The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-06

i
tive division of WPA, one from the
Department of Agriculture, one from
emergency relief. In the fire de-
Tense division, one man came from
PWA, one from WPA, one from
Treasury and one from emergency
relief administration.
What this illustrates, If anything,
is that government administration
has become so complicated it is a
profession in itself, like efficiency
exporting. The difficulty and the
danger is that the mechanics, the
framework, the red tape Of govern
ment administration tend to be
given more importance than the job
to be done.
Again in the case of OCD, Dean
Lands was put on the spot before
Senator Byrd's committee when
Senator Willard E. Tydings asked
how many OCD employees had ac-
tually handled a fire bomb. The
Dean didn't know, but guessed that
in the civil defense division, per-
hapS 60 per cent had actually held
! bombs in their hands. incidentally,
as an example of utter futility, one
of Dean Lands. accounts Of a local
defense council meeting in New
! England is topS-a lecturer was try
ing to explain to group of defense
workers how to put on a gas mask
without having a gas mask to DEM
onstrate with. Congress, you know,
just got around to appropriating
money for civilian gas masks
couple of weeks ago.
NELSON HEAD MAN NOW
Fortunately, you should be pleased
to know that not all of the govern
ment'S wartime agencies have been
set up on the formula that Senator
Nye puts the finger on.
When the Office of Censorship
was set up, it was stated at the
top with newspaper and radio men
who knew the media with which
they had to deal.
When the war production ma
chinery was set up a so-called
holding company" the Office for
Emergency Management, was Great
ed just to comb the red tape of gov
eminent procedure out of the hair
of the civilians called to Washing
ton to boss the job. DEM is Mr.
Government Bureaucracy, run by
a specialist in government paper
work, Wayne Coy. The real work
of war production is now bossed
by Donald M. Nelson. If he had to
bother with official government
routine, he wouldn't get anything
else done.
The point in common with all
these young and undoubtedly able
administrators is that their back
ground is almost entirely in govern
ment. In other words, they know
their way around Washington, the
boulevards, back alleys and bypaths
through the fields of red tape.
Dean Lands himself admitted
that in making his reorganization
of the OCD headquarters, he
brought into his organization some
of the smart young men he had
known in Securities and Exchange
Commission and Federal Trade
Commission, with which he had
previous connections. It was
brought out that OCD had in its
organization 80 executives on what
is called mon reimbursible loan"
from other government depart
ments. What that means is that
the other departments pay their
salaries, but OCD pays their travel
ing expenses.
PLACES FOR PALS
That is typical Washington. When
the government sets up a new de-
partment or a new program of any
lindsay fire defense, for example
the first requisite is to get some
one who knows government and not
necessarily anyone who knows any
thing about fire protection. The
administrator for program Of this
kind must be a man who knows
how to make up budget, how to
get civil service classification clear
ed, how to make an organization
chart, how to get Office space and
furniture, how to open an Office.
The administrator looks around
for of his pals, the good guys he
knows in other departments of gov
eminent administration. He knows
how to 60 about getting them trans
ferred or loaned from their depart
ment to his. First thing you know,
he has his organization. If he needs
technical consultants, he knows how
to get them appointed on a per
diem or W. o. c.-without compen-
sation-basis.
You can make up your own mind
as to whether that, or the method
brought out by Senator Nye, is the
Wav to rim a government