men's compensation law, prepares industrial statistics, and maintains a free employment bureau. It is also charged with the administration of the child labor law, the health and sanitary inspection, and the safety regulation of factories and other places of employment in the state. A state board of mediation and investigation is created in connection with the department of labor, which consists of the governor and the secretaries of the six code departments. This board is charged with the mediation and adjustment of disputes arising between employers and employees within the state.

The department of public works discharges the functions vested by law in the state board of highways, irrigation, and drainage. It also takes over the licensing of motor vehicles from the office of the secretary of state. The construction of all highways, irrigation works, and drainage within the state is under the supervision of this department.

The department of public welfare performs the functions of the state board of health, the child welfare commission, and the board of pardons and parole. It is charged with the execution and enforcement of all laws relating to food inspection, sanitation, and the prevention of contagious and communicable diseases. The department conducts examinations for the licensing of physicians, surgeons, chiropractitioners, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, embalmers, and veterinary surgeons. It has the enforcement of laws relating to weights and measures. It supervises the registration of vital statistics. The regulation of maternity homes and the placing of dependent and delinquent children are under the supervision of this department. The state system of public charities and corrections is also under the direction and control of the department of public welfare.

What the Code Accomplishes

The code eliminates eight boards and commissions and consolidates ten departments that have similar functions into six main departments, the heads of which are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The plan thus distinctly locates accountability, coördinates administrative effort, and gives the governor authority over nearly all the administrative functions which are not vested in constitutional agencies. It gives the governor no power that is not provided by the constitution or the law. He makes fewer major appointments under the code than he made under the old laws.

Unlike the codes of Illinois and Idaho, the Nebraska code brings together and codifies the administrative law of the state. In this way the overlapping functions between the newly created departments have been eliminated by revision and numerous new duties essential to the successful operation of the several departments have been added.

Nebraska has followed the same general plan in the adoption of her code as those of Illinois and Idaho.

As

in the other two states a thoroughgoing centralization of the administration is impossible without constitutional amendment.

CHAPTER XI

THE PLAN OF ADMINISTRATIVE REORGANIZATION

IN MASSACHUSETTS

Preliminary Surveys

THE Massachusetts legislature of 1912 created a commission on economy and efficiency consisting of three members. At first the state auditor was ex officio a member and the other two members were appointed by the governor. Later (1914) all members were appointed by the governor with overlapping terms of three years each. Among other things this commission made a study of the administrative organization and submitted to the governor in November, 1914, a comprehensive report on "the functions, organization, and administration of the departments in the executive branch of the state government.' This report contained no constructive proposals for reorganization and consolidation. Later, however, the commission made recommendations for the reorganization of the administration of the militia, the state normal schools, and the transfer of certain functions among the existing departments. In 1916 the commission was abolished by the legislature and its functions given to the newly created supervisor of administration.

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The 1917 legislature created a joint special committee on finances and budget procedure and authorized it to investigate and consider the matter of the consolidation and abolition of commissions." This committee made a report to the 1919 legislature in which it stated that the administrative work of the state was performed by two hundred and sixteen more or less independent agencies

one hundred and ten of which had a single official in charge; three of which had a single official with an advisory council; and one hundred and three of which were headed by boards or commissions. The committee proposed a tentative plan of consolidation which did not affect the constitutional administrative officers, but grouped the remaining administrative agencies under eleven departments, the heads of which were to be appointed by the governor with the approval of the council.

Constitutional Amendment Providing for Consolidation

The Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts, which held its final sessions during the summer of 1918, took up the subject of administrative consolidation. Although no further detailed study had yet been made of the administrative agencies of the state, the Convention agreed upon a proposed amendment to the constitution designed to bring about more efficient administration of the business of the state. This amendment was submitted to a vote of the people on November 5, 1918, and was ratified. The amendment reads as follows: "On or before January 1, 1921, the executive and administrative work of the commonwealth shall be organized in not more than twenty departments, in one of which every executive and administrative office, board, and commission, except those officers serving directly under the governor or the council, shall be placed. Such departments shall be under such supervision and regulation as the general court may from time to time prescribe by law." (Amendment No. 19.)

While the economy and efficiency commission of 1912 had made an investigation similar to those made in Illinois and New York some years prior to the adoption of this amendment, there was, nevertheless, at the time the amendment was discussed, no definite plan of reorganization before the convention. The subject of reorganiza

tion was therefore considered as a broad question upon its merits and was not hindered by the rivalry and jealousy of the existing officers in the departments or by political bickering over the details of the plan. No one in the convention knew definitely what administrative agencies were to be created or abolished. For this reason the opposition was unable to offer concrete objections to the general proposal.

Reorganization Proposed by Supervisor of Administra

tion

Preceding the beginning of the 1919 session of the legislature, the supervisor of administration made a resurvey of the administrative agencies of the state as result of which he proposed a plan of consolidation which was submitted to the 1919 legislature together with a number of bills designed to carry the plan into effect. This plan proposed no changes in the offices of the elective constitutional officers except the addition of a few new functions. Five of the departments proposed were to be headed by constitutional officers, namely: (1) Governor and council; (2) secretary of the commonwealth; (3) treasurer and receiver general; (4) auditor of the commonwealth; (5) attorney general. The office of supervisor of administration was placed under the governor and the council. The remaining administrative agencies of the state were grouped under fourteen departments, as follows: (1) Department of tax commissioner and commissioner of corporations; (2) department of public utilities; (3) department of public health; (4) department of accounting, banking and insurance; (5) department of industrial accidents; (6) department of labor and industry; (7) department of education and registration; (8) department of public works; (9) department of agriculture; (10) department of institutions; (11) department of public welfare; (12) department of