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Show iyashlnton Digest j;,vernnicnt Ueorganizalion Plan 5 fails to Merge Similar Agencies r Initial Plan HH lVrpetuate All Agencies Crc- in Last Ton Years; Taxpayer A ill Save Lillle 5 From Proposed Consolidation Move. By WILLIAM BRUCKART n nH Service, National Tress Bldg., Washington, D. C. H.LGWN.-A I have often P in tfn-se columns, our led-Kment led-Kment is such a huge 00 -. I-'", it iS difficult for one m-V m-V S ,",(, gain a correct perspec-'H perspec-'H .machinery. That is to SI-'.? mi5hty hard to sit down. 1; i W the list and say : ,,-encies are worthwhile and , 'just another set of jobs. ' is incomprehensible. HTit is that when Mr. Roose-ecisinj Roose-ecisinj powers for reorganise reorgani-se government given him lat congress, submitted 1 u i" the other day. tew ?re who grasped the scope f.' ft WW. Equally, it is true persons were able, even i ;i itlljv, to point out all of the '". and all of the bad points, i; T--pi is p'an No-L 1 believe- y S after talking with many tfv-Wes, it should be said that Swboth good and bad points, jjCsbody ought to be so silly as Vy the statement President's executive order ;.J"eMbUshed three new major', lifa of government They are the sLrjl security agency, the fed-Ejal fed-Ejal mrks agency and the federal jtiseucy. Into these three groups Tproposed to bring some 20 .:. vS, b'jreaus and commissions, t "e great, some unimportant but soi which, in the last few years, ,!.; been dangling at loose ends. ' ; ' , v I' , s s 1 , X 4 r H ' Wfiiiirfi riant lilnWiiinf "in aii Carolina's Sen. James F. pes, whose bill to place relief ad- Iistration back in the states' cisis, according to Mr. Bruckart, 1 Hirjized by President Roosevelt's ts l:frnmeDtal reorganization plan " unifying and strengthening fed-pi fed-pi si relief agencies. --' wly all of them have been re-Rble re-Rble directly to the President, -'i)the President and congress. ,':,! of them worked at rvjss pur- ?5;,; many overlapped, and there i5 h attendant jealousy, conflicts V. 'K'jority, foolish resentment at other's attempts to function. -as evident that Mr. Roosevelt corralling of these mav- agencies would add to the effi-i effi-i , :rj.'of the machinery. That must 2 I wepterj as the fact because he It' congress there would be a sav-te:i,!l',y sav-te:i,!l',y about $20,000,000 annu-' annu-' anemic taxpayer, there- i '' -Sets nothing out of the picture. J Will Accompany in Mass Move j H,' ' ose who previously B, the independent, dangling, 6;, --nng type o bureau Qr board ft S?Sion? The Plan proposes ''em subject t a new boss 't-P,r;y ta Detween them and KlSi!ntr,Itdoesn'th'n8niore ii; u Uose examination ol ;-'J0.' 1 seems' therefore, to S3 t0,a b1ily transfer of each li , ?PS' taking with them all ,lfri-.a llulS as weil as 1 of their tfa M Atthe me time, it ES" i:t!-lBi 1 at Such a grouping will W something not visible on on.. ;. en several agencies, W teb-oul, 8 ln their own spheres, is : t: e i- Under one general head, sti l "'an,a ance that so"ie of the ii totwork will be elirr.i-h elirr.i-h iij-' !""tioned at the outset ""'-cis it , l f discovering these ther-f y are brught togeth-I togeth-I thtmre' someone surely will i is d ani eliminate them. If MIUvhI" 11 should be. there is "jt:to ft ?8 Hsht of a P"ible rt ',aXpayer- 0ne should Im,ber' hwever. that Cie! once cre- f';cr, a"been abandoned. The ifcHrll 'ethe bt lobbyists in .h brinn b':;c;in ihatS,UV the one definlte iip'ider, ,have heard about ifcSii S P'an -i-That ob- ' !WcC oredUCe tllescPe T'eihU8h t i ' t0 eXPreSS lhe 'r: plan No amriative man-excepti man-excepti W ' l)erPctuate with- uit w!very agency created SpNrgennv ,ears Under the guise Hto7 Nation, relief for a"d business reform. That is the one factor to which criticism ought to be applied. There is no doubt in my mind at all that the President's advisors, in drafting the consolidation plan, or the Presi-dent Presi-dent himself, dodged responsibility I suppose it may have been too much to expect, yet it does seem a better job could have been done in that direction. Why, for example, was the reorganization of this phase of government activities worked out with nothing to show in the way of abolition of some of these numerous agencies? It nppcars