Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

new Federal Reserve system; the Federal Trade Commission, under the act of September 26, 1914, to take over from the Department of Commerce the function of investigating and correcting unfair competition by those engaged in interstate commerce; the Council of National Defense, established by the act of August 29, 1916, to make dispositions for the entry of the United States into the World War; and the Shipping Board, established by act of September 7, 1916, to regulate carriers by water engaged in interstate and foreign commerce, and to encourage the development of an American merchant marine. Of all the independent commissions authorized by the government none has been the hot bed of scandal equal to the Shipping Board.

A number of minor boards were established during the same years such as the Bureau of Efficiency, originally set up as a division of the Civil Service Commission; the Board of Mediation and Conciliation; the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Employees Compensation Commission; the Tariff Commission, and the Federal Board for Vocational Education. The war with Germany resulted in an extraordinary expansion of the executive service, and new boards and commissions sprang up like mushrooms. Many new organizations were added to those already in existence, while those in existence had their powers greatly enlarged. A report by the Joint Committee on Reorganization of the Executive Departments thus speaks of the enlargement of powers and establishment of outside agencies:

The Shipping Board was given, under war legislation, comprehensive authority over all phases of the shipping problem which confronted the United States during the war, including the authority to purchase, construct, equip, lease, charter, maintain and operate ships for the government as a part of the war program. This establishment, with its auxiliary, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, was one of the outstanding agencies of the period. The Council of National Defense extended its organization, largely recruited on a volunteer basis, throughout the entire country, aiding in a hundred ways the permanent establishments of the government in the conduct of the war program. The Federal Reserve Board, as controlling head of the Federal Reserve banking system, through which the Liberty loans were principally financed, was a tremendous support to the Treasury. The Federal Trade Commission administered the provisions of the trading-with-the-enemy act relating to enemy-owned or controlled letters patent, and made important investigations into production costs to serve as the basis of price regulation.

By executive or administrative action, if not by legislation, literally scores of new agencies came into being during this period. Some were given departmental affiliation, but many operated virtually as independent establishments. Perhaps the most important of these were the office of the alien property custodian, established on October 22, 1917, under the provisions of the "trading with the enemy" act of October 6, 1917, to discover, take over, administer, and dsipose of enemy owned property in the United States and its territories; the Railroad Administration, organized under the proclamation of the President dated December 26, 1917, for the purpose of operating the railroads during the period of federal control; the War Finance Corporation, created by the act of April 5, 1918, to provide financial assistance to enterprises engaged in the production of war materials or in other operations contributory to the successful prosecution of the war; the War Industries Board, created July 28, 1917, by the Council of National Defense, to facilitate the

I

production of war materials with the minimum dislocation of industry; the War Trade Board, established by executive order of October 12, 1917, primarily to restrict the trade of enemy countries; and the Food and Fuel Administrations, created by the President in August, 1917.

During the war there was established in the Department of the Treasury a Bureau of War Risk Insurance for the purpose of insuring the lives of our soldiers and sailors, providing them compensation for disabilities incurred in line of duty, and paying allotments and allowances to their dependents. This bureau has given place to the Veterans' Bureau, which must of necessity function for many years to come. It controls and directs in the establishment and management of hospitals for the treatment of war veterans, and the arrangements for vocational education for those desiring such. Many of the outside boards set up during the war have gone out of existence, for instance such as the Food Commission, the Coal Commission, and the Railroad Administration.

Under the present departmental system there is much duplication of activities, occasionally resulting in serious complications. Many efforts to remedy this condition have been made, but up to this time nothing definite has been reached. At the session of Congress in 1920 a joint committee was raised to make an investigation and recommendations as to a complete reorganization, looking to the transference of bureaus from one department to another to more equally co-ordinate the work. The creation of two new executive departments have been suggested and urged upon Congress. One of the proposals is for the establishment of a Department of Education and Relief. On this the Committee on Reorganization says in its report:

The proposed establishment of a department of education and relief rests solely upon the ground that the existing agencies doing work in these three fields, although scattered among several departments and establishments of the government, have a real community of aims, have many points of contact, and to some extent duplicate each other's equipment if not actually each other's work; and could, therefore, be administered with greater singleness of purpose, with less cost, and with improved practical efficiency, if they were assembled under the same administrative supervision.

This will be evident from a general classification of the activities proposed to be drawn into the Department of Education and Relief. They fall into three groups: First, the educational group, consisting of the Bureau of Education, Howard University, and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, all now either actually or nominally under the Interior Department, and the Federal Board for Vocational Education, now an independent establishment; second, the health group, including the Public Health Service of the Treasury Department, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and Freedmen's Hospital of the Interior Department; and, finally, the veteran relief group, consisting of the independent Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, an independent establishment which the committee proposes should be given affiliation with the new department.

[graphic][merged small]

Back Row (left to right)-CALVIN COOLIDGE, ANDREW W. MELLON, HARLAN FISKE STONE, CURTIS D.
WILBUR, HOWARD M. GORE and JAMES J. DAVIS. Front Row (left to right)-CHARLES E. HUGHES,
JOHN W. WEEKS, HARRY S. NEW, HUBERT WORK and HERBERT HOOVER.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »