THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
Reorganization 'of the administration of the insular possessions of the United States is proposed in a resolution before Congress. The need is apparent and acute. If the British Empire grew in a fit of absence of mind, the United States has certainly acquired her numerous and widely scattered colonial possessions almost haphazard and, fre- quently, in spite of herself. The fact is reflected in the present division of administrative responsibility among various Government departments. The War Department, for instance, is responsible for the Philippines, the State Depart- ment for Haiti, and the Navy Department for the Virgin Islands. The United States has no single department corresponding to the British Colonial Office and, as a con- sequence, has not developed a co-ordinated colonial policy or a permanent, specially trained colonial service. This condition it is now sought to remedy, not without guidance from British administrative experience and methods. Mean- while, under President Hoover's direction, reorganization is being pressed forward in other Federal services. Notably the two foreign services, the consular service under the- State • Department and the foreign trade service organized under the Department of Commerce when Mr. Hoover was in charge of it, are being co-ordinated.
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