Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-07-16
Number of De-
partments or
Independent


supplies annually .........In every bureau
of the government
1t is not necessary that each of these groups
should become whole executive department. each
place each of them under the supervision of
special assistant secretary, and If truly
intelligent would class him expert and
outside selection on political grounds 1t is entirely
secondary what department these groups are in
The big thing is to bring these kindred agencies
together under one leadership that their over
tapping edges be clipped and their fights
stopped. No one familiar with the internal work
ings Of the departments will deny the direct
waste which comes from overlap and friction as
the result of the present lack of coordination of
activities Coordination IL feasible when some
person is responsible; with divided authority
among the different branches of government it
is hypothesis that evaporated soon after the
perennial conferences of cabinet officers
Ject. 1t all costs somebody One of the
spondents is to ventlate these conflicts.
The divided responsibility with absence of CEN
tralized authority prevents the constructive and
consistent development of broad national policies
in these special branches of governmental activity
for there Is by necessity OF this division constant
conflict of view within the government itself
policies department policies, board policies. and
commission policies We have a bundle Of
divergent ideas without focus; lumber piled to-
gether does not make house. The treatment of
national resources furnishes a good instance
If anything is certain. it is that the government
should have continuous definite, and consistent
policy directed to intelligent conservation use
of national resources. But it can have no such
policy so long as responsibility is split up among
half dozen different departments The recent
occurrences in oil leases a fair example Of
what may happen by the lack of singleheaded
responsibility in such matters No policy of real
guardianship of our reserve resources will exist
until put all conservation business in the hands
of undersecretary for conservation, with the
spotlight of public opinion continuously upon him.
AS to the forty Independent establishments Sec
rotary Hoover has this to say:
The forty governmental agencies which are now
supposed to function trectIy under the President
present another problem. Here we have four breeds
which might be classified according the functions
they perform. The semijudcial, the semie legislative,
the service bureaus to all departments. and the
straight administrative. Often enough they are
mixed They are supposed to act under the direct
supervision of the President. it is preposterous
expect that with his multitude of higher obliga-
tions the President can give them anything like
adequate supervision. AS matter of fact these
Independent establishments conduct their activities
with very little supervision coordination The
last group, the straight administrative, expend
nearly half billion a year-as much IS the total
of of the departments under cabinet officers If
for other reason, this group should be placed
directly in the departments in order that the Presi-
dent may exercise through his cabinet the guidance
and control of the administrative arm of the gov
eminent. And the President, already overworked
in major policies, must be relieved of detail.
''What we need" concludes Secretary Hoover
sis three primary reforms: First, to group to-
gcther all agencies having the same predominant
major purpose under the same administrative
supervision; second to separate the semijudicial
and semegislative and advisory functions from
the administrative functions placing the former
under the Joint minds, the latter under single
responsibility, and third we should relieve tho
President of vast amount of direct administers
tive labor.
Il do not expect that the federal government
will ever be model Of organization, but l have
aspirations to see it improve"