Show Brit charts washington digest 0 government reorganization plan fails to merge similar agencies presidential plan will perpetuate all agencies created in last ten years T taxpayer taxpayer will save little froni from proposed consolidation move by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press ilide washington 1 D ic washington As I 1 have often observed in these columns our fed eral government Is such a huge oc that it Is difficult for or ono one in to gain a correct per spec tive of tho the machinery that Is to tc say eay it is mighty hard to sit down thumb through tile tho list and say which agencies are arc worthwhile and which ore are just another set of jobs tho the thing Is incomprehensible and so it is that when mr roosevelt exercising powers for reorganization z a tion ot of tho the government given him by tho the last congress submitted plan no I 1 tho the other day few there wore were who grasped tho the scope of tile the move equally it is true that low lew persons were able oven even after study to point out all of the good points and all ot of tho the bad points 11 BO 0 complex Is plan no 1 1 I believe however after talking with many authorities it should bo be said that there are both good and bad points and nobody ought to bo be so silly filly as to deny tho the statement tho the presidents executive order has established three now new major units of 0 government they are the federal security agency tho the fed eral cral works agency and tho the federal loan agency into these three groups it is proposed to bring sonia some 20 boards bureaus and commissions some great some unimportant but most of which in tho the last few years have been dangling at loose ends F K v 1 i p 4 1 I 1 at kg 5 A south carolinas sen james F byrnes byrncs whose bill to place relief administration back in the states hands Is according to mr Druc bruckart kart jeopardized by president Roosevel ts governmental reorganization plan for unifying and strengthening federal relief cles nearly all of them have been responsible directly to we the president or to the president and congress many of them worked at ross pur poses many overlapped and there was the attendant jealousy conflicts ot authority foolish resentment at each others attempts to function it was evident that mr roosevelt hoped the corralling ot of these maverick agencies would add to the efficiency of the machinery that must be accepted as the fact because he told congre congles con gres s there would bo be a saving of 01 only about annually the anemic taxpayer therefore gets nothing out of the I 1 picture faults will accompany virtues in mass move but what of those who p previously re headed the independent dangling wandering type of bureau or board or commission the plan proposes to make them subject to a new boss somebody in between them and th the a president it does nothing more than that close examination of plan no I 1 seems therefore to amount to a bodily transfer of each of these setups taking with them all of their faults as well as all of their good qualities at the same time it is possible that such a grouping will accomplish something not visible on its surface when several agencies now operating in their own spheres are brought under one general head there Is a chance that some of tho the overlapping of work will bo be eliminated I 1 mentioned at the outset the difficulty of discovering these conflicts it if they are brought together therefore someone surely will find them and eliminate them it if that is done as it should be there is just a twinkling light of a possible saying saving to the taxpayer ono one should always remember however that few government agencies on 0 created have ever been abandoned the jobholders ob holders are the best lobbyists hobbyists in the world which brings us to the one defan definite to objection that I 1 have heard about the presidents plan no 1 I that objection is that nowhere in it is there any effort made to reduce the scope of government or to express the same thought in an affirmative manner plan no I 1 will perpetuate without exception every agency created in the last 10 years under the guise of emergency legislation relief tor for the destitute and business reform that Is tile the wo gio factor to which criticism ought lo 10 to bo be applied there Is no doubt in my mind at all that tho the presidents advisors in drafting the consolidation plan or tho the president himself dodged responsibility I 1 suppose it may have been too much to expect yet it does docs seem a bettor better job could have been done dona in that direction why tor for example was tile the reorganization of this phase of government activities worked out with nothing to show in tho the way of abolition of some of these numerous agencies it appears to me that it if tho the eight or ten separate units unit that have been brought into tho the federal security agency were so closely related then some of those units could have been disbanded and such functions as necessary could have been lodged in the jurisdiction of tho the remaining bureaus the samo same observation applies to tho the federal works agency and tho the federal loan agency j federal relief system remains sore spot I 1 believe tho the creation of a federal works agency will accomplish ft a great rest deal of good but it does docs not 0 solve o lve one of the festering sores now and long since showing on the body politic I 1 refer to the federal relief system while thero there will probably bo be no more of tho the fighting over the backyard back yard fence like tomcats tom toni cats as did secretary ickes and harry hopkins tho the plan no I 1 does nothing to alpo out the pernicious political racketeering that hopkins permitted as head of nor does it keep government money from being literally forced down the throats off of towns tor for building public power plants or for other uses only to create debt upon the shoulders of those taxpayers as harold ickes did there Is nothing in the program elther cither that will aiu eliminate the use of federal funds either through or in spreading the effect of federal policies into state governments I 1 have written before of how federal officials actually govern states or counties or municipalities by laying down rules which must be met before the iffie money has been handed over it Is certain therefore that as for far as public works Is concerned and as tar far as public relief from the federal eral treasury is concerned mr roosevelt has accomplished almost nothing at all except to make the heads of 0 the two units report to one administrator who in turn will report to the president this makes it appear moreover that a 0 real need exists for passage of the bill drafted by senator byrnes south carolina democrat and onetime one time staunch new dealer that would place relief back in the hands of the states concerning a federal loan agency however there ought to be praise that Is there can be better administration better ordination coordination co of policy it if the president selects a sound man to serve as its head security agency Is plans plan hot potato tho the federal security agency if we have to have such stuff stud 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 Ci civilian villan 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 has CO 60 days in which to examine the presidents plan and approve or disapprove that is to say congress must vote a resolution of disapproval within two months or the plan becomes operative there isalt 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 tabor taber of now new york could not wait he introduced a resolution of rejection on the tha day following submission of the plan no 1 and ho he lias has just as much chance of accomplishing his purpose as a snowball has in the nether regions I 1 do not inter infer that the presidents proposal ought to be rejected that might be the conclusion after experts have gone through it with a fine toothed comb on the surface however mr air 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 reorganization thoy tasy ought to distinguish between issues and making noise I 1 have a suspicion that mr air tabers tabera resolution was as much wel welcomed coded by democratic leader dayburn as it was disliked by the republican side of the house certainly it will provide a measure of democratic solidarity C western newspaper union |