Reorganization plan

“ It is of supreme importance that a reorganized company be well started on its way by men who have an interest in making the reorganization plan permanently successful, and that conservative direction be assured383 until danger of bankruptcy be past. For this reason we should expect the use of voting trusts to increase in direct relation to the seriousness of the difficulties experienced, and to the vividness with which the need for stability is felt. ”

“ Thus, these findings are not published in the Federal Register or reproduced in CFR Title 3 compilations.
Presidential Reorganization Plans
Congress first authorized the President to propose plans for the reorganization of the executive departments and agencies in a 1939 statute. [56] The objective of such reconfigurations was to achieve efficiency and economy in administration. A presidential reorganization plan, submitted to Congress, became effective after 60 days unless both houses of Congress adopted a concurrent resolution of disapproval. ”

“ The message shall also estimate any reduction or increase in expenditures (itemized so far as practicable) , and describe any improvements in management, delivery of Federal services, execution of the laws, and increases in efficiency of Government operations, which it is expected will be realized as a result of the reorganizations included in the plan. ”

“ Such phenomena are already observable everywhere, the ruin of feeble corporations by the state, its constant tendency to interference, to the absorption of every special service and the descent of power into the hands of a numerical majority.—What plan, then, governs these societies in the way of reorganization, and, since they all belong to a common type, what are the common resources and difficulties of adaptation? ”

“ If, then, his plan of reorganization for the civil service is intended to be set up without consulting the popular inclination, or possibly even in opposition to it, he may well stand hesitant as to his likelihood of success. The question may confront him at once: Is the organization of a permanent official class in the administration of the general government likely to accord with the desires of the people? ”

“ In public administration, the most pressing need is for legislative action of the Reorganization Bill and the Revised Administrative Code, already submitted to Congress. We need to transform our administrative structure into the dynamic and synchronized machinery needed to perform effectively its role in economic development. ”

“ Some have mistakenly thought that this is a request for blanket authority for the President in reorganization. What we seek is a law that will fully enable us to reorganize the Executive branch. Others fear that reorganization will result in massive layoffs. This is not envisioned at all. The only ones who have to fear displacement are 15-30 employees and all those who do not possess civil service eligibilities. ”

“ In industry and education administrative reform is constantly going on, with the hope of reducing friction and increasing efficiency. The House of Commons not long ago came to new terms with the peers. The League of Nations has already had to adjust the functions and influence of the Council and the Assembly, respectively.
No one will question that organization is absolutely essential in human affairs, but reorganization, while it sometimes produces assignable benefit, often fails to meet existing evils, and not uncommonly engenders new and unexpected ones. ”

“ For much the same reason their influence is a wholesome one. We shall see that the primary conflict which takes place in any reorganization is between the interests of the corporation which needs a lessening of its burdens, and the interests of the securityholders which is opposed to any reduction in their claims.693 The degree to which the former interest prevails determines the strength of the reorganized company. ”

“ I also announced that no removals from office would be made unless the incumbents failed to carry out the provisions of the law or impeded reorganization, or unless willful delays should necessitate a change, and added: "Pending the reorganization, it is, desirable and intended to create as little disturbance in the machinery of the various branches of the provisional governments as possible, consistent with the law of Congress and its successful execution, but this condition is dependent upon the disposition shown by the people, and upon the length of time required for reorganization." ”

“ Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch is needed if the Government is to keep up with the times and with the needs of the people. ”

“ It might have been easier to draw the lines of authority more closely had the reform not been restricted to the lowest level of local government, but even in its present restricted form, the reorganization has far-reaching implications. Concentration in the parishes of managerial powers over a considerable volume of investment funds, the subordination to the parish authorities of all economic units which provide services within a particular area, and other extensive economic powers may eventually result in the real economic and administrative integration of the parishes. ”

“ Spheres of the ministries' activities have been reshuffled, and their internal structures have been modified—all in the interest of improving socialist industrial organization and raising the efficiency of production. One foreign observer remarked that, whenever something went wrong in the economy, reorganization in one form or another was undertaken in an effort to solve the problem through administrative means. ”

“ The sort of institutional and economic reorganization suggested in the preceding chapters is not, consequently, to be conceived merely as a more or less dubious proposal to improve human nature by laws. ”

“ While few radical changes have been made due to the present political development of the country and the social and economic repercussions that a drastic reorganization en­tails, it must be stated that the prime objectives of efficiency, simplicity, and economy have weighed heavily in the de­termination of the changes effected. ”

“ But the point is the agreement among practical reformers that reform means at bottom no more than moral and political purification. It may, indeed, bring with it the necessity of a certain amount of reorganization; but such reorganization will aim merely at the improvement of the existing political and economic machinery. Present and future reformers must cleanse, oil, and patch a piece of economic and political machinery, which in all essentials is adequate to its purpose. ”