to me that if the eight or ten separate units that have been brought into the federal security agency were so closely related, re-lated, then some of those units could have been disbanded and such functions func-tions as necessary could have been lodged in the jurisdiction of the remaining re-maining bureaus. The same observation obser-vation applies to the federal works agency and the federal loan agency. Federal Relief System Remains Sore Spot I believe the creation of a federal works agency will accomplish a great deal of good, but it does not solve one of the festering sores, now and long since showing on the body politic. I refer to the federal relief system. While there will probably be no more of the fighting over the back-yard fence like tomcats, as did Secretary Ickes and Harry Hopkins, Hop-kins, the plan No. 1 does nothing to wipe out the pernicious political racketeering that Hopkins permitted permit-ted as head of WPA. Nor does it keep government money from being literally forced down the throats of towns for building public power plants or for other uses, only to create cre-ate debt upon the shoulders of those taxpayers, as Harold Ickes did. There is nothing in the program either that will eliminate the use ol federal funds, either through PWA or WPA, in spreading the effect ol federal policies into state govern ments. I have written before of how federal officials actually "govern" states or counties or municipalities by laying down rules which must be met before the money has been handed over. It is certain, therefore, that as far as public works is concerned and as far as public relief from the federal fed-eral treasury is concerned, Mr. Roosevelt has accomplished almost nothing at all except to make the heads of the two units report to one administrator who, in turn, will report re-port to the President. This makes it appear, moreover, that a real need exists for passage of the bill drafted by Senator Byrnes, South Carolina Democrat and one-time staunch New Dealer that would place relief back in the hands ol the states. Concerning a federal loan agency, however, there ought to be praise. That is, there can be better administration, admin-istration, better co-ordination of policy, pol-icy, if the President selects a sound man to serve as its head. Security Agency Is Plan's Hot Potato The federal security agency, if we have to have such stuff, is the hot potato of the whole collection in plan No. 1. Into that group, there will be placed the social security board, the national youth administration, the Civilian Conservation corps, the United States employment service, the public health service and the office of education. Just why such things as the public health service and the office of education should be tossed into that madhouse, no one seems to know. Under the reorganization act, congress con-gress has 60 days in which to examine ex-amine the President's plan, and approve ap-prove or disapprove. That is to say, congress must vote a resolution of disapproval within two months, or the plan becomes operative. There isn't the slightest chance that it will be rejected. One reason the proposal wil not be rejected, if there was ever any chance of it, is that one of the Republican members of the house played dumb. Representative Taber of New York could not wait; he introduced a resolution of rejection re-jection on the day following submission submis-sion of the plan No. 1, and he has just as much chance of accomplishing accomplish-ing his purpose as a snowball has in the nether regions. I do not infer that the President's proposal ought to be rejected. That might be the conclusion after experts have gone through it with a tine-toothed tine-toothed comb. On the surface, how ever. Mr. Taber provided no basis of prestige for the Republicans by his act, nor did he demonstrate his value as a national legislator. As for Republican tactics, especially on such matters as government reor ganization. they ought to distinguish between issues and making noise. 1 have a suspicion that Mr. Taper's resolution was as much welcomed by Democratic Leader Rayburn as it was disliked by the Republican side of the house. Certainly, it wil provide a measure of Democrats solidarity . . Western Newspaper Union. |