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In the Labor Department, Secretary George Shultz, one of the ablest of Nixon's appointees, has combined job-training programs and the employment service, on the logical assumption that the two should be coordinated so that people will be trained for jobs that are available. Labor has taken over OEO's Job Corps. The Interior Department is working on a major reshuffling of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and will probably transfer it to HEW or OEO. Interior Secretary Walter Hickel believes Interior should concern itself primarily with natural resources, and let one of the other departments take on an agency that is committed to people.
In contrast with the Eisenhower Administration during its early days, when some programs were changed simply to give them a Republican stamp, the Nixon people have been remarkably undogmatic and, for the most part, have examined Democratic commitments with nonpartisan objectivity. The Model Cities program has not only been retained, but has also won high praise as the kind of decentralized operation that the Nixonites want. Federal aid to education, which Republicans opposed for years, is now sacrosanct. OEO will stay in business, though some of its branches, such as the Head Start program, will be shifted to other agencies. Among Johnson's innovations, only the Job Corps has felt the full brunt of the ax, and even that was cut back by no more than a third. The Republicans can be more than a little pompous in praising their organizational abilities, but if they can put the Johnson legislation—particularly HEW's new programs—in order they will have accomplished a great deal.
Pragmatic Theme
Already Finch has accomplished something in his own department: he has made quite clear that he is in charge. Like the Defense Department before Robert McNamara, HEW has a habit of slipping away from its bosses. So far, Finch, who hitherto had held no administrative post, seems to be on top. "There are two ways you can run this department," says Comptroller Jim Kelly, HEW's highest-ranking civil servant. "You can come in and leave the minor barons to run their own show, or you can try to shape their outlooks and decisions. Finch has come in with the idea of taking over."
No one has defined the Administration's overall approach more plainly and precisely than Finch. "As far as I'm concerned," he told TIME Correspondent Marvin Zim, "our theme is going to be pragmatism. The urban crisis means different things to different people. The time has come to start de-escalating the rhetoric and to start thinking about how to solve it. Since we weren't elected by the big cities, we can start with a new kind of candor. We don't have to kid ourselves about political obligations."