Evening star., 1948-10-06

|
ernmental re-
organiza o n q
proposals. That's
why the group BE-
faces such hard
work during the & IN
next three "
months in draft
ing the legisla- Joseph 4'ans'
tive recommendations that it must
make to Congress in January.
/ One difference of opinion is said
to exist on whether to group all
independent Federal agencies on a
departmental basis under Cabinet
supervision This is favored by some
who feel that the current setup is
too loose and unwieldly. with too
little supervision by the White
House and Budget Bureau. Others
oppose this move for all bureaus.
asserting that this wor$S only make
things more confusing.
! There are pro and con opinions
on suggestions to combine Federal
agencies dealing with transportation
into new Department of Trans
portation. create new Department
of Public Power. new Department
of Public Works. a new department
of Public Health and transfer the
Forestry Division from Agriculture
to the Interior Department.
Also, there are two different pro-
posals on what to do with the Gov
ernments various housing agencies.
One would merge them into d new
Department of Finance. and the
other would transfer all the housing
units to the Federal Works Agency.
Insiders say that undoubtedly the
commission will recommend the
merging of a number of Federal
agencies, now ding similar work,
into some new departments. But the
undecided thing, at the moment, is
which shifts will be made and which
will be left untouched.
Also undecided at the moment are
questions of administrative and per-
sonnel procedure, with various COM
mission members having conflicting
ideas on what can be done to i'm
prove personnel relations in the
Government and increase efhciency
in the Federal service.
As yet no decision has been reached
on creating new Department OF
Administration. which would include
the Budget Bureau, Civil Service
Commission and several other Gov
ernment units. However. there is
strong sentiment in favor OF such
a recommendation
one e-man administrator setup for the
Civil Service Commission, instead Of
the present three-member system
But. here again, nothing has been
decided.
PUBLIC WORKS Incidentally.
there are reports that, If a new
Department of Public Works Is
created. 1t would be headed by
Robert Moses. New York Park Com
mission and City Planner. who head
ed a task force for the commission,
which examined the Government
public works activities.
Mr.. Moses is we'll thought of both
in New York City and in Govern
ment circles here.
x *
FCC-Some officials at the Federal
Communica tions Commission are
predicting that Commissioner Robert
= r,,t11 hannrnA oh q irYoan nj
the FEC, If Mr.. Dewey is elected.
Mr.. Jones was q Republican mem
ber Of Congress from Ohio until his
appointment to the FEC last year
by President Truman.
RED CHARGE-The American
Legions subcommittee on SubVersive
activities has made the surprising
charge that there is growing Com
munist strength" in the old-lipe,
conservative AFL National Fedora
ton of Post ONCE Clerks.
Until now, the CIO United Public
Workers of America has been the
only Government employees union
that has been accused by various
critics of permitting Communist
lnfiltratiop.
The Legion's report on the 5000
member AFL Postal Clerks Union
declares:
Because of their civil service
status, all post office Communists
/ have been extremely cagey about
any out and out Communist activ-
ity. They are all 'progressives' or
liberals and studiously refrain from
open party-line work"
The Legion's charge has been
angrily denied by the unions ofh-
cials. E. C. Hallbeck, secretary
treasurer of the postal clerks, says:
! Our union has always been op-
posed to communism and to any
Communists in our midst. Our ofh-
cial policy on the issue of Com
munists in our union was adopted
at our 1916 convention and it spe-
cifically bans Communists from our
membership. .
"Of course, in these days, it Is
very easy for a progressive or lib
eral to get branded with the Com
munist label. But as for actual
Communists, we don't want any part
of them, and that always has been
and will always be our policy
Top Government security officials
long have been aware of the Amer
ican Communists attempt to get
foothold in the country's communi-
cations systems. But Mr.. Hallbeck
is emphatic in denying that there
are any Communistic activities in
his union.
*
AGRICULTURE DEPT.-Philip E.
Nelson has been appointed chief Of
the Production and Marketing Ad-
ministration's dairy branch, one Of
the top jobs in the Agriculture De-
partment.
Mr.. Nelson moves over from the