Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-03-04
I HI SEN TIN Ell
RocKvrLLD, MI.
Entered at Post Office. Rockville, Md.
as second-class mail matter.
Friday No nInR..."..March A. 1882.
A Gracious Proposal.

On the day following the introduction of
a resolution in the Democratic House by
Chairman Byrns Of the Appropriations
Committee for the appointment Of House
Economy Committee to investigate and
report upon reorganization of the Admin
istrative departments and bureaus, and
while similar resolution by Senator
Robit son, the Democratic leader, was
pending in the Senate. President Hoover
rushed message to Congress proposing a
plan Of reorganization. He asked for
immediate action. giving him authority to
put il into effect. He eraciously proposed
that Congress should have sixty days to
study a Encouragement Of any reoreaniza-
ton the President should make and to
: senai 81 s,asnensinn of Execntiye action in.
new assistant secretaries with combined
salaries of 10000. but for this increase
milions--it sounds like Colonel Sellers
There's meel-l-i-o-n-s in it'-would be
saved, but without the details of how the
savings would be effected.
The Executives coordination plan also
comes at a time when most Of the appro-
priation bills have been acted upon-that
Is to say, three months too late for intelli-
gent action by the Appropriations Commit
tee to put it into effect. and while the
House is formulating the tax bill and pre-
pairing the remaining appropriation bills
and the Congress is dealing with various
features Of the depression.
1t is not surprising therefore that Speaker
Garner should declare that the Presidents
projects would only mean greater expen-
ditures, and that this was no time to sub
nit them. He predicted that the President
would hear plenty" about it from the floor
OF the House.
The breathless haste Of President Hoover,
however, is surprising in view Of the fact
that the subject is % years old, having
its inception in the Taft Administration in
1910. interrupted by the war in the Wilson
period, noisily proclaimed as policy Of
the Harding regime and occasionally Te-
ferred to in the "era of SNUG complacency"
as John W. Davis calls the Coolidge
incumbency.
Mr.. Hoover as Cabinet member was its
active protagonist His Office was an art
gallery of charts and elyphs on coordina-
ton.
10 the past ten years there have been
three major undertakings in this respect .
Transfer OF the Bureau Of Mines and the
Patent Office from the Interior Department
to Mr.. Hoovers Department OF Commerce,
doubling the expenditures of the Patent
Office transfer Of prohibition enforcement
from the Treasury to special bureau in
the Department Of Justice, with an increase
in budget estimates of $2,000.000; con-
solidation OF veterans agencies into one
bureau, with an increase of Sc. 000.0 900 in
expenditures. That's all, covering an entire
decade.
With this roseate record Of economy and
efficiency. Mr.. Hoover now asks authority
to create more high priced officials and to
have the entire matter of reorganizing the
Administrative branch Of the Government
put into his hands.
But with Democratic House and almost
equal party representation in the Senate
we are now in the Era Of Real Economy
and Efficiency. While the Democratic
leaders may lack some Of the engineering
implements and appliances with which
Mr.. Hoover worked his reorganization
miracles. they have a sound and CON-
prehensive knowledge Of the principles
and policies Of Democratic government in
tellieentIy and economically administered.
The solution can safely be left in their
hands. The country is through with en-
sineering as governmental science and
also with miracle workers.