National Affairs: The Scalpel

Every President since Theodore Roosevelt has felt an urge to perform drastic surgery on the Government's multiplying bureaus. Each has asked Congress for a scalpel, in the form of a reorganization bill, but most of them got something that looked more like a rubber dagger. Congressmen always shuddered at the idea of a President whacking at patronage with anything that would really cut.

When Harry Truman made the traditional demand last spring, the U.S. Government had grown more lumps and bumps than a tree toad—1,141 bureaus employing nearly 3,000,000 people. Despite these admitted tumors, and the fact that the new President didn't...

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