REORGANIZATION OF FEDERAL AGENCIES 163 



garding their respective duties, there is apt to be first com- 

 petition between them for power. The struggle is followed 

 by a recoil, disgust, and the desire to escape responsibility 

 and power. This situation has developed in regard to wild 

 life on public lands in the United States where there is a 

 conflict of jurisdiction and consequently little or no interest 

 in wild-life conservation. 



That there is a vital need for a planned conservation pro- 

 gram along national lines, embracing wild life, forestry, 

 water resources, and soil utilization, there can be little doubt. 

 The difficulty of planning a united program for the conser- 

 vation of renewable natural resources, when there is dissi- 

 pation of various parts of a single undertaking through 

 many agencies in different departments, is self-evident. 



Decentralization of conservation activities means that there 

 is no one point where the searchlight of public opinion may 

 concentrate itself. The report of the Senate Committee on 

 Wild Life Conservation studying consolidation said : 4 * 



With these activities separated in the several departments of 

 the federal government, the force of none is great enough to 

 impress upon the public mind or the government itself the aggre- 

 gate importance of these related conservation activities. There- 

 fore, combined into a unified agency of the federal government 

 they would lend vital force to one another. 



Legislative vs. Executive Reorganization: One of the 

 most difficult problems to solve in connection with reorgan- 

 ization of the federal government is the question whether 

 the reorganization should be accomplished by Congress itself 

 or whether the power to reorganize should be delegated to 

 the President. 



Reorganization by Congress means organization in the 

 open where every move is known to all the bureaus con- 



44 Hearings on Consolidation in Federal Conservation Activities, Senate 

 Committee on Conservation of Wild Life Resources, Jan. 12-13, 1933, p. 5. 



