New-York tribune., 1908-02-12
REFORMS BY GARFIELD.
Secretary Making Many Changes IN
Department of the interior.
IFrom The Tribune Bureau.J

Washington, Feb 1.-THE Secretary Of the
Interior told the subcommittee of the House
Appropriations Committee. which to-day ordered
the legislative appropriation bill reported that
he purposes a complete reorganization Of the In
terror Department, including the abolition OF
what he termed intermediate executive d.
visions" and the discharge of all employees
found to be inefficient unnecessary for the
conduct of the department.
The Secretary told the subcommittee that be-
tween the great bureaus of the department and
the office of the Secretary there had grown up
system of divisional arrangement, that each
bureau, such as the Indian bureau, the geologi-
cal survey the land office and patent office. etc,
has special division under the Secretary's Of
fce charged with the review OF the work nat
uray passing from these bureaus to the Secre-
tary. He said that before the Secretary acted
on any routine business from these bureaus the
work WAS transmitted to one of these divisions.
where its chief would review and examine It.
The result. according to Mr.. Garfield. was that
a report on any important matter would be re-
viewed by several Chiefs be held several days
and examined and re-examined by men who had
no knowledge of the conditions surrounding 1t.
He said that there were too many files and that
the whole procedure was a very expensive one,
for the reason that re-examination and review
added nothing to the efficiency Of the depart
ment.
Il determined" said Secretary Garfield, that
this work was entirely unnecessary, and there
fore decided to abolish all divisions save those
of accounts supplies, mails and files. The I'M
mediate effect of these changes has been a freer
relationship between the bureaus. All corre-
spondence Is now handled in three days. I
found that under the old system they were copy
ing in longhand in books, all the letters sent by
the Department of the Interior. People were
engaged in copying letters sent two years be-
fore. They simply plng up the records
Now there is but copy of every letter kept"
The Secretary told the sub committee that the
work Of the department was now almost current.
He explained a number of changes he had made
affecting the work Of the assistant secretaries.
which has resulted in all matters being handled
cxpeditiousy and has eliminated vast amount
Of friction which the Secretary said was prob
ably caused by too much correspondence
II have dismissed number of clerks. have
reduced a large number, and have directed that
in each bureau if any clerk is found to be neffi
cent he be dismissed reduced. 1 have held
that people who have rendered long and efficient
service and whose inefficiency is due TO old age,
shall receive the utmost consideration. With
the same number Of clerks in the patent division
of the Land Office we are turning out four times
many patents az we were before. The work
in the Land Office is practically current
Mr. Garfield showed that he had increased the
amount of work done by typewriter, reorganzed
the entire field force of the department and in
augurated system of Land Office accounts
which is expected to save the government
great of money. He Indicated his purpose
to simplify in every possible manner the work.
Of his department, and to investigate the work.
ings of the several bureaus until a complete re-
organization is effected.