“ The net result of this reorganization effort is a government that can provide services in the field where they count most that spends less for political representatives, and more for the benefits of the people, and leads in the realization of national objectives. ”

“ Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by which those tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, I venture to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them if they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government of the United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. ”

“ Economy in government is the easiest thing in the world to preach, because all agree upon it "in principle," and the hardest thing in the world to practice. Undoubtedly, a material saving would be effected by a thorough overhauling and reorganization of the Government departments. As everybody knows, the present set-up is illogical in many respects and is filled with duplication and overlapping of functions.
The root difficulty here is in unregenerate human nature. Every department wants reorganization and economy—but it wants them only for the other departments. ”

“ In the cases where it may be found impracticable to maintain regiments in sufficient strength as to justify the retention of the present organization, economy and efficiency would be promoted by consolidation and reorganization. ”

“ The proposed reorganization of labor, like the proposed system of institutional reform, and like the proposed constructive regulation of large industrial corporations, simply takes advantage of those tendencies in our current methods which look in a formative direction; and in so far as these several tendencies prevail, they will severally supplement and strengthen one another. The more independent, responsible, and vigorous political authority will be the readier to seek some formative solution of the problem of the distribution of wealth and that of the organization of labor. ”

“ Though to make coöperation possible, and therefore to facilitate social growth, there must be organization, yet the organization formed impedes further growth; since further growth implies reorganization, which the existing organization resists. ”

“ For the purpose of transferring, abolishing, consolidating or coordinating the whole or any part of any state agency, or the functions thereof, within the executive branch of state government, when the governor considers the same necessary for efficient administration, he may issue one or more executive reorganization orders, each bearing an identifying number, and transmit the same to the legislature within the first thirty calendar days of any regular session. ”

“ And it undoubtedly is true that, compared with the system in operation prior to 1868, the present régime represents distinct decentralization. None the less it must be said that in practice there is ever a tendency on the part of the central authorities to encroach upon the privileges of the local governing agencies, and through several years there has been under consideration a reorganization of the entire administrative system in the direction of less rather than more liberalism. ”

“ Officials have ascribed the lack of any significant progress in the planning reform to general inertia, organizational confusion, bureaucratic interests, and a reluctance on the part of many enterprise directors to assume the added measure of responsibility that is inherent in a greater freedom to exercise initiative. Most of the officials are aware, nevertheless, that the basic problem lies in the absence of adequate incentives. The reconciliation of an obligatory central plan with enterprise autonomy has thus far proved elusive. ”

“ The organizational structure of the economy has undergone frequent changes in efforts to resolve economic problems by administrative means. Officially, the reorganizations have been declared necessary to keep economic management abreast of the requirements of socialist economic development. The frequency of the changes, however, and a lack of clarity in many of the directives have brought about a blurring of jurisdictional lines with consequent overlapping of functions and conflicts of authority. ”

“ Furthermore, any such reorganization should aim at keeping the benefits of the then existing private organization—whatever they might be. It should remain true to the principle that, so far as economic authority and power is delegated in the form of terminable leases to private corporations, such power should be complete within certain defined limits. If agents of the national economic interest cannot be trusted to fulfill their responsibilities without some system of detailed censure and supervision they should be entirely dispensed with. ”

“ To prevent the indefinite multiplication of organizations.—The new interest in philanthropy and reform is creating a great number of unrelated societies, many of which overlap and develop friction, resulting in the waste of time, money and effort. What is much needed, in the interest of both economy and of effectiveness, is a common center where efforts to improve the community may be coordinated and adjusted to each other in some comprehensive plan—an organization which can survey the whole field and throw united effort into any one of many directions at the opportune moment. ”

“ The process of extending the range of their administrative activities through the formation of groups and the multiplication of assemblies must continue unabated until this particular objective of the Plan is fully achieved. The proper incorporation of the national and local assemblies, so vital and urgent at the present stage of their evolution, must be hastened by every means in their power. ”

“ Instead of attempting a reform, by introducing into the general system something like simplicity, and uniformity of plan, every succeeding year rendered the machinery still more complicated. Whenever abuses were discovered in any office, a new office was established, as the only means of correcting them ”

“ A constitutional amendment was adopted in 1889, authorizing the legislature to provide by general laws for one or more extensions of the term of such corporations, and also for the reorganization 'for a further period, not exceeding thirty years, of such corporations whose terms have expired by limitation, on the consent of not less than four fifths of the capital.' Pursuant to this authority the legislature in 1889 passed an act authorizing such reorganization. ”