The heads of the first eight of these departments together form a council of eight, called the “Cabinet,” whose duty it is, in addition to the management of the departments, to advise the President on matters of importance.  For this purpose regular meetings are held, at which the affairs of government are discussed, and lines of action decided upon.  The cabinet is neither the creation of the constitution, nor strictly of law.  The existence of a cabinet, however, was always taken for granted in the discussion and formation of the constitution.  It is a creation of custom and has no powers other than of advice and counsel to the President.  The growth of executive and administrative business is not fully indicated by the increase in the number of departments.  The growth within each department has been much greater.  Separate bureaus and divisions have been created, which in some cases are, for all practical purposes, as independent and important as the departments themselves.

The organization of all the different departments is much the same.  At the head of each is an officer appointed by the President, the President thus having control generally over the whole executive business of the government.  These officers are called Secretaries, except in the cases of the Post Office Department, whose head is the Postmaster-General, and of the Department of Justice, whose head is the Attorney-General.  In a number of the Departments there are also one, two, three or four assistant secretaries, according as the business of the departments requires.  For convenience in the despatch of business, the departments are divided into bureaus, the bureaus into divisions, and the divisions into rooms, until, finally, the individual workers—­the clerks—­are readied.  Each bureau and division has at its head an officer called Commissioner and Chief of Division, respectively.  Each department and bureau, and, in some cases, the division also, has a Chief Clerk who has charge of the details of the administration, and immediate oversight over the clerks.[1] All work in one finely organized system.  The clerk is responsible to his chief of division, the chief of division to his commissioner, the commissioner to the Secretary and he, finally, to Congress.  Each man has his particular place in the system, and no one works at random.[2]

[Footnote 1:  There are a number of officials and clerks who properly belong to no division or bureau, as, for instance, the librarian’s private secretary and other clerical assistance in the Secretary’s office, who are under his immediate supervision.]