THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Fridav by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 610
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, April 4, 1949
THE NEW TRY AT FEDERAL RE-ORGANIZATION
(By Clarke Beach)
For 37 years one President or another has been at
tempting to reorganize the executive branch of the gov
ernment. Bits and pieces of the badly assembled struc-!
ture have been reshaped and re-arranged here and
there. But no plan for a thorough reshuffling ever got'
to first base.
Experts of public administration won’t be surprised!
if the present proposal by Herbert Hoover’s Commis
sion on Government Organization bogged down. Yet1
they have some hope that this plan will succeed.
The first President to send a reorganization plan to;
the Congressional executioners’ block was William.
Howard Taft. He had a commission study the matter for
two years and submitted his plan in 1912.
Although Congress did nothing about it at the time,
some of its features were adopted in later years. It gave
impetus to the government pension and retirement pro-'
grams. To it the Budget Bureau and the General Ac
counting Office owe their lives.
In 1920. as soon as the first world war was out of the
way, a group of private citizens formed the National
Budget Committee, made a study and submitted a re
organization proposal.
In 1923 the movement flared in a spectacular fizzle. A
joint Congressional committee studied the matter. The
Brookings Institution submitted a plan. Then President
Harding placed a reorganization program before Con
gress. It was sent to the joint committee and was reject
ed. Instead the committee recommended a plan of its
own to Congress, and Congress turned it down.
Herbert Hoover seems to have been the next man to,
give serious consideration to the matter. When he was;
secretary of commerce, he made some far reaching re
organization proposals primarily affecting his own
department.
In 1932 .Hoover managed to get Congress to pass the
“Economy Act of 1932,” which gave him authority to,
effect reorganizations, subject to veto by either house of |
Congress. But he sent his plan to Congress in December!
1932, a month after his defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The House of Representatives promptly killed it.
President Roosevelt in his first year in office got the
broadest re-organization authority ever given to a pres
ident. He could have reorganized through executive or
der any part of the government—no exemptions—and
only legislation by both Houses of Congress could have
nullified his order. The bill was an amendment to the
Economy Act of 1932.
Although armed with such powers, Roosevelt effect
ed no broad re-organization. His chief reforms in 1933
and 1934 were the creation of the Farm Credit Adminis
tration, consolidating various agricultural credit agen
cies; creation of the procurement division within the
Treasury, the first central purchasing agency; central
izing all federal disbursing in the Treasury; and consol
idating the immigration and naturalization services
within the Labor Department.
Re-organization became a big issue again in 1937,
when a Senate committee had the Brookings Institution
make another study of the problem. Then the President
appointed a Committee on Administrative Manage
ment, headed by Louis Brownlow.
A re-organization act was adopted in 1939, based pri
marily on the Brownlow report. It gave the President
authority to effect re-organizations, subject to a veto by
both houses of Congress within 60 days. It exempted
about 20 agencies, however, from re-organization, thus
making a thorough shake-up impossible.
Roosevelt promulgated two reorganization orders in
'1939 and three in 1940. Congress didn’t reject any of
WHAT IS THIS - VOODOO ?
them.
The first plan was the most far-reaching re-organiza
tion ever accomplished. It created the Executive Office
of the President, the Federal Security Agency, the Fed
eral Works Agency and the Federal Loan Agency—
drawing into them units which had been scattered
throughout the government.
The re-organization act expired in 1941 but was re
enacted in 1945. Before the 1945 act expired last year,
President Truman had submitted seven re-organization
plans. Three were rejected, but one of these, establish
ing a permanent Federal Housing Agency, was later ap
proved. All of these re-organization plans did some
good, in the opinion of public administration specialists.
But, they say, none of them attacked the problem on a
broad front.
Hoover Commission reports indicate that its members
feel that inefficiency and waste will not be eliminated
until the whole federal system of purchasing, personn 4
procurement and administrative management is over
hauled.
IN THE INTEREST OF THE U. S.
Wartime lend-lease shipments to thirty-eight Allies
cost the United States $50,205,229,788 in the seven-year
period from March 11, 1941.
