Evening star., 1937-01-24
LOWDEN SEES AID
IN NRE0RGAN|z|NG.
Says Efficiency and Economy
Should Result From
Roosevelt Plan.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
OREGON, Ill, January 23-Frank
Orren Lowden opined today reorgan.-
Zation of the Government as out
lined by President Roosevelt's COM
mittee would result in increased efiici-
ency and economy.
The elder statesman Of the Republi-
can party also envisioned the proposed
revamping of Federal administrative
machinery as an opportunity for the
Chief Executive to discharge more
efficiently the duties which are laid
upon him by the Constitution"
The former Governor of Illinois
contemplating the observance Of the
18th anniversary Of his birth next
Tuesday-eXpounded his views in an
interview with the Associated Press.
He spoke as a recognized authority.
Twenty years ago. when he took
up his gubernatorial tasks, he en-
countered a situation similar to that
in Washington today More than 125
scattered agencies, boards and COM
missions were in operation. He per-
ceived confusion, competition and
needless expense among them.
Reduced TO Nine.
So Gov. Lowden abolished them
and created nine new departments
to take over their functions. He in
stituted budgetary innovations. Other
States emulated Illinois example.
Gov. Jowden was the first witness
before congressional committees which
shaped the national budget system
in 1921. OF the new Government
Set-up he said:
While it is impossible to estimate
the savings. the reorganization as
outlined will avoid much duplication
and confusion, both Of which are ex-
pensive, and, more important, will
result in increased efficiency.
The report has been criticized be-
cause it did not recommend the aboll-
ton of some of the present agencies.
That, Is seems to me, is beyond the
scope of the study which the COM
mittee was asked to make"
But he professed to see a vastly
better chance" to eliminate useless
agencies If they are placed in one of
the IL departments than if they are
left to operate independently.
Concerning criticism in some
quarters o. enlargement of the Presi-
dents power under the projected sys-
tenn, he said:
"As I understand the report OF the
committee, 1t is not proposed to add to
the power Of the executive. That was
given in the Constitution. 1t is pro-
posed only that the machinery Of
the executive branch should be so re-
organized as to enable the President
to discharge more efficiently the duties
which are laid upon him o. the Con-
stitution.
Individual Responsibility.
"An error we have fallen into In
recent years is the assumption that
power could be more safely lodged in
a number of men than in an indi-
vidual. Experience does not justify
this.
when the Constitution was up for
consideration, the same arguments
were advanced for a multiple head of
the Government. Alexander Hamil-
ton. in answering this objection, said:
II do not think the rule at all ap-
plicable to the executive power.
clearly concur in the opinion, in this
particular, with a writer whom the
celebrated Junius pronounced to be
deep, solid and ingenious" that the
executive power is more easily con-
fined when it is one," that it Is far
more safe that there should be a
single object for the jealousy and
watchfulness Of the people, and, in a
word, that all multiplication of the
executive is rather dangerous than
friendly to liberty"
ALI M. neutrality-suspicious. presi-
dental candidate who halted his cam
paign last September to visit this
country seat on the banks of Rock
River-plans to greet Lowden next
Tuesday when his train passes through
Kansas en- route to Arizona.