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    "localId": "159441327",
    "label": "Memorandum from Harold D. Smith to President Harry S. Truman",
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    "title": "Memorandum from Harold D. Smith to President Harry S. Truman",
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    "ocrText": "the\n- 4 -\nARCHIVES \"NATIONAN BERVICH RECORDS AMD\n40 Most of the important changes will have to be made in the face\nof the opposition of particular interest groups outside the Government.\n5. Some plans may need to be supplemented by legislation in order\nto realize the maximum benefits from reorganization.\nMost Promising Areas for Study\nDespite these limitations, action probably can be taken in a num-\nber of major aréas where the organization of the Government appears to\nbe weak. In addition, a great number of minor transfers of functions,\nabolition of obsolete activities and internal reorganizations can take\nplace which collectively should represent a very extensive \"tidying up\"\nof the Federal organization.\nThe following areas appear at this time to offer the greatest pos-\nsibility of improvement by reorganization action:\n1. Transportation. Four or five agencies now have important\nfunctions in the field of regulating and promoting transportation.\nThese functions may be closely enough related and of enough importance\nto warrant at some time the creation of a Department of Transportation\n(or Transportation and Communications). Since departments cannot be\ncreated under the present Reorganization Act, the most that could be\nconsidered at this time would be a \"transportation agency. However,\nthere are difficulties to contemplating even a broad transportation\nagency--among them the exemption of the Interstate Commerce Commission.\nWhether or not the broader study is feasible, the possibility of a re-\ngrouping of activities relating to water transportation probably should\nbe considered in any event.\n2. Banking. Responsibility for supervising the banking system\nis now divided among three agencies--the Treasury Department, the Fed-\neral Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Board of Governors of the\nFederal Reserve System. Consolidation of bank supervisory functions\nin one of the three agencies might be considered, with the choice de-\npending upon a long-range conception as to the proper roles of the\nTreasury Department and the Federal Reserve System.\n3. Public Land Management. The public domain, which occupies\nabout one-third of the nation's acreage, is now administered in part by\nthe Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and in part by sev-\neral agencies of the Department of the Interior (including the Grazing\nService, National Park Service, and the General Land Office). Both the\nSecretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior have recom-\nmended a unification of public land management either in whole or in\npart (although by each in his own favor). If unification proves to be\na desirable course, transfer of the Forest Service to Interior would\nappear to be the simpler solution."
}