which he should exercise supervision and control. Local inspectors of hulls and boilers were to be appointed for certain ports specifically enumerated in the act, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, by a commission consisting of the supervising inspector in charge of the district, the judge of the United States district court, and the collector of customs."

In addition to approving the appointment of local inspectors, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by the act of 1852 to receive reports from the Board of Supervising Inspectors, to inquire into the operation of the inspection laws and to make recommendations to Congress relative to the improvement of the service. Accordingly a personal agent was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to collect information as to the work of the service and to attend the meetings of the Board of Supervising Inspectors. The reports of this officer, together with the annual reports of the proceedings of the board, furnished the Secretary with information as to the needs of the service upon which to base his recommendations to Congress."

While thus giving the Secretary of the Treasury a certain amount of indirect supervision over the work of the SteamboatInspection Service, the act of 1852 failed to place the service definitely under the direction of the Treasury Department, without which the necessary and proper supervision and control could not be exercised. This defect was clearly pointed out by the special agent of the Treasury Department in his reports to the Secretary of the Treasury. In a report dated November 6, 1855, that officer emphasized the need of a permanent head for the service, located in Washington, to be directly responsible either to the President or to the head of the Treasury Department. The need for an administrative head of the service was not met, however, until the creation. of the office of Supervising Inspector General in 1871."

Distinctive Features in Organization. The foregoing description. of the development within the Treasury Department effectively

43

5 Stat. L., 304; 10 Stat. L., 61.

33 Cong. 2 sess. (1853-54), S. ex. doc. 2, 399.

44 34 Cong. 1-2 sess. (1855-56), S. ex. doc. 2, 427. A Revenue Marine and Steamboat-Inspection Division had been created in 1869 in the immediate office of the Secretary of the Treasury.-62 Cong. 2 sess. (1911-12), H. ex. doc. 670, 313. See Institute for Government Research, The Steamboat-Inspection Service, Ch. I (1922).

illustrates the two methods used, in varying degrees, to organize the executive departments of the national government. The first, whereby Congress exercises its authority not only to designate how the department shall be organized for the performance of its work, but also to set down in detail the duties of administrative officers, in the performance of which they are controlled primarily by legislative mandate and not by the direction of the head of the department, was followed to a large extent in establishing the fiscal bureaus of the Treasury Department. There is no question that the controlling factor which led Congress to adopt this method, in providing for the internal organization of the department, was the fear of one-man power in control of finance administration, and the determination to safeguard the public treasury against the danger of dishonest officers. The second method, whereby Congress imposes certain duties upon an administrative department, but leaves the organization for the performance of such duties to be fixed by regulations or orders issued by the President or the head of the department, was adopted in the creation of the non-fiscal services of the Treasury Department. The permanent organization of practically all of the non-financial or miscellaneous bureaus in the Treasury Department, by legislative enactment, was effected only after repeated recommendations had been submitted to Congress by administrative officers, and temporary bureaus or divisions had been created by administrative regulation."

45

The organization of the Treasury Department also furnished two examples, in addition to certain ex officio commissions of which the head of that department was a member, of administrative boards charged with the direction and control of administrative

45 The Secretary of the Treasury was a member of several administrative commissions and boards which were not under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department, and most of which were temporary in character. Mention has been made of the commission appointed to hear and decide claims relative to the "Yazoo Lands," and of the Board of Commissioners of Navy Hospitals. Possibly the most important commission of which the Secretary of the Treasury was a member was that established by act of May 8, 1792, known as the "Commissioners of the Sinking Fund." The duties and powers of this commission were transferred to the Secretary of the Treasury by act of July 4, 1836.-1 Stat. L., 281, 282; 5 Stat. L., 112, 115; Supra, 118n, 157n.

services, namely, the Lighthouse Board and the Board of Supervising Inspectors of the Steamboat-Inspection Service. The powers of the latter, with respect to the administrative supervision of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, were transferred to the Supervising Inspector General, upon the establishment of that office in 1871, but the Lighthouse Board continued as the administrative head of the Lighthouse Establishment until 1910.

