Evening star., 1942-05-03
Supern1an of The Budget
Harold d. Smith, Director, Has Hercuean Task
r., II


L calm. hard-working Harold D. Smith,
director of the Bureau of the Budget it
is to have one of his friends wisecrack
about what an easy job he must have
now that the budget Is frankly out of
balance.
Such quips indicate to Smith a COM
plete lack of knowledge of the function
of the Bureau of the Budget today. To
the unknowing. the bureau is no more
than a super adding machine for toting
up outgo as against income. And when
the figures come out in the red, the
budgeteers might as well shut up shop
and take a vacation.
Actually the budget director has one
of the most vital jobs in the entire Gov
ernment today Harold Smith sees more
of President Roosevelt than probably
any other man except Harry L. Hopkins,
the star boarder of the White House.
Budget Director Smith is the Govern
ment's housekeeper in chief, checking on
the billions that Congress appropriates
and attempting to see that the money
is spent wisely and efficiently by the
executive departments.
Enormous Capacity for Work.
While it was big job before the war,
it is now a Herculean task. During the
past seven weeks Smith has been home
for dinner twice. Both lunches and
dinners become conferences with meals
often sent in on tray. Yet Smith
seems able to take it better than most
overburdened, overworked officials in
wartime Washington. His tempo is slow
and deliberate yet he has an enormous
capacity for work which is buttressed
by wide knowledge of his job and what
it calls for.
When the going is too tough he takes
an evening of to operate his power
lathe in the basement at home, work.
ing on black walnut, one Of the hard
est of woods. Shaping a chair leg, he
has chance to think out difficult
problem.
His capacity for work plus his knowl-
edge have won for Smith the respect
both of Congress and the executive de-
partments in the slightly less than three
years he has been in Washington. That
plus the fact that he has as yet shown
no signs of succumbing to Washington's
chief occupational disease-elephantiasis
of the ego. Accessible to newspapermen,
he has Stunned personal publicity.
Carefully Untangles Snarls.
Economy minded Representative
Woodrum of Virginia, ranking Demo-
crat on the Appropriation Committee,
pays Smith high tribute for his pa
tience, his perseverance, his tireless ef-
forts to make sense out of the vast far
flung enterprise that is the Federal Gov.
eminent.
Now and then, in times like these,
it must seem to Smith like trying to
scoop up the sea with a spoon. Oc-
casionally he finds his painstaking la
bors abruptly undone. The other day
one of the more temperamental officers
of the Government walked into the
White House and persuaded the Presi-
dent to give him complete jurisdiction in
a field where-necessarily as Smith had
seen it-authority was divided among
several agencies. This started a minor
revolution threatening one phase of the
war program. Carefully, Smith un-
tangled the snarl and put the pieces
back approximately where they had been
before.
In the Office of the budget director are
prepared the executive orders creating
new agencies and reshuff1ing old ones.
The order creating the new shipping
czar" was drawn up recently in Smiths
office with admirals, generals and cabi-
net members all pulling and hauling to
try to get what they wanted written into
the order
Smith Writes the Laws.
With such responsibility it is impera-
tive, of course, that the President back
up his budget chief since any evasiveness
or equivocation in these all-important
orders would open the way to confusion
and drift
I'VE grant the power and Harold
Smith writes the laws"