The figures are from a report made by the President
to Congress, which discloses that aircraft and aeronau
tical supplies constituted the most expensive item and
that the next category covered vessels and other water
craft.
While this is a tremendous sum of money, it would be
a mistake for the people of the United States to accept
the theory that it represented a gift to other fighting na
tions. Mainly, the assistance was in the national interest
of the United States and is to be justified solely on the
basis of our self-interest.
One should not overlook that the justification for the
European Recovery Program is not humanitarian, or
representative of an idealistic attempt to help mankind
It represents cold-blooded calculation as to the interests
of the United States. These require that, if possible, the
Western nations of Europe become self-supporting
from an economic standpoint and strong enough to de
fend their territory from aggression These goals, if
achieved, mean much to the security and safety of the
United States.
Here are some economic statistics that you can inter
pret for yourself:
There were 3,200,000 unemployed in February, which
was the highest number of people out of work since the
war. During the same month, there were 57,168,000 per
sons at work, which was the highest total employment
for the month of February on record.
The explanation seems to be in the greatly increased
number of people at work and “seeking work.” Inciden
tally, of those out of work, 1,803,916 were getting job
less benefits at the end of February.
Heated Pro And
A nt i-Gruening
Arguments Heard
• Contincd from Page One)
ing denied that he had been in
strumental in any way in having
the road built.
He said the road was built un
der authority of the Territorial
highway engineer at a time when
he <Gruening> was absent from
Alaska on business. He added that
it was comparable to other roads
constructed to develop forest serv
ice homesite areas .
“Had I been there, I would cer
tainly have opposed this road be
ing built,” Gruening said.
He told the committee that in
the first place he did not want the
road near his summer home, and
that in the second place He would
have been aware of the implica
tions that would be attached to it.
Resides Jensen, those testifying
against Gruening included Frank
Angerman of Fairbanks, and
George J. Miscovich, also mem
bers of the Territorial legislature:
Charles D. Jones of Nome, a min
ing man and Territorial Senator. *
Captain A. E. Lathrop, owner of a
number of business enterprises in
Cordova, Anchorage and Fair
banks; and A. H. Ziegler, Ketchi
kan attorney.
Lathrop asked the committee to
confirm a “new governor—some
one who can dispel much of the
political bitterness w h i c h has
marked our legislative sessions
during the past nine years—some
one whose policies will attract in
vestmenfc capital to the Territory
and at the same time who will sin
cerely fight for labor’s rights—not
use labor for political purposes."
Supporters included 'Stanley
McCutchcon, speaker of the Terri
torial House; Col. Marvin Marston
commander of the Arctic Guard
during the war; Mayor Z. J. Lous
sac of Anchorage; Simeon Olive’-,
Anchorage, Eskimo concert pian
ist and author; William L. Raker,
publisher of the Ketchikan chron
icle; Mrs. Irene Ryan, Anchorage
mining engineer: Joe Nashalook.
Unalakleet Eskimo, a fisherman's
union official; and Rep. Alfred
Owen, vice president of the Alas
ka Territorial federation (if labor.
Tne seven opposition witnesses
contended that Gruening’s opposi
tion to absentee ownership and
“vested interests” had prevented
investment capital from coming to
the Territory. They also charged
his tax program adopted at the
last session of the legislature
would injure the Territory.
Proponents of the governor’s ap
pointment told the committee
Gruening in nine years had trans
formed the Territory from a “wil
derness” to a thriving community
that is progressing rapidly.
Nine of 44 supporters of the gov
ernor, who came from Alaska to
attend the hearing, testified.
They said he had been a good,
progressive governor who had the
interests of the people at heart.
They approved of his tax pro
gram.
They said the Territory had to
have the added money, some $1R.
000,000 for rehabilitation of the
school system, the public health
program and expansion of other
Territorial activities.
Gruening testified that since he
became governor nine years ago.
the Territory had had no tax pro
gram until 75 days ago.
Then he said, the legislature
levied income taxes, property
taxes, business license taxes and
increased the salmon case taxes.
Until this year’s legislative «es
<Continued on Page Seven)