The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-03-09
WOULD FORM SIX
BIG DEPARTMENTS
Scheme Of State Government Propos-
ed By Efficiency And Economy
Commission Plan Civil Service
EACH TO HAVE SINGLE HEAD
Will Try Out Method By Asking
Criticism Of Present Executives
Consider Educational Policy

! OAAACAOM VI 1ACoCAt CACCutlvC6--
Consider Educational Policy
Understanding that a complete
civil service system, covering all but
the heads of departments and a very
few confidential officers Is an es-
sential part of any plan proposed,
and that budget system is to q
corollary of any play adopted, the
efficiency commission, Of which Frank
is. Lycan of this city ls member
has worked out a scheme of six great
departments to carry on all the bust
ness of the state, plus a group of Of
ficers for general administration
now elected under the Constitution.
In the group for general admins
tration are the secretary of state as
chief election officer and keeper of
the states records, the attorney gen
eral as the head of the legal DEPART
ment, the auditor to be auditor for
the state and not to be numbered
| with executive duties, having the
public examiner as one of his assis-
tants, and a financial board to in
clude the duties of the tax commits
sion and some other things. The
purchase of supplies, the collection
of revenues and the care of the Of
flee quarters should be part of the
treasurer's job.
The Six Departments
Then come the six departments,
names not chosen but something like
the following:
Public Lands and Works.
Public Welfare =
Public Education.
Labor and Commerce.
Agriculture. - s.E
Health and Safety.
Each of these departments has an
avisory board attached. One board
may have nothing more to do
than to decide where state highways
shall he located, but if any regula-
tory duties are found in the depart
ment, to that board they will be as
signed. Another board will take
the place of the visitors to state in
situations and also investigate the
field of social ailments as a board of
public welfare. - Another will make
health regulations, another deter
mine labor questions. But in each
case the head of the department
runs the department and is respon-
sible to the appointing power. The
board is there only for advisory or
regulative duty.
The Board of Education. r..
With two exceptions, education,
the commission holds, is different in
it's nature from government. There
it is proposed to create a single
board to unity the educational policy
of the state, and to divide the board
into smaller groups to act as direc-
tors of the university, Of the state
sschool system and of the normal
board, leaving to the large board
only the broadest questions. In. edu-
cation it is proposed to let the board
be directors of the executive officers.
The other exception is in the rail
road and warehouse commission, q
tribunal, which the commission finds
doing certain executive duties and to
which it proposes to leave grain in
spection. It is admitted that to turn
over those executive duties to an ex-
ecutive department would he more
logical; but because the system Is es.
taiblished, because Minnesota grades
have national significance, because
the railroad commission has emphat.
ically made good job of it, the com.
mission is disposed to sacrifice logic
to the existing situation and tt
tradition.
Departures From the Scheme.
Tradition is responsible for two
minor. departures from the genera
scheme. One is the historical socie
ty, left blooming alone in the dia
gram. The other is the soldiers
home. Everywhere else, whateve,
lbody exercises state authority O
! spends state money, is to be attach
ed more or less intimately to the ex
ecutive government of the state.
This is the outline The commits
IN