Evening star., 1953-07-25
A Near Miss on REORGANIZATION

Senator Morse was wholly right in ques-
tioning and then stopping, on point of order,
the surprising attempt of the Senate Appro-
prlat1onS Committee to Scuttle reorganization
OF the District Government.
1t is a good thing he was on the Job
During hearings on the District appropriation
bill there had been some testimony and discus
sion OF the progress of reorganization. Chair
man Dirksen. presiding at the hearings, had
been impressed by criticism of some of the
people in charge of the reorganization. Such
criticism is inevitable in any reorganization,
Tor any reorganization always creates resent
nent on the part of those who are being
reorganized.
No one suspected however that the Senate
Appropriations Committee, by inserting
legislative rider on the appropriations bill,
would seek to undo in few sentences much of
what has been accomplished in the past year
or so toward District reorganization-and at
the same time repudiate the action by Congress
which authorized reorganization
That is what Senator Dirksen, assisted by
Senator Case, tried to do. But for Senator
Morse's intervention they might have succeeded
and had the House concurred, local govern
mental reorganization as approved by Congress
would have gone down the drain.
Last year, after long debate over reorgan-
izatlon plans, finally settled by the interceSSion
and decision of President Truman, Reorgan-
1zatlon Plan No. OF 1882 was approved by
Congress. In the course of Senate considera-
tion of the measure, Senator Case made a
wise observation: 81 did not have in mind" he
said that the Congress would ever want to
retake to itself the handling of the details of
administrative adjustment or readjuStment"
In other words, the philosophy of the reorgan-
loot M rNln al oE4
the Commissioners to proceed along general
lines approved by Congress, and it is curious
that Senator Case, in supporting the rider,
ate his own words.
Under the reorganization plan, Budget
Ohicer Fower-who opposed it from the start
was made subordinate to the new Department
Of General Administration and it's director,
Schuyler Lowe. Under the provision slipped
Into the District appropriation bill, Mr.. Fowler
was made top dog again, with management
and budgetary responsibilities combined, and
the new position of Management Officer
abolished. The effect in general was to restore
the general Setup at the District Building
which existed before reorganization was begun.
Mr.. Fowler is an able executive. He is
highly regarded, as he should be, by the men,
bers of the Appropriations Committees in Con-
greSs, with whom he deals constantly He has
given able service throughout a long career
in Municipal employment. But if Congress is
going to base a reorganization scheme on the
personalities, instead of the principles involved
If it is going to reach out and undo everything
the Commissioners attempt to do in reorgan-
ization, and do it by the dubious method of
slipping riders into appropriations bills then
there is no sense in trying to reorganize the
District Government, and the Commissioners
might as we'll wash their hands of it and pass
the buck back to Congress
The Star does not agree with the wisdom of
everything that is being done in District reor-
ganization. But the Commissioners have been
given the responsibility to do what they decide
is best. The test of this or any other reorgan-
ization plan is results. 1t is that test, and not
personalities, with which Congress should be
concerned