Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1908-03-13
A NEW DEPARTMENT.
TO GOVERN TRANSPORTATION
AND.PUBLIC WORKS.
Take From Department of War River
and Harbor Work-Bill by Repre-
sentative Ransdell-Seat in Cabinet
plan May Include Functions of In
terstate Commerce Commission.

terstate Commerce Commission.
Representative Ransdell of Louisi- |
ana has introduced a bill which makes |
good the prediction last fall that
movement has been launched for the
creation of new executive DEPART
ment of transportation and public
works, which is part of plan of mem
bers of the national congress and of
the rivers, harbors and inland water
ways commission, as well as promi-
nent officials of the government here,
to take from the war department au-
thority over engineering works on riv-
ers and harbors; from the treasury de-
partment, public buildings; from the
agricultural department, national for
estry; from the interior department.
irrigated and arid lands, and give them
to the proposed department, as well as
the reclamation of S0,OOO,OOO acres of
swamp, overflow and wet lands of the
south and middle west.
Mr.. Ransdell is a member of the in
land waterways commission and presi-
dent of the rivers and harbors CON
gress.
The war department has been ad-
vised for many months of these plans,
and quietly has been preparing to fore
fend against legislation which would
rob it of it's traditional function to
take care of the nations engineering
works and of the rivers and harbors
So far as that department is con
cerned, there will be intense opposi
ton, but it is now well known Chief
= Forester Pinchot and Chief Newell OF
the reclamation service are favorable
to the proposed radical change.
1t has been alleged by friends of the
proposed new department that Presi
dent Roosevelt is of the opinion tha
some such plan should be wrought out
his utterances in messages anC
speeches on numerous occasions beins
cited in support of that claim.
That the matter will arouse acri
monious debate is indicated by the a.
legged fact put out last fall. by pre-
ponents of the movement that arm
5 engineers are antiquated, and citation
; of the history of jetty building at tn
t mouth of the Mississippi 80 years ag
S by Captain Eads, when the army
alleged to have laughed at the jet
It idea, which Eads proceeded to prov
II to be the bets means of deepenin
II channels at the rivers mouth. The
t. claim vast sums of money have bee
D. wasted by the war department
handling inland river works.
h On the other hand the army fair
e scorns the pretensions of supporter
n of the new movement The departmel
At says friends of this new idea have pr
r sumed to speak positively on a que
h. ton which has not yet even bee
=, slightly probed; that the nation is a
N solutely unprepared to say whether
&c not the plan proposed is good or ba
The bill even comprehends also su
- traction from the interstate CONNER
"a commission of supervision over roa
beds and rates, and inclusion in Il
20 functions of the proposed departing
~ of activities of the bureau of stan
81 ards, now in the department of col
&c merce and labor; the geological 81
er vey. now in the interior department
the office of public roads, now in {
VI agricultural department, and the CT
A. alton of a bureau of mining technolo
OF for the new department.
Tx The general movement, OF viii
is Representative Ransdell's bill is t
10, first phase which has gone before &C
es gress directly, contemplates the me
I'M sweeping changes in the makeup
ar the several executive departmer
ry- which have ever been proposed sin
lat the republic was founded.
It'll The army, as soon as the bill
mt came a law, would be merely an arr
nd with an engineering corps reduced
he an inconsequentiality. The transp
a tation, forestry, irrigation, drainai
for geological and other bureaus, now
er. important parts of their respective
,le partments, would carry to the
.ee posed department enormous authori
N such as wol Id enable the secretary
I'M transportation and public works
hlo compete with the secretary of state
no. premiership in the cabinet.