The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-12-21
May CHANGE
BUREAUS OF
GOVERNMENT
Mark Sullivan Says Congress
Is Considering Reorganiza-
ton of Cabinet for Greater
Efficiency and Economy.
WOMEN MAY Benefit
BY MARK, SULLIVAN


Senator Harding has given strong
color to the assumption there is to be
a new department in the cabinet and
that woman may be chosen to head
it
In his campaign as we'll as during
the past week Senator Harding laid
emphasis on the desirability of a. de-
partment of public welfare. If that
will also come about reorganization
OF the cabinet, which will include the
disappearance of the department of
the interior and the creation of not
only new department Of public well
fare but also a new department of
public works.
For this reorganization of the cabi-
net more than one bill is already pend
ing in congress. These bills vary in
their details but generally speaking
they look not only to the suppression
OF one old department and the crea-
tion of two new ones but to radical re-
arrangement of bureaus in all the de-
pal,nents of the caplnet.
The plan is to take out OF the exist
Ing deoartments several bureaus which
are anonymously placed and to re-
arrange them on a more logical basis.
It would put into the new department
OF public welfare all the humanitarian
functions of the government. 1t
would, for example, take the bureau
OF public health out of the Treasury
department and the children's bureau
out of the department of Labor
On the other hand, for the new de-
partment of public works the plan
takes the improvement of rivers and
harbors out of the department of war.
the forest service out of the depart
ment of agriculture, and the office of
supervising architect out of the treas
ury department. In the existing di-
vision of bureaus. it is grotesque sur
vival of custom that the matter of a
new postoffice building should be one
of the duties of the secretary of the
treasury, while the care of Washing
ton monument is one of the functions
of the department of war.
Easier to Make Now.
If these changes are to be made
at all it will be easier to make them
going out and new ones coming in
than to make them after new admin
istration has got under way and after
newnew officials have acquired prero-
gatives which in human nature they
might be reluctant to give up. When
the old department of commerce and
labor was divided into two separate
departm entS the work was done at
the close of the Taft administration,
so that the Wilson administration
came in with the slate clean in this
respect.
Speaker Gillett has just appointed a
committee to consider the various bills
offered in the present congress for
this reorganization and redistribution
of government bureaus. Whether this
work will be completed in time to
make this reorganization before the
beginning of Mr.. Harding's admins
tration, only time will tell.
-. Get 1t Out Of Way.
1t will be most desirable to have it
done and out of the way and let the
new president start off by appointing
eleven cabinet members instead OF
ten. If it waits until the new ad
ministration is under way the new
cabinet will have acquired pride OF
possession and other attachments
which will make the change more diff
ficult. It is assumption that if the
change is made, the head of the new
department of public welfare should
be woman. On somewhat better
ground it is assumed that Mr. Hoover
would be offered the position of head
of the new department of public
works. In fact, even if the change is
not made, it is believed that Mr.
Hoover will be offered the post OF
secretary of the interior In a way
. these two posts coincide. The inten
ton of the plan for the creation OF
the new department of public works
includes the purpose of abolishing the
Department of the Interior
Copyright 1920, by the New York
Evening Post, Inc.)