Evening star., 1945-10-03

not only an intolerable burden
upon the taxpayers but menace
to our system, In, that 1t makes
even reasonable competency impos-
sible and gives to the existing ad-.
ministration an unwholeSome politi-
cal power, were sustained by the
hope that once the war was over
retrenchment would be the order
of the day and this gigantic Fed
eral bureaucracy be reduced TO rea-
sonable size.
However, that hope remains un-
nourished and unfulfilled. AS Sen
ator Byrd recently pointed out, 80
days after the German collapse,
instead of the Federal pay. roll
shrinking 1t had increased. In those
three months some $4,000 more ci-
villains had got on.
Since Japan surrendered there
have been some war agencies "liQui-
dated" but examination shows that
the liquidation was slightly phony
and that thousands of the job-hold-
ers in the "liquidated" agencies had,
in fact, merely been transferred to
other departments.
OWL Cited as Example,
For example, the remnant of the
Once of War Information has gone
over to the State Department. In
addition, the State Department also
has taken over the personnel Of the
Once Of Strategic Services, pre-
sumably with the view of strength
ening its intelligence division.
This is contrary to the recon-
mendation Of Maj. Gen. w. J. Dono-
van, former head of the OSS, who
had urged the President TO estab-
lisa single, eo-ordinated American
intelligence service under an inde-
pendent head. But it keeps q con-
siderable number of the OSS people
on the pay roll.
Unfortunately for the level of COM
potency in the State Department,
the personnel from both owl and
OSS thus taken over is by no means
the best, or even the average, of
these agencies. The best began to
get out right after the German sur
render and the next best have fol-
lowed into private fields with the
liquidation"
Obviously, those who remained
and who are now on the State De-
partment payroll are largely COM
posed Of men who had no other place
to go. The same thing is true of
other "liquidations"-that of the
Once of Economic Sterilization,
transferred to the Federal Loan
Administration; of the War Labor
Board, transferred to the Secretary
Of Labor. and of the Foreign Eco
nomic Administration, split between
State, Commerce and Agriculture
Departments.
In brief, none of these 'uquida-
tions" are complete. In every case a
large proportion Of the personnel
has simply been transferred from
one payroll to another. But even
more discouraging Is the tendency
to expand evidenced by department
after department. The largest Is in
the State Department, which has
absorbed a number Of totally in
congruous agencies.
But expansion on a large scale is
planned by both the Commerce and
Labor Departments. For the former.
Henry Wallace has burst forth
with an elaborate reorganization
scheme which concededly means
many more men, much more money
and quite lot more power for Mr..
Wallace. Mr.. Schwellenbach has
similar, though not quite 50 annbi-
tious, ideas.
No Firing of Useless.
Neither has any notion of dropping
useless employees, nor conceding for
q minute that there Is such q thing.
Neither has any idea of reducing his
department In size or cost. On the
contrary, both their hearts seem set
on expansion. The worst Of 1t is
that the President appears to ap-
prove, which means that the only
hope lies in Congress.
Possibly Congress may become
economy minded and not only refuse
any reorganization that adds to the
cost and cumbersomeness of gov
ernment but insist upon reductions
all along the line. This 1t could do