In his Government service under three Democratic Presidents, James McCauley Landis built an image as a relentless reformer. "He cuts, thrusts and slashes at everything in sight," a friend of his once said. "There's no fooling around with that man."
A Presbyterian missionary's son and a onetime dean of Harvard Law School, Landis was a Federal Trade Commissioner in New Deal days. Under Harry Truman he served as chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Late in 1960, President-elect Kennedy appointed him to investigate all of the Federal Government's regulatory agencies. In his report to Kennedy, Landis charged that the agencies...