CHAPTER VII

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Organization Prior to 1815. The establishment of a Navy Department in 1798, as has been pointed out, was hastened by the enlargement of the United States Navy in preparation for armed hostilities with France, which made necessary a more adequate provision for the administration of naval affairs. The act creating this department provided for a chief officer, to be called the Secretary of the Navy, who should execute orders from the President relative to all matters connected with the naval establishment; a principal clerk, and such other clerks as the head of the department should deem necessary. No provision was made for the creation of bureaus or sub-divisions in the department, except such as might be set up by administrative regulations, in charge of a clerk in the department. In tracing the development of administrative organization within the Navy Department, it seems advisable to distinguish between those agencies directly concerned with the construction, equipment, and operation of the navy proper, and those dealing with subsidiary matters, such as the superintendence of the naval academy, the naval hospitals, and the naval observatory, and the administration of the navy and privateer pension funds.

Prior to 1815, both the military and civil duties connected with the administration of the navy were performed under the immediate direction of the Secretary. "Until the close of the War of 1812," says Mahan, "the Secretary in person. . . was the naval administration. He no doubt had assistants and obtained assistance, technical and military, from experts of both classes; but function had not yet differentiated into organization, and he not only was responsible, but had to give personal attention to various and trivial details of most diverse character, which overburdened him by their mass, and prevented concentration of attention upon the really great matters of his office." 1

'Mahan, Naval administration and warfare, 32 (1908). The Purveyor of Public Supplies, an officer of the Treasury Department, was required

As early as January 12, 1801, Secretary of the Navy Stoddert, in a report submitted to Congress, declared that the business of the Navy Department embraced too many objects for the superintendence of one person, however gifted, and recommended the appointment of a board, consisting of three or five experienced navy officers, to superintend, in subordination to the head of the department, such parts of the duties connected with naval administration as nautical men were best qualified to understand and to direct. No effort was made by Congress, however, to provide assistance for the Secretary of the Navy until after the war with Great Britain in 1812, which served to emphasize the need for a group of professional advisers to aid that officer in the proper discharge of his duties.

In obedience to a Senate resolution of March 18, 1814, Secretary of the Navy Jones proposed that the President be authorized to designate three officers of the navy and two other persons skilled in naval affairs, to constitute a Board of Inspectors of the Navy. Each member of this board was to discharge individually certain specific duties assigned to him by the head of the department, and the board as a group was to exercise general superintendence over the work of the department, subject to the direction of the Secretary. He also recommended the appointment of a naval constructor and a paymaster of the navy. On January 9, 1815, the Naval Committee of the House reported favorably on the proposal, submitting letters from the captains of the navy, all of which approved the general outline of organization recommended. Two important changes in the details of the plan were suggested, however, which were later incorporated in the reorganization act passed by Con

by act of July 16, 1798, to execute orders from the Secretary of the Navy, relative to procuring naval stores and supplies. This office was discontinued, however, by act of March 28, 1812. Thereafter contracts and purchases were made by the various navy agents, appointed by authority of an act of March 27, 1804, under the immediate direction of the Secretary of the Navy. The latter suggested, in a report submitted to the House of Representatives on February 2, 1813, the creation of the office of Naval Purveyor to relieve the Secretary of details connected with forming contracts, making purchases, and controlling navy agents. No action was taken, however, on this proposal. The office of Agent for the Navy Department was created by act of July 10, 1832. 1 Stat. L., 610; 2 Stat. L., 297; 696, 697; 4 Stat. L., 569. Cf. American State Papers, Naval Affairs, I, 285; 27 Cong. 2 sess. (1841-42), S. ex. doc. 215, 1-2.

'American State Papers, Naval Affairs, I, 75.