The department of labor, under the Secretary of Labor, has for its purpose “fostering, promoting, and developing the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, improving their working conditions, and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment.”  Among its important bureaus are those of Immigration and of Naturalization, and the Children’s Bureau, which investigates and reports upon “all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people.”

OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

In addition to these great administrative departments with their numerous bureaus and subdivisions, there are various boards, commissions and establishments that are independent of the departments.

Some of the most important of these are the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the Civil Service Commission (see below), the Federal
Reserve Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the United States
Tariff Commission, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, the
United States Bureau of Efficiency, the Federal Board of
Vocational Education, the Panama Canal.

Of another kind are the Library of Congress which includes the
Copyright Office; the Government Printing Office; the Smithsonian
Institution, including the National Museum and the National
Zoological Park.

There are many others.  During the recent war a great variety of new administrative commissions and boards were created for the emergency.  Most of these have been, or are to be, discontinued, though some of them may survive.  Such were the Council of National Defense, the Committee on Public Information, the Food Administration, the Fuel Administration, the United States Shipping Board, the War Trade Board, the Director General of Railroads.

THE CIVIL SERVICE

The detailed work of this vast service organization is carried on by about 400,000 employees (not counting the army and the navy).  These constitute the civil service.  The quality of service depends largely upon the efficiency of these employees.  The task of filling all these places is a large one.  In Andrew Jackson’s administration (1829-1837) the “spoils system” was introduced, which means that government positions were treated by the victorious party as “the spoils of victory,” to be given to members of the victorious party as rewards for party service without much regard to fitness for the work to be done.  Whenever the administration passed from one party to another, the army of civil service employees was displaced by another of new employees.  Not only did this result in inefficient service, but the time of the President and the heads of the departments was largely consumed in considering the claims of those seeking appointment.