The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-01

rent fiscal years appropriation, the law or executive order number which set it up, and few-line summary of what it is supposed to do.
 Totals are impressive, the ap- propriations adding up to $l06,094,- 120, the employees to 2,948,863-a
 conservative figure which does not include the 11,100,000 men and wo- men in the armed services, though it does include the 1,920,338 War and Navy Department civil ser wants.
 Subtracting the war-cost items from these totals reveals that aside from direct military functions, the federal government this year is costing 9531 ,688, 900 and employ ing 1,022,525 hands.
 The breakdown isn't clear-cut gor these non-war agencies are do- ing war jobs. But for possible use as ammunition by Governor Dewey the committee shows that nearly half of these agencies were created since 1883.
 THE FOURTH ARM"
 OF GOVERNMENT
 One of the more interesting sec tions of the tabulation lists the 61 government corporations operating in what is now coming to be known as the fourth arm" of the gov- ernment, largely independent of the legislative, executive and judicial branches set up by the Constitution. It takes only one page to list the six main agencies of the legislative branch of the government, with 13,- PAT employees and annual expenses of $50 0,660,O ,OO0. It takes only an- other page to list the three main agencies of the legislative branch of the government, with $12,530,- coo appropriations and 2,912 em- ployeS.
 But it takes 35 pages to outline the work of the 374 agencies in the executive branch and then on top of that there are five pages listing the 61 government corporations all but 13 of which were created after 1883.
 The fascinating detail about all these corporations is that there are no figures available on the num- Der of their employees or the total of their appropriations. Their combined capital stock amounts to over $1,992, ,0O0, 000-making them the largest family or combination of business interests in the world, operating in power, shipping, rail- roads, canals, housing, banking, and strategic law materials. But what it costs to operate them, what their profits and their 1oSseS-all such matters are in the never-never land of governmental mystery.
 WE'LL, WHAT CAN BE DONE?
 The question posed by all this stuff on which the Citizens Na- tional Committe pamphlet gives convenient birds eye view is what can be done about it and what will be done about it by the next admin istration, when some thought can be given to boiling down the over- expanded government to an irre- ducible and necessary concentrate.
 Bureau of the Budget has been working on it. So has the Joint Congressional Committee on Reduc- tion of Nonessential Federal Expen- ditures, chairmanned by Sen. Harry F. Byrd of, Virginia. It will be leading public issue when the war is over.
 The Citizens National Committee itself has few ideas on the sub- ject, but like lot more of the out side experts looking in on govern ment affairs, it proposed to sim plify the government by creating a few more departments. Consoli- dation of War and Navy depart ments into a single Department of National Defense was proposed, but then the Committe staff came up with ideas for a new Department of General Administration to run government housekeeping, purchas- ing and employment; a new De- partment of Public Enterprise to run the corporations; a new De- partment of Public Welfare to take in Social Security, health, educa- tion and relief activities.
 Whether new cabinet-rank de- partments like these would simplify government is question for experts in public administration, but when reorganization of your government is under consideration, everybody becomes his own expert.