The Washington times., 1937-01-12
PUBLIC WORKS
AND WELFARE
ARE ADDED

by the Presidents Committee on
Administrative Management calls
for creation of two new Cabinet
departments and changing the
name of the present Interior De.
partment to Department of Con-
Servation."
The new departments would be
known as Social Welfare" and
"Public Works" and would bring
the total Cabinet positions to IL.
Under the committees proposals,
every administrative agency Of the
Government, whether permanent
or temporary in nature, would be
placed directly under Cabinet de-
partment.
Responsibility for apportioning
various commissions and agencies
to different departments would
rest Squarely on the President.
Congress, the committee de-
clares, would have restored to it
effective legislative control" over
the Chief Executive.
Restores Function
In this connection, the reports
says:
at is the purpose of these rec
concentrations to make effective
management possible by restOr-
ing the President to his proper
place as Chief Executive and
giving him both a governmental
structure that can be managed
and modern managerial agen-
cies, and by restoring to the Con-
gress effective legislative control
over the Executive"
The President, under the COM
nittee's proposals, would have
continuous responsibility for as
signing administrative functions
Of Government to the various de-
partmentS.
The report calls for eventual
elimination of many administra-
tive agencies without specifying
which ones should be discarded
and holds that the first step in
this direction is to place them
under departments where they
will be removed from pressure
groups" seeking to Justify their
existence.
Coroner Needed
Urging particular attention to
the period in which various
agencies might gradually be dis
continued, the report continues:
''There is among govern
mental agencies great need for
. coroner to pronounce them
dead and for an undertaken to
dispose of the remains. Both
of these processes are advanced
when agencies approaching dis
continuance are deprived of
their independent status by be-
ing brought into large depart
ments and are subject to the
regular controls through the
budget, central accounting and
personnel administration"
The committee leaves a loop
hole for more or less independent
continuation of some commissions
by declaring that, where neces-
sary, administrative agencies
could be given "Semi-autonomous
status with departments" 1t
points out that there may be"
agencies which would be placed
under a department solely to give
the department secretary power
to coordinate its activities with
those already existing under him,
or solely that the agency might
report annually to the Cabinet
member instead Of to the Presi-
dent.
AS a development Of this plan,
the committee recommends that in
each Cabinet department manage
rial agencies be set UP to deal
with such matters as finance, per-
sonnel, planning, legal advice. cen
tralized institutional services, cor
respondence and public informa-
ton.
These managerial agencies
would each be directed by a single
executive officer, under the com-
mittee's plan, these officials being
chosen from the career service.
These career men would be chosen
for their executive ability and
given full power, under the Cabinet
Secretary, to develop administra-
ton Of the department. The task
completed, the career man would
be returned to his previous work.
Other than this recommends
ton, the committee has little to
say concerning reorganization
within existing departments now
headed by Cabinet Members.
Turning to various regulatory
commissions set ur under the Gov.
ernment, the committee sharply
denounces them as more 'irrespon-
Sible" than independent" It
bluntly says:
at is not enough to point out
that these irresponsible COM
missions have of their own vOi-
ton been honest and competent.
Power without responsibility has
no place in a Government based
on the theory of Democratic con-
troll, for responsibility is the peO-
pies only weapon, their only in
smance against abuse of power"
Terming the "evils" from the
general independent commission
plan "'insidiouS'' and "far-reach-
ing' the committee recommends
the following general policy in
dealing with reorganization:
1 Setting I'D every necessary