National Affairs: Economy Lesson

When Joseph M. Dodge, a man firmly dedicated to pinching the taxpayers' pennies, took over the Budget Bureau last winter, he resolved to curb an old Washington custom: at the approach of June 30, the end of a fiscal year, agencies with unspent appropriations on their books invariably went on buying sprees. Dodge announced that the bureau would subject June accounts to hawk-eyed scrutiny. Last week Dodge & Co. reported that, while the warnings had been "generally effective," the bureau had detected $1,100,000 worth of "excessive June buying." Instead of just issuing more warnings, Dodge gave the spenders a stern lesson in economy: "In every account where such purchasing was found, the bureau [trimmed funds for the current year] by an equal amount."