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 seem like the sort of surgeon who would tattoo the patient after operating, just for laughs, Congress spent seven months in alarmed concern.

But last week it finally took a deep breath, granted Harry Truman powers that it had regularly denied Wilson, Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Roosevelts I & II. Congress, of course, did not go all the way; it exempted some special preserves.* But Harry Truman now has authority to streamline and coordinate almost all other branches of the executive department.