Evening star., 1925-04-21
HOOVER MAY HAVE
Z NEW ASSISTANTS
IN REORGANIZATION
Business Aid and Marine Bu-
reauS' Concentration Un-
der Him Favored.

Concentration in the Department of
commerce of two groups of Govern
ment activities, most of which are
now In other departments, has been
proposed to Secretary Hoover. Some
or the proposals coincide with the
recommendations of the joint congress
s1onal committee on reorganiZat ton,
while others are entirely new.
One of the principal changes recon-
mended is the appointment of an AS
sistant Secretary of Commerce to have
charge of all marine activities of the
Government, combining the activities
of the steamboat inspection service,
the lighthouse service, the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, the lake survey and
the marine division of the customs
service under his direction
Mines Bureau Shift Favored.
The other proposals would include
grouping of all the bureaus scattered
through other departments which
come under the general head of "aids
to business" These include, Mr..
Hoover said today, the Bureau of
bureaus which might properly be con-
sidered in this light. This group
would also have over it IAN Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for industry. >
In the regrouping of these bureaus
the Census Bureau would be changed
into a bureau of statistics to have
charge of all the statistical work of
No mia
from it the duty OF the taking of the
decennial census every 10 years.
In connection with the proposed re-
organization plans. Mr.. Hoover said
part of the activities of the Depart
ment' of Commerce will go into the
Hurley-Wright Building, at Eighteenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue, when
the Railroad Administration vacates
that structure. The Interstate Com
merce Commission and the Depart.
ment of Justice will also utilize part
of the Hurley-Wright Building.
Agrees With Secretary Work.
Mr.. Hoover said there was an agree
ment between Secretary of the Inte-
rior Work and himself favoring trans
Ser of the Bureau of Mines from the
Interior Department to the Commerce
Department This transfer was re-
garded, however, as needing legisla-
tive authority, as the Bureau of Mines
was established in the Department of
the Interior by act of Congress in
1910. although its transfer to Com
merce was recommended by the joint
congressional committte more than a
decade later.
The recommendations made to Mr.
Hoover and revealed by him today
drew a plain line of distinction be-
tween the two new groups recon-
mended for establishment in the Com
merce Department.
Established in 1913 as the Depart
ment of Commerce, separating it
from the old Department of Com
merce and Labor, the organic act of
the department charges the Secretary
with promoting and fostering COM
merce, foreign and domestic. Mr..
Hoover has been working along broad
lines of development of commerce
since he took over the department,
and few changes have been made in
the actual construction of the depart
ment, although his orga nization of
commodity divisions has drawn praise
from business aid industry.
Patent Office Change Made.
Mr.. Hoover did not go into the
recommended activities in the first
group except with regard to the Blu
reau of Mines and the Bureau of the
Census. The Patent Office has al
been ira ansferred to the Department of
Commerce and would properly come
under the head of an laid to busi-
ness, he said. The Bureau of Stand
ards is already in the Commerce De-
partment.
The second group would bring to
the Commerce Department the Lakes
Survey from the War Department
and the marine division of the Gus
toms service, from the Treasury De-
partment. The Coast Guard in the
Treasury Department, much of whose
work is in the detection and capture
of rum runners, would remain where
it is under the recommendations made
to Mr. Hoover and by the joint com