program," it states. "As sug-
gested, one of the ways this can
be accomplished is by uniform
placement of venetian blinds
at the end of each working
day . . .
Proper placement is all the
See MEMORANDUM, Page A-3
Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2014/05/16: CIA-RDP70-00211R001000410001-6