Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20
REORGANIZATION CALLED
NEW REGIMES MAIN TASK
Energy, Efficiency and Intelligence in
Management, Attributes of Hoover
Called For.

ecute the man whom Harding put at
the head OF that department. Harry M
Daugherty, together with some other
Government officials appointed by the
easy-going Harding, such as Forbes, Fall
and Miller.
In any event, the job of the Depart
nent of Justice during the coming adj
lninistration Of Mr.. Hoover will be akin
| to the spirit of the whole Hoover adj
! ganization. energy and efficiency. Spe-
officially it will be job of terminating
some of the disregard of law now
| existing of bringing about increased
! respect for the law and greater GER
| tainty of punishment for violation of
| law; of syStematizing and expediting
the flow of the increased volume of
c--seS through the Federal courts
This contrast between the tasks of
the Harding administration and those
of the coming administration of Mr..
Hoover runs through all thet depart
mentS.
Department of Agriculture.
In the Department of Agriculture,
when Mr.. Harding came in, one of the
principal tasks was to take account of
the distress which fell upon farTxng,
partly as consequence of the pos war
def1ation of prices. During thu last
eight years the principal activity Of the
Government, as respects Agriculture, has
been to seek cure for agricultural dis
treSS
Presumably this will be accomplished
through the farm relief measure about
to be passed. The farm relief measure
will set up mechanism for farm mar
keting and other purposes, and will set
iv1dnnondoY1f ~
ment outside the Department. of Agri-
culture. Thereafter the Department of
Agriculture, under Mr.. Hoover'S admin
iStration, will be free to settle back to
what was its normal work for the first
80 years of its eXiStence-that is, mainly
work of science as applied to agri-
culture.
Depends on Congress.
1t was said above that 'seorganiza-
ton" would be one of the outstanding
tasks of Mr. HooverS administration
That statement is made on the assump-
ton that Congress will at least be will
ing to get down to the work of reorgan-
iZing the Government departments.
During the campaign last Summer
Gov. Smith was able to jeer at the Re-
publicanS for the aWkWardneSS, waste
and inef1ciency involved in the present
distribution of Government functions.
He was able also, because he himself
had accomplished similar reform in
New York State, to promise that if he
should be elected President he would
reorganiZe and simplify the Govern
ment machinery.
That jeer, that accusation and that
campaign argument were, in the lam
guage of the contemporary classics.
coming to" the Republicans. For
nearly eight years the Republicans have
been promising to do this work. 1t was
announced. pretentiouSly-and sincerely
by the Harding administration when
it came into power, that one of the
earliest jobs it would attend to would
be Government reorganization.
1t was attended ton paper. The
Harding administration conscientiously
went as far as the executive branch of
the Government is able to go. It made
an admirable modern plan for the re-
distribution of the Government de-
partmentS. The plan went to Congress,
which alone could enact the laws neceS-
Sary to put it into effect. The plan
remains in Congress.
If the Republican party is not to be
subject to further and more severe jeer-
ing, the actual enactment of reorgani-
Zation by Congress and the putting it
into effect thereafter by the new Presi-
dent will be attended to as one of the
early tasks of the new administration.
Construction Program.
There will be one other main line of
activity, during the administration of
Mr. Hoover We can speak of it as
construction" The Government will
engage in engineering works on a scale
never before known. Mississippi flood
relief will be begun and to large ex-
| tent carried out. Boulder Dam will be
built. The imperatively needed public
buildings in Washington and all over
the country, which were postponed as
a matter of economy since during the
war. will be begun.
All in ALL the principal tasks of the
new administration, the principal needs
Of the Government, fall into grouping
| which, as it happens, the new President
| is peculiarly able to deal with.
Copyright, 1929