River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-01-25

/ The first series deals With the man
| ner I'm which the services Of the gov
eminent should be grouped IN depart
ments. This is matter OF fnpdamcnt-
| al importance. 1t is only after sat
| isfactory solution Of this problem that
many important measures Of reform be-
come possible Only by grouping serv-
ices according to their character can
substantial progress be made in elm
mating duplication Of work and plant
and proper working relations be es-
tablished between services engaged In
similar activities. Until the head or
a department is called upon to deal
exclusively with matters falling In but
one or very few distinct fields, eff
fectiye supervision and control is i'm
possible. AS long az the same depart
ment embraces services so diverse In
character as those of life saving and
the management of public finances,
Standardization OF accounting methods
and Of other business practices is ex-
ceedingly difficult OF attainment.
So dependent are other reforms upon
the proper grouping of services that
l have instructed the commission to
indicate in it's report the changes
which should be made in the existing
organization and to proceed in the
same way as would far-seeing arch1-
tects or engineers in planning for the
! Improvement and development of O.
| great city. My desire is to secure and
| 20 furnish to the congress scneme
| of organization that can be used as
| basis of discussion and action for years
| to come.
| In the past services have been Gre
! ated one by one as exigenctes nave
seemed to demand, with little or no
reference to any scheme Of organiza-
| ton of the government as a whole. l
am convinced that the time has come
when the government should take
stock of its activities and agencies and
| formulate a comprehensive plan with
reference to which future changes may
| be made. The report of the commits
sion is being prepared with this idea
| in mind. When completed 1t will be
| transmitted to congress. The recon-
mendations will be Of such charac-
| ter that they can be acted upon one
| by one If they commend themselves
| to the congress and as action in re-
gard to any one of them is deemed to
be urgent.
Repcrt on Particular Services.
The second and third series OF re-
ports deal, respectively, with the or
| ganization and activities of particular
services, and the form of organization
| for the performance of particular Dusl-
ness operations
One of the reports Of the second Sc
ries is upon the revenue cutter service,
which costs the government over two
and a half million dollars each year.
| In the opinion of the commission It's
varied activities can be performed with
equal, or greater, advantage by other
services. The commission, therefore,
recommends that il be abolished. lie
is estimated that by so doing saw
! ing of not less than $1,000,0O0 year
| can be made.
Another report illustrating the Sec
ond series recommends that the light
house and life saving services be ad-
| ministered by single bureau, instead
Of as at present by two bureaus 10
Gated In different departments. These
services have much in common. Geo
graphically, they are similarly located; ;,
Enthusiastically, they have many OF
the same problems. 1t is estimated
that consolidation would result in a
saving of not less than 100000 an
nually.
General Technical Services.
A third series of reports is being pre-
pared on those branches of the organ
| ization which are technical in charac-
| ter and which exist for the service OF
| the government as d whole-branches
which have to do with such matters as
public printing, heating, lighting, the
making of repairs, the providing Of
transportation, and the compilation of
statistics where mechanical equipment
is essential.
Abolition of Local Offices.
Perhaps the part Of the organization
in which the greatest economy in pub
| lie expenditure is possible is to be
| found in the numerous local Offices Of
the government. In some instances the
| establishment and the discontinuance
of these local Offices are matters OF ad-
ministrative discretion. In other in
| stances they are established by per
manent law in such a manner that
| their discontinuance is beyond the
! power of the president or that of any
/ executive officer. In a number Of serv-
| ices these laws were passed nearly a
| century ago. Changes in economic con-
ditions have taken place which have
had the effect of rendering certain Of
fees not only useless, but even worse
than useless in that their very exist
ence needlessly swells expenditures
and complexities the administrative
system.
The attention of congress has been
called repeatedly to these conditions.
In some instances the congress has ap-
proved recommendations for the abo-
htion Of useless positions. In other
| cases not only do the recommends
tions of the executive that useless po-
sitions be abolished remain unheeded,
but laws are passed to establish new
offices at places where they are not
needed.
The responsibility for the main
tenance of these conditions must nat
urally be divided between the con-
gress and the executive. But that the
executive has performed his duty when
he has called the attention of the