Show president of the U S has bluest biggest job in the world by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service eye Street NW NAV mashington D C washington D C once more events b ring bring up the so for ar unanswered problem how c can an the I 1 white house be t put on a business basis T the h W white h I 1 t e Z I 1 house hou s e executive ofil offices ce are the headquarters of 0 I 1 I 1 the biggest organization in the world th the e president 0 f the he t united states Is the head ol of this tremendous administrative ad m in istra tive setup set up baukhage few people real leal ize the extent of his functions most of which arent even suggested in th the e const constitution aution and few ew laws law a define them they have grown like ike I 1 T topsy apsy we are reminded of the scope of the presidential duties by willard kiplinger in his washington Is like TI that at he points out cut that the president as leader of his party runs the he party policies through the national committee some times the party line working you recall the stew 0 ver over meat A meeting of democh democratic abic party leaders at the moment when the president was preparing to announce at a news conference that he opposed removing the controls on meat prices passed a resolution asking chairman hannegan to confer with administrative officials concerning the removal 0 of f such controls the president as the top executive heads the executive setup set up and he appoints the men who run the executive machinery he cant talk to each one ever every y day when there Is friction a hotbox hot box otten often develops there are plenty of examples in history from rom ickes and wallace back to lincoln and seward and before chief executives task never ends the president issues executive orders which someone has to write te tor for him but which have the force of law and the president must see that they are properly interpreted again there is trouble if these decrees tread on congressional prerogatives he has to get bills which he favors passed frequently he writes the first drafts of such bills with the help of his legal advisors he Is expected if necessary to put the heat on to get them through congress this means a lot of work in conference with congressional leaders on the phone and through his personal agents A tactless agent can easily upset the applecart remember how tommy corcoran used to get under the skin of congress many others well intentioned and otherwise who came and went might be named the president has to make up the budget with the help of the budget director if the director makes mistakes or asks for too much or too little it Is the white house that takes the he rep rap this involves billions he appoints the justices of the supreme court and federal judges A bad choice may be fatal and yet on one e person cant know the personal history of every likely candidate in this sense the president forms the legal thinking of his era lie he is not only his own and his bartys but also the nations chief publicity man A slip of the tongue not only can lose an election but also could start a war if war comes he has to run it tor for the strategy in the field is based on broad objectives decided at home it was by no means merely military opinion which decided when and where the invasion of europe took place these are only a few of the things a president has to think about we have omitted bitted mention ot of many minor aiom but ut time consuming matters such as whether the architectural beauty of the white house shall be altered with a new wing or where some visiting potentate shall sit at the table all full of dynamite it was the death of woodrow wilson which brought the presidential workload to public attention he died as much from overwork as from his disappointment over repudiation of the league of nations serious study of the problem of furnishing a means to lighten the presidential burden began shortly thereafter but it was not until 1839 1939 that a specific plan was drawn up and submitted to congress among ath other suggestions for various departmental reorganizations the plan created a presidential staff of executