Evening star., 1939-05-04

reaus and agen- ~
cies to the Presi- D"''0 A""'e"'''
dent and leaving it to Congress to
reject all or none of the plan-is a
significant change and may or may
not turn out to be the most practi-
cal, though most members OF Con-
gress are willing to give it trial and
see how the experiment works out.
What has just happened is thai
one House of Congress-the Lowe"
House-virtually put the Presidents
first reorganization proposal into
effect. The Senate has nothing to
say. The law which was recently
passed by both houses and signed by
the President had in it a provision
requiring the President to submit his
detailed reorganization plans, but it
was stipulated that for the Execu-
tive's recommendation to be rejected,
concurrent resolution OF both
Houses of Congress was necessary
Thus, when the House of Repre-
sentativeS rejected the motion which
had for its purpose disapproval OF
the Presidents plan, the effect was
to give the Executive clear sailing
This novel way of getting legislation
enacted has been urged before, but
in plans which called for affirmative
approval by Congress before any re-
organization could be effective, Con-
gress, indeed, gave away its joint
veto power and turned it over to
one House.
Worked Out by Experts.
However this may be, the effec-
tiveness of the process will be tested
by the merit of the reorganization
scheme, itself, which has been
worked out by experts in public
administration and is as non-politi-
cal as it is humanly possible for a
plan to be which affects Govern
ment. This is not to say that politi-
cal pressure did not occur. Thus,
for instance, the explanation as to
why the Department of Agriculture
retained control over certain lending
functions, whereas other lending
bureaus were transferred from their
original jurisdictions to central
agency, is not clear.
But, on the whole, the plan is
designed to bring efficiency into
Government, and if the appoint
ments to the three major Offices
should be political in nature, this
would clearly not be the RESPONSE
bility Of the experts who formulated
the plan. The whole idea of admin
istrative efficiency can be defeated
If there should be appointed to the
top positions the type of politically
minded official who could conceiv-
ably misuse the vast power given
him by the reorganization plan. If
sentiment in Congress should dis
approve of the way the President
carries out the plan, it is always
possible for a movement to arise
through which the whole reorgan-
ization statute might be repealed,
though here a two-thirds vote of
both Houses will be needed to over
come a presidential veto.
Important Precedent.
For all intents and purposes,
therefore, congressional power has
been delegated to the Chief Execu-
tive to reorganize the National Gov
ernment and the precedent will be
an important one in future history.
The grouping of bureaus and de-
partments and boards under the
Federal Security Agency carries out
principle long advocated by those
who wanted to see a cabinet office
created and department of public
welfare established. The new job
will carry with it as much If not
more responsibility than such new
cabinet secretary would have had.
AS for the Federal Works Agency,
this too has heretofore been advo-
Gated so that grouping OF all
Government Offices concerned with
construction and public works would
be possible.
The establishment of a Federal
Loan Agency with such institutions
as the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation, the Federal Home
Loan Bank Board, the Federal
Housing Administration and the
Export rt-Import bank, as well as the
Electric Farm and Home Authority,
is d lIlUNG WlllCll WOulu lldNC pCC1l
more Understandable If there had
been included such agencies as the
Farm Credit Administration, the
Federal Farm Mortgage Corpora
ton and the Commodity Credit
Corporation, all of which last three
have been transferred to the Agri-
cultural Department. The func-
ton of lending is the same whether
for farmers or urban dwellers, and
the idea back Of the establishment
of a single loan agency was to make
uniform rules insofar as practic-
able, and to keep lending facilities
under one jurisdiction.
To group at least five of the
lending agencies, however, is at
least a step in the direction of CO.
ordination which has been talked
of for some time under the New
Deal. In fact, an Inter-depart-
mental Committee has been set up