the subject with a view to making new recommendations thereon, I have the honor to send you herewith an additional report of the board on this subject. ROBERT SHAW OLIVER, Assistant Secretary of War. Very respectfully, REPORT NO. 18. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 13, 1912. The SECRETARY OF WAR. SIR: With reference to the letter dated February 5, 1912, from Dr. F. A. Cleveland, chairman President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency, in which Dr. Cleveland says that the President's commission fears that the War Department board's noncurrence in the recommendation of the commission on the subject of travel expenditures is due to a misapprehension of its purport, and requests that the War Department board reconsider the subject with a view to making new recommendations thereon, the board, after careful consideration, has the honor to report as follows: When the board made its former report on this subject (see Rept. No. 17 of the War Department board dated Jan. 19, 1912), the board understood the recommendations of the commission to be: (a) That only actual traveling expenses shall be allowed; (b) That actual traveling expenses will be divided into (1) cost of transportation, including sleeping car and parlor car fares, (2) subsistence and other authorized expenditures; (c) That cost of subsistence and other authorized expenditures will be covered by a per diem allowance to be prescribed by the President; and (d) That all expenditures whether for transportation, sleeping-car and parlor-car fares, subsistence, or other authorized purposes would be accounted for by items, the majority of which would be covered by vouchers. (See Exhibit 3 E, of the commission's report on travel expenditures, Dec., 1911.) From Dr. Cleveland's letter of February 5, above referred to, and from other information obtained by telephonic interview with Dr. Cleveland, the board has learned that all of its original premises are correct, excepting (d). A correct statement of this premise, as the board now understands it, is: (d) All expenditures for transportation, including sleeping-car and parlor-car fares, will be accounted for by items; other expenditures will not be accounted for, but will be covered by a per diem allowance, and no item of expenditure will be accompanied by vouchers. The effect of this change is to substitute for the present "mileage" system a system of "actual expenses" for transportation, including sleeping-car and parlor-car fares, with a per diem allowance to cover all other authorized expenditures. In practice this system would be practically as simple, so far as the accounting and auditing officers are concerned, as the present system, and would probably necessitate only a trifling, if any, increase in the work of the offices of the Paymaster General and the Auditor for the War Department, and the cause for objection, on this score, to the proposed system is fairly well eliminated. The effect of the proposed change would be a substitute for an allowance now called "mileage," and fixed by Congress, which covers all expenses connected with travel, a per diem allowance to be fixed by the President, which will cover but a part of the expenses incident to travel. The board is of the opinion that the substitution of one fixed allowance for another would not result in the economy evidently expected of it. Moreover, there is no assurance that Congress would look with favor upon a proposition to delegate to the President the power to fix an allowance which has been fixed by Congress in the past. So far as this board is advised, the present mileage system is giving satisfaction both to the auditing officers and to the officers performing the travel. Considering that no evidence has been presented to show with any degree of certainty that any economy would be efected by the new method, that the proposed change would necessitate submitting the entire question to the consideration of Congress, and that, in the opinion of the board, the action of Congress in the matter is not likely to be favorable, the board believes that the probability that the final outcome would be an improvement over the present system is too small to warrant the change. In view of these opinions, the board therefore adheres to its recommendations as expressed in its report No. 17, previously forwarded to the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency. Very respectfully, F. L. AINSWORTH, Major General, U. S. Army, President, The Adjutant General. E. A. GARLINGTON, Brigadier General, U. S. Army, Member, The Inspector General. W. W. WOTHERSPOON (absent), Brigadier General, U. S. Army, Member. Assistant and Chief Clerk, War Dept., Member. MATTHEW E. HANNA, Captain, General Staff Corps, Member and Recorder. The PRESIDENT, White House. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 24, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to send you herewith the report of the War Department Board on Business Methods, on the subject of traveling expenses, referred to in my letter of January 30, 1912. Very respectfully, ROBERT SHAW OLIVER, The SECRETARY OF WAR. REPORT No. 19. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 21, 1912. SIR: Complying with the instructions of the Secretary of War contained in memorandum from the office of the Chief of Staff, dated January 29, 1912, the War Department Board on Business Methods has the honor to submit the following, concerning the advisability of continuing to pay the civilian employees of the War Department "actual expenses' "in lieu of "mileage" for journeys performed incident to the public service: One of the objections of the "actual expenses" system as compared with the mileage" system, is the great amount of additional labor imposed by it upon disbursing officers of the department and also upon the auditor; and while the payment of "actual expenses" to civilians is open to objection on that score, the objection is much less serious than it would be in case of payment of "actual expenses' to officers, as it appears that the expenditures for the travel of officers in 1910 was nearly three times as great as for civilian employees. However, it is thought that great weight should be attached to the following conditions which differentiate the travel of officers from that of civilian employees: Civilian employees rarely change station permanently, and the travel performed by them is generally in connection with periodical trips of inspection or with going to and returning from stations where they are assigned for temporary duty. The journeys are frequently broken by stop-overs en route and necessitate expenses for subsistence out of proportion to the distance traveled. As a consequence, a mileage allowance in lieu of all expenses connected with the travel, even at the rate now prescribed for officers of the Army, would very often result in hardship and injustice to the employee. The present system gives satisfaction to the employee and appears to be a more equitable method of covering expenses incident to this class of travel than would the "mileage" system. In view of the above, the board is of the opinion that it is preferable to retain the system of "actual expenses" to govern this class of travel so far as this department is concerned. Very respectfully, E. A. GARLINGTON, JOHN C. SCOFIELD, Assistant and Chief Clerk, War Dept., Member. APPENDIX No. 7 MEMORANDUM OF CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GOVERNMENT, TOGETHER WITH AND MAILING LETTERS, ETC. 515 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Pago. 2. Recommendations..... 3. Plan of the inquiry. 1. Introduction-definition and scope of the subject... (a) Study of methods in outside concerns.. (b) Study of methods in branches of the Government service. 4. Considerations underlying recommendations made.. (b) Briefing.... (c) Subjective classification of correspondence. (2) Monetary saving possible... (d) Registers of correspondence. (e) The press copy versus the carbon copy. 519 519 520 521 522 522 527 527 528 528 528 529 531 531 532 The dictation machine.... 534 Report of test of dictation machine in Post Office Department.. 542 544 3 F. Report of Treasury Department committee 546 4 F. Report of Department of Agriculture committee.. 547 5 F. Report of Post Office Department committee... 548 6 F. Report of Department of Interior committee 7 F. Report of Department of Commerce and Labor committee. 516 548 551 |