OUTLINE OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN RECOMMENDED BY THE PRESIDENT AND THE CABINET. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS. The outstanding recommendations are as follows: I. The coordination of the Military and Naval Establishments under a single Cabinet officer, as the Department of National Defense. II. The transfer of all nonmilitary functions from the War III. The elimination of all nonfiscal functions from the Treasury IV. The establishment of one new department-the Depart- V. The change of the name of the Post Office Department to VI. The attachment to the several departments of all inde- THE MORE IMPORTANT CHANGES, BY DEPARTMENTS. STATE DEPARTMENT. (a) The Bureau of Insular Affairs is transferred from the War Department to the Department of State. TREASURY DEPARTMENT. (a) The General Accounting Office, now an independent establishment, is transferred to the Treasury Department. (b) The following bureaus, now in the Treasury Department, are transferred to other departments, as noted: Bureau or office. Bureau of the Budget... General Supply Committee.. Public Health Service.. Coast Guard... Supervising Architect's Office. Transferred to Independent establishment. 1A Bureau of Purchase and Supply is proposed. to be an independent establishment. It would assume the functions now performed by the General Supply Committee. The Coast Guard is now composed of the former Revenue Cutter and Life Saving Services (consolidated by the act approved January 28, 1915). It is proposed that the Revenue Cutter Service shall be transferred to the Naval Establishment (Department of Defense) and the Life Saving Service to the Department of Commerce. WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. (a) These departments are placed under a single Cabinet officer, as the Department of Defense. Three Undersecretaries are provided: For the Army, for the Navy, and for National Resources. (b) The nonmilitary engineering activities of the War Department, including the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, the District and Division Engineer Offices, the Mississippi River and California Débris Commissions, the Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, and the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds (District of Columbia), are transferred to the Department of the Interior. (c) The marine activities of the War Department, including the Lake Survey Office, the Inland and Coastwise Waterways Service, and the Supervisor of New York Harbor, are transferred to the Department of Commerce. (d) The Bureau of Insular Affairs is transferred from the War Department to the Department of State. (e) The Hydrographic Office and the Naval Observatory are transferred from the Navy Department to the Department of Commerce. (f) The Revenue Cutter Service, now a part of the Coast Guard in the Treasury Department, is transferred from that department to the Naval Establishment. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. (a) The Interior Department is given two major functions: The administration of the public domain and the construction and maintenance of public works. The subdivisions of the department are grouped accordingly under two Assistant Secretaries. (b) The educational and health activities of the department, including the Bureau of Education, Indian Schools, Howard University, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, St. Elizabeths Hospital, and Freedmen's Hospital, together with the Bureau of Pensions, are transferred to the new Department of Education and Welfare. (c) The Bureau of Mines and the Patent Office are transferred to the Department of Commerce. 3 (d) The nonmilitary engineering activities of the War Department* are transferred to the Department of the Interior, as is also control over the National Military Parks. (e)_The Supervising Architect's Office is transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of the Interior. (f) The Bureau of Public Roads is transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior. (g) The functions of the Federal Power Commission, an independent establishment, are transferred to the Department of the Interior. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. (a) The solicitors of the several departments, now nominally under the control of the Department of Justice, are transferred to the departments to which they are respectively attached. 3 Except the Government fuel yards, which is to become a part of the proposed Bureau of Purchase and Supply (independent). See (b) under War and Navy Departments, above. (b) The Office of the Alien Property Custodian, now an independent establishment, is transferred to the Department of Justice.. (c) The administration of United States prisons is transferred from the Department of Justice to the Department of Education and Welfare. DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS. (a) The Post Office Department is renamed as the Department of Communications. The only important change contemplated is the addition of a bureau to develop and extend telephone and telegraph communications, including wireless, for the general public benefit. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. (a) The Bureau of Public Roads is transferred to the Department of the Interior. (b) The Botanic Garden is transferred from congressional supervision to the control of the Department of Agriculture. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. (a) The Department of Commerce is given three major functions: The promotion of industry, the promotion of trade, and the development, regulation, and protection of the merchant marine. The subdivisions of the department are organized accordingly, under three Assistant Secretaries. (b) The Bureau of Mines and the Patent Office are transferred to the Department of Commerce from the Department of the Interior, as well as the compilation of statistics of mineral production.5 (c) The Lake Survey, the Inland and Coastwise Waterways Service, the supervisor of New York Harbor, and the compilation of statistics of internal commerce are transferred from the War Department to the Department of Commerce. (d) The Hydrographic Office and the Naval Observatory are transferred from the Navy Department to the Department of Com merce. (e) The Life Saving Service is transferred from the Treasury Department (Coast Guard) to the Department of Commerce, which is given control likewise over the United States Section of the InterAmerican High Commission, now in the Treasury Department. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. (a) The functions of the Women's and Children's Bureaus, except such as relate to women and children in industry, are transferred to the Department of Education and Welfare. • Statistics of mineral production are compiled by the Geological Survey, of the Interior Department. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND WELFARE. (a) This is a new department, to have four major subdivisions, each in charge of an Assistant Secretary, as follows: Education. Social Service. Veteran Relief. (b) Existing bureaus and offices to be transferred to the Department of Education and Welfare are as follows: From the Department of the Interior: Bureau of Education. From the War Department: Soldiers' Home. From the Department of Justice: Office of the Superintendent of Prisons. Independent establishments: Smithsonian Institution." Federal Board for Vocational Education. Veterans' Bureau. INDEPENDENT ESTABLISHMENTS. (a) To the greatest possible extent, the existing independent establishments have been placed under the administrative supervision of some department. Only those remain which are quasi judicial in character, necessitating a board or commission form of organization, or which perform a service function for all branches of the Government. These are as follows: Commissions, boards, etc.: Civil Service Commission. Emergency Fleet Corporation. Tariff Commission. Interstate Commerce Commission. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Reserve Board. War Finance Corporation. • There is some doubt, considering the legal character of the Smithsonian Institution, whether it can be incorporated in a Government department. Its functions, however, are in harmony with those of the proposed Department of Education and Welfare, and the propriety of its inclusion therein is unquestio sed if it can legally be accomplished. |