Evening star., 1937-05-02
Training for the
Public Service
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.


OF young men and women for careers
OF public service. 1t is not sponsored
by the Federal Government, although It
receives ofhcial cooperation. The or
ganization is known as the National
Institute of Public Affairs, and its pur-
pose Is to open an avenue for study by
promising young people of not only the
theory but the practice of government.
Each year thirty young people are
selected to receive appointment as in
ternes in Government agencies at Wash
lngton. While some high school gradu-
ates have been accepted, most of the
internes nave been college graduates,
and. in the few years the system has
been operating, they have averaged one
year out of college. Some have been
post-graduates.
The practice is something new in
American public life. For long time it
has been followed in the medical and
law professions. Graduate physicians
have been assigned as internes at hos
pitals before being recognized as full
fledged doctors and, in some States, it is
required that law graduates serve a
specified term as law clerks in law
offices before becoming eligible for ad-
mission to the bar In Europe the ap-
prentice and interneship system has been
in vogue for centuries. In Great Britain,
for example, parents or other sponsors
OF young men pay an employer for
period Of years to take in apprentices.
This relates to mechanical trades as we'll
as the law. One cannot fail to recall
Sir William Gilbert's lines from H. M. S.
Pinafore:
When was lad l served my term
AS office boy in an attorneys firm.
I washed the windows and I swept the
floor
And polished up the handle OF the big
front door"
All that, it will be remembered, was
the first step to becoming ruler of the
Queens navy.
The internes selected by the National
Institute Of Public Affairs are not ex-
pected to polish up the handle of the
big front door, but they are expected TO
polish up their minds and acquire a
flrst-hand knowledge Of how the Gov
ernment functions. They receive no
salaries during their years interneship
nor are they guaranteed employment by
any government upon completion OF their
terms.
During the course of college schooling
students who express a desire to take
the interneShip course are carefully OBJ
served. They must stand we'll in their
studies but must also display some posi-
tive sort of leadership, ambition to get
on in the world and. above ALL an active
interest in public affairs. This does not
mean that stodgy, bespectacled students,
already having the scholars stoop, are
the ones most likely to be selected. In
deed, it might be said that, with some
exceptions, they are the least likely to be.
The most promising candidates usually
are those who have displayed certain
marks of leadership in their schools.
For example, in a recent year eighteen
of those selected had been officers Of
their student bodies. Nine were editors
or business managers OF their school
papers. Three were captains of athletic
teams and tWenty-one headed such
school organizations as debating teams.
! political societies, undergraduate employ
ment agencies, student unions and
forums.
Each year a hundred candidates have
been weeded out by the school authori-
| ties and then the National Institute.
| from the hundred, selects the thirty who
| are to be appointed internes. In the
J Spring the successful candidates are
given notice to come to Washington at
the beginning of the following Septem-
| ber. In the meantime. however, each
| is expected to follow prescribed course
| OF reading and each carries on a cor
| respondence with the executive director
| of the National Institute, Otis Theodore
Wingo. Through this correspondence
the plans of the candidate are developed.
He expresses his preference for the line
Of study he wishes to follow, the particu-
lar branch of governmental practice in
which he wishes to specialize.
During the first week of the presence
of the candidates at Washington there
are interviews between them and mem
bers of the Institutes staff. At these it
| is finally settled what line the candidate
shall take and arrangements are made
with the governmental agency to which
he will be attached 1t should be under
stood that these internes do not take
the places of any regularly appointed
and paid Government employees. They
are Supernumerary and usually do work
which would not be required to be done
in the regular conduct of the agencies
to which they are assigned.
| Next, interviews are arranged between
the candidates and Government officials
at which the fundamentals of the work
| are discussed. Through their studies
| the candidates know much of these
| fundamentals in an academic way, but.
at Washington, they are shown the
workings in motion and at first-hand.
Further, they are expected to attend
congressional hearings, hearings of the
Interstate Commerce Commission, the
Federal Trade Commission and other
bodies. After a week of this each re-
ports to the Government official who
is to be his special supervisor in the
work he has selected. His first look
around has, presumably given him a
sort of bird's-eye view of the whole
Government mechanism and then he
settles down to his speciality.
Once week during the year of in
terneship there are general discussion
meetings. These meetings are under
the leadership Of Government offcials,
representatives of organizations con-
cerned with government and leading
journalists at the National Capital. The
internes also hold round tables of their
own, where ideas are exchanged There
is an inferno cabinet which leads the
entire group in taking advantage Of
the manifold cultural opportunities of
Washington.
Some of the internes take what ara