From time to time the slow and gradual administrative evolution of the Department of State has been accelerated by relatively sweeping changes in internal structure, notably in 1909, 1922, and more recently in 1937-1939, in an adjustment to meet new conditions. The series of changes which took place between May, 1937, and February, 1939, approached the proportions of a fundamental reorganization. Singularly enough, the Department of State made no complete explanation of the new dispensation, and the changes in personnel and organization were effected quietly by a series of Departmental orders. Widely publicized schemes of administrative reorganizaton are unlikely to meet with favor in Congress and in the press.

The forms of international organizations have been a result of practical considerations. They exist because the specific necessities or desiderata which have appeared in the national interests of states were best dealt with by some international machinery. Frequently the constructive idea has come from a particular government which was willing to sponsor whatever institution was required to give it reality. In consequence, most of the multilateral machinery which governments now use for their 60 or 70 cooperative activities are situated in national capitals and are dependent on particular governments for some of their functioning. Diplomatic courtesy has thus largely accounted for the present wide geographic distribution of international bureaus, commissions, and other organs; but since the constituent instruments have customarily provided for their limited financial support by all contracting states, and the functions of the host government have been formal or even honorary, dependence upon a single administration has seldom interfered with the functioning of official international organs.

There are two generally accepted modes of classifying insurgent governments: (1) according to their purpose, and (2) according to their success or failure. If the aim of an insurgent government is to secede and form a new state, it is normally referred to as a seceding government; and if its aim is to overthrow and replace the de jure government within the old state, it is normally spoken of as a mere insurgent government.

The 25th Session of the International Labor Conference opened on June 8 in Geneva and ended on June 28. Appropriately enough, its President was Dr. Edmond Schultess, of Switzerland, a Federal Councillor and chief of the economic department of the Swiss Government since 1925. This was the first time a Swiss national had been honored with this position and the appropriateness of the election lay in the fact that just fifty years ago Switzerland sent out a renewed invitation to an international labor conference which led directly to the convocation of the Conference in Berlin in 1890. Figures in the Provisional Record of the 25th Session list 45 countries represented at the session through 154 delegates and 198 advisers, for a total of 352 persons in attendance.