Evening star., 1940-04-11

Iectuatlng the plan, however, nave
found 1t necessary to postpone its
application to United States mar
shals because OF the unusual char
acter of their disbursing work in
serving the courts. Experience indi-
Gates that this arrangement should
be continued. am proposing, there
fore, the permanent transfer of the
DISBURSEMENT function OF limited
States n1arshals from the Treasury
Department to the Department OF
Justice. va
Post Office Department.: It has
also been found desirablesto con-
tinue permanently in the Post Once
Department the disbursement of
Post Ofice funds. The special char.
acter OF the work of this depart
ment, involving disbursements IN
thousands Of post Offices throughout
the Nation, requires here, as well
as in the case Of the United States
marshals. a departure from the
sound theory of central disburstng.
With its flung facilities the Post
Office Department is better equipped
to carry on this work than the
Division of Disbursement.
Another proposal affecting the
Post Once Department relates to
the transportation of mail and other
material between departments. In
the early Colonial days, the inter-
change of correspondence and mes
sages was by the simple hand-to-
hand method. Gradually q more
systematic device became necessary
to transport messages, with the re-
sultant evolution of the postal serv-
ice. Business and private citizens
IN general have made use of that
service, and today we have in our
Post Once Department the most
efncient organization of its kind in
the world. However, here in the Cap
ital City, the Federal Government,
instead of utilizing fully the re-
sources of the Post Office Depart
ment to maintain Its mail and mes
senger service, has permitted a null
tipDcity of interdepartmental mes
senger services, each serving its own
department, bureau, or agency. This
duplication Of services Is uneconom-
ical and results in a constant criss-
crossing and overlapping of per-
sonnel and equipment, all engaged
in common activity. I am sure
that the average citizen in WASH
ington, as well as officials of the
Government itself, have wondered
at this paradox whereby the Federal
Government is failing to make the
fullest use of one of its own agencies
which is specially equipped to rem
der q simple, centralized service for
all the other agencies. This reor-
ganization plan proposes to do ex-
actly that; to provide for the trans
portation Of mail, documents, pack
ages, and similar material between
all buildings occupied by Govern
ment Of1ces on q regularly scheduled
basis OF sufficient frequency to meet
the reasonable and normal require
ments Of these Offices and to reduce
to q minimum the constant dis
Of messengers on so-called
urgent and emergency errands. This
service will be available on a reim-
bursement basis to the agencies ex-
empted by the Reorganization Act.
Department Of the Interior.
I propose to transfer to the De-
partment Of the Interior the activi.
ties Of the Soil Conservation Serv-
Ice relating to soil and moisture con.
on lands under the juris.
diction Of the Interior Department.
With respect to private lands, the
soil conservation work Of thu Fed
eral Government is primarily Of q
consultative character and can best
be carried on by the Department Of
Agriculture through cooperation Of
the farmers throughout the coun-
try. In the case Of Federal lands.
this work includes the actual appli-
cation. by the Government Of soil
conservation practices and Is IN ap-
propriate function Of the agency
administering the land.
Department of Commerce.
One OF the purposes Of the Re-
Act Is to reduce the
Of administrative agencies
and thereby simplify the task Of
executive management. We have
made substantial progress toward