$ 59. Bureau.

In the typical administration the next largest division is the bureau. How many bureaus there shall be is again a question of how many things that department is assigned to do. The designation of the work to each bureau on the whole goes upon the lines of specialization. In a large way this question of the determination of the organization, as has been pointed out, is a legislative question, not an administrative question.

One case is enough to show that situation-Militia Bureau, 10 Opin. 11 (1861). The question submitted to the Attorney-General was as to the propriety of a proposed order detailing Lieutenant Ellsworth of the first dragoons for special duty as inspector general of militia for the United States, charging him with the transaction, under the direction of the Secretary of War, of all business pertaining to the militia, to be conducted as a separate bureau, of which it was proposed to make Lieutenant Ellsworth the chief. There had been no legislation upon this bureau, which it was proposed to establish by an executive order.

It pro

The advice of Attorney-General BATES was: poses the establishment of a bureau heretofore unknown in the organization of the War Department. That department is divided into a number of subordinate divisions, as the quarter-masters, the commissariat, the pay-masters, the ordnance, the engineers, and the medical, all of which are created and their respective duties defined by legislative enactment. Some of them are called bureaus and in some the duties are subdivided

State House Commission, 19 R. I. 390; Territory v. Stokes, 2 N. M. 63; State v. Hastings, 10 Wis. 525.

into divisions; but all are established to perform duties especially authorized by law. The same remark is true of the bureaus in the other departments of the government, as will be seen by reference to the acts creating them. In view of these precedents, I cannot avoid the conclusion that the creation of a bureau in the War Department can only be authorized by an act of Congress designating its chief, defining his duties, and providing for the appointment of the necessary clerical force.

The situation will be made clear by a few illustrations taken at random of this subdivision of the department into bureaus. A recent public document entitled Executive Departments at Washington (1893), is the authority. Bureaus are not always so denominated; sometimes the name is office, sometimes commission. But in any administration organized upon any systematic arrangement there must be these increasing subdivisions, each included in the one above it, each including the ones below it. The nomenclature is unimportant.

Thus, in the Treasury Department the next subdivision in order is into: first, mint; second, inspector of vessels; third, statistics; fourth, life saving service; fifth, lighthouse board; sixth, supervising architects; seventh, comptroller; eighth, currency; ninth, commissioner of customs; tenth, auditor; eleventh, treasurer; twelfth, register; thirteenth, internal revenue; fourteenth, navigation; fifteenth, coast survey; sixteenth, engraving. This is a long list. And yet the possibilities for orderly administration must be apparent even upon a cursory examination.

Again in the Department of the Interior the bureaus

are: first, land office; second, Indian affairs; third, pensions; fourth, patents; fifth, education; sixth, railroad; seventh, geological survey; eighth, census. These interests, after all, may well enough fall within the Department of the Interior, since they are internal affairs. And yet obviously so diverse are they that it will be impossible to expect proper administration if they were undistributed. It is only by division that administration is possible.46

§ 60. Division.

In the typical administration the last principal unit is the division. The administration is divided into departments; the departments are divided into bureaus; the bureaus are divided into divisions; and the divisions are usually made up of single officers. This is the whole scheme of the construction of an administration from top to bottom. To repeat, an administration is a hierarchy.

At about this stage the conditions are such that the administration may take a part in the organization. This is seen in the Employment of Clerks, 2 Compt. Dec. 173 (1895). This was an application for a construction of that portion of the act of March 2nd, 1895, providing for the preparation, printing and publication of bulletins for farmers. The question was whether the statutory roll of employee in the seed division of the Agricultural Department might be employed in mailing and

46 BUREAU.-Masters' Clerk's Case, 1 Phillips, 650; Hydrometer Case, 6 Lawrence 128; Woods v. Gary, 25 Wash. L. R. 591; People v. Auditor, 2 Colo. 97; Baker v. Kirk, 33 Ind. 517; People v. Woodruff, 32 N. Y. 355.

addressing these bulletins; and whether the chief of that division might be legally so employed.

The Comptroller, BOWLER, ruled that this might be done: The appropriation contained in the act provides for a chief and certain clerks and employees of the division of seeds, a sufficient sum being appropriated to pay their salaries. Under this appropriation the appointment and retention of this chief and these clerks and employees is authorized for the current fiscal year. And the method of their employment rests wholly within your executive discretion.

When this stage in administration is reached the principle upon which organization shall be based is not so apparent. If there is a variety of work to be done the organization proceeds as before along the most useful line of co-operation for that case-specialization. If, however, there is much work to be done of the same sort, the organization proceeds along the most useful lines of co-operation for that case-division. An example of each of these forms of the separation of division in a bureau will make this situation plain.

The most extreme form of organization upon the basis of specialization is seen in the Patent Office. The divisions there by their numbers are as follows: 1, Tillage; 2, farm; 3, metallurgy; 4, engineering; 5, finance; 6, chemistry; 7, games; 8, furniture; 9, hydraulics; 10, wagons; 11, boots; 12, mechanics; 13, arms; 14, apparatus; 15, paper; 16, telegraph; 17, printing; 18, steam; 19, furnaces; 20, hardware; 21, textiles; 22, navigation; 23 instruments; 24, machine; 25, mills; 26, electricity; 27, brushes; 28, pneumatics; 29, turning; 30, lamps; 31, gas; 32, advertising. The purpose in this organization is apparent.

On the other hand, the most extreme form of the organization for division upon the basis of simple distribution is seen in the adjudicating offices of the Pension Bureau. There the division is outright according to the locality from which the applications come. The different states in the United States are distributed into four classes: 1, Eastern; 2, Middle; 3, Western; 4, Southern. The necessity of this is obvious. There is so much work of the same sort to do that it can be disposed of only by simple division. The principal reason in the creation of these separate divisions is so that there may be more immediate superintendence.47

§ 61. Conclusion.

The object in the construction of so elaborate a hierarchy must be plain. It is to create the possibility for precise action by the officers detailed to do the final act. This is brought about by the two methods of division upon the lines of specialization. And it is to create the conditions for effective superintendence that chiefs are put over chiefs in this way. In fine, both co-ordination of officers upon the same plane and subordination of officers upon different grades are the chief principles in the law governing the organization of the administration.

47 DIVISION.-Departmental Clerks, 21 Opin. 355; Departmental Clerks, 1 Comp. Dec. 4; State v. Feibleman, 28 Ark. 424; Denver v. Dean, 10 Colo. 375; State v. Mayne, 68 Ind. 285; State v. Bloxham, 33 Fla. 482; Lewis v. Wall, 70 Ga. 646; Abry v. Gray, 58 Kan. 149; Newman v. Elam, 30 Miss. 507.

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