U.S.A. CABINET

Wairarapa Age, 18 March 1929, Page 6

U.S.A. CABINET

What of its Future?

As the United. States has grown, in population and in prosperity the Calls upon the National Government have become greater, with the result that rhere have been gradual additions to the President’s Cabinet. To-day it has reached the figure of ten. How

mg that total will .stand is a queson. When the Department of the Inter-

ior was established in 1849 it appeared that, after a long period of development, the Cabinet, with seven members, had reached maturity. Indeed, it seemed, probable for a (time that this number would bo final for it remainei unchanged forty years. At 9VS that time the Department of Agricui ture was established, and in 1903 th proponents of a Depozctmanto fiM" meree and the advocs.es of a Secretary of Labour were rewarded by establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labour. Further reorganization in 1913, when the Department of Labour was constituted, brought tho Cabinet to its present size. Every Congress sees the introduction of bills for new departments. Advocates of a Department of Public Works hold the hope that President-elect Hoover, as an engineer, will, favour the transfer of the major activities of the Department of the Interior, along with other scattered bureaus, to the new department proposed by this group. If this is Jone, ask friends of a Department of Education, will it not be advisable to elevate the Bureau of Education to an independent department? Others advocate a Welfare Department. and this interest was joined with education in the reorganization! programme considered under President Harding. Similarly, a Department of Education and relief has been indorsed by the Republican platform of 1924 and recommended by President Coolidge in his annual message to Congress in December, 1927. That health, too, should have more attention at Washington is argued by those who favour a Department of Health or the combination of this interest in a Department of Welfare, or a Department of Education. Within recent years aviation has made isueh strides that it is demanding much attention at Washington. Activities in its behalf, however, are divided between the Departments 'of War, Navy and Commerce. Many people favour establishment of a Department of Aviation, while others ad-; vocate reorganization of existing departments to combine War, Navy and Aviation in one department. Speaking of governmental reorganii-' sation in hiis acceptance .speech Presi-dent-elect Hoe ver point out the ”incoaiiSLstency of Government policies and the duplicator of governmental activities’ } through the “ scattering of functions and the great confusion of responsibility in our federal ■organization. ” He specified that there are {l fourteen different bureaus or agencies engaged in public works” and ‘‘eight different bureaus and agencies charged with conservation of our natural resources.” As a remedy, he offered the following: Our Republican Presidents have repeatedly recommended to Congress that it would not only greatly reduce Sax-pens-es of business in their contacts with government, but that a great reduction could be made in Governmental expenditure and more consistent and continued national policies could be developed if we could secure the grouping of these agencies devoted to one major purpose under single responsibility and authority, I have had the good fortune to be able to carry out such reorganization in respect to tjje Department of Commerce. The results have amply justified its expansion to other departments, and I should consider it an obligation to enlist the support of Congress to effect it. In the light of that pledge, and considering the President-elect’s past record, there can be little doubt that reorganization of th executive departments of the Government will be undertaken in the next Administration. Just what changes will be made in. the Cabinet remains to be seen. In the past, new Cabinet offices have come into being only after long discussion. The -sole exceptions have been the Departments of State, War and Treasury, and fhose had already been in existence under the Continental Congress for some time before th Constitution was adopted. Before the Department of the Navy was added in 1798 there had been heated arguments i for and against its establishment. The movement was opposed on political grounds as being Federalist. It was in disfavour with the southern agriculturists, while commercial New England supported it. A Navy Department had been considered by many people as unnecessary and only added expense for the Governmnt. The same argument was raised against a Home Department, which had been disciftsed from the first Congress on. Debate on this question went went on intermittently for sixty years before the Department of the Interior was finally esablished. The Department of Agriculture remained an independent office, or bureau, without Cabinet representation, for twenty-seven years before it was elevated to the rank of an executive department. New departments, it is apparent, have not come into being over night. Whether any of the forces now advocating additions to the Cabinet will succeed in the coming Administration, or will have their demands met by general reorganization of the executive departments, is a question that only the future can answer.—By G.S. in the “ Christian Science Monitor.”