HOLDING UP THE MIRROR

From the effect on Congress of Mr. Roosevelt's startling message, the average citizen may have fair cause to tremble and wonder what is really happening at the White House. Probably some of the distinguished senators on Capitol Hill are also apprehensive of the President's latest scheme, and if they dare to speak at the facts behind the shrewd dialectics of the Brownlow Committee, they may find Mr. Roosevelt adding buckets of water to his basin of power. Soon the whole country must know whether the President has at last expressed his true intentions.

An extension and complete modernization of the executive branch of the government, on a scale surpassing any proposal of reform before, is suggested by Mr. Roosevelt, in favoring the report of the Brownlow Committee on Public Administration. He plans to absorb 100 commissions, bureaus, and agencies into twelve departments, including two new cabinet posts, so that he may keep his finger on all with greater ease. The White House management will be enlarged by six executive assistants, with "a passion for anonymity"; from top to bottom federal personnel will go under civil service. All these suggestions tend to center power in the President, as the channels of authority to the twelve departments will be cleared of every obstacle and direct responsibility to the White House emphasized. To counteract this tendency, Mr. Roosevelt proposes that Congress make the executive accountable by an independent audit of his financial transactions.

The revamping of the civil service may be camouflage to anchor the present recipients of New Deal patronage. For years no Democrat now in office who gave his all to the campaigns of '32 and '36 would have to worry about bread and butter. Although the suggested department of social welfare consolidates a multitude of agencies, there appears no good reason why Public Works should be rated important enough for a separate department, Terming the Interstate Commerce Commission a "headless, fourth branch of the Government, over which the constitutional Chief Executive has little control," the Brownlow Committee reveals how clearly it worked with the President and how it thought of his precious power.

To get his bold reform through Congress, Mr. Roosevelt characteristically asks for general authority and leaves the details to be worked out after Congress has handed over the sword; in other words, when it is too late to change anything. The President complains he is so overworked that he cannot adequately discharge his duties, while, in corroboration, the Brownlow Committee believes that the executive branch has grown up haphazardly. As an added enticement to Congress, it is thought that the whole idea saves the "most costly bureaucracy in history" thirty millions.

There is no doubt that this comprehensive program of reform is an excellent remedy for the evils of our formless executive branch and that it will give the federal government a modern, efficient management, with elimination of much waste. Yet it cannot be forgotten that at the same time Mr. Roosevelt is manifesting his desire for more power.