THE LIGHTER SIDE WAIT! DON'T THROW THAT AWAY! BY DICK WEST - UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R000700050014-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: November 17, 1961
• Content Type: PREL

w - . Approved For Release 2006/08/10: CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700050014-3
THE LIGHTER SIDE WAIT! DON'T THROW THAT AWAY!
by Dick West - United Press International
Washington - The General Services Administration recently brought out a report
which serves to illuminate a deep-seated American trait. I refer to our national
reluctance to throw anything away.
Even as I write this, I can look about my desk and see stacks of literature
I have saved on the off chance that I might need it someday. Just now I extracted
a couple of papers for a random sample and this is what I found:
A newspaper clipping indicating that the first filibuster was staged
in 412 A.D. by the Visigoths and
A copy of the "GOP Victory Wheel" published at the onset of the recent
campaign.
At the moment, I can forsee no earthly need for this material and I cer-
tainly hope I never have an unearthly need for it. But there it is and there it
probably will remain.
I can appreciate, therefore, as I'm sure you can, the problem that the
General Services Administration is up against. The GSA has to collect, store
and process non-current records for the entire federal government. And it
can't throw any-thing away without permission of the originating agency.
In a report on its fiscal 1960 operations, the GSA revealed that it had
managed to discard, burn or otherwise destroy 416,106 cubic feet of old govern-
ment letters, receipts and other documents.
Let us pause and ponder this for a moment. I estimate the size of my living
room at about 5,000 cubic feet. Therefore, the GSA threw away enough papers
during the year to fill my living room some 138 times.
This would seem to indicate that the government is making some headway
in its neverending struggle to avoid being buried by a paperwork avalanche of
its own creation. But...
During this same fiscal year, the inventory of the 14 record warehouses
operated by the GSA increased by 623,944 cubic feet.
Thus, despite a record number of papers destroyed, the GSA continued to
lose ground. New papers piled up faster than it could get rid of the old ones.
At year's end, it had on hand 5,301,331 cubic feet of records, or enough to
fill my living room some 1,767 times.
Since 1950, the transfer of non-current records to the GSA has enabled the
agencies to clear 5,100,000 square feet of space by emptying nearly a half
million filing cabinets and a million linear feet of shelving.
It is safe to assume, however, that enough new stuff has been written,
Myp ed rimed and mi eaographed to keep the cabinets and shelves full. It is
$I'sl g.qSs. o assume some agencies have had to buy additional cabinets
MORI/CDF
Approved For Release 2006/08/10: CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700050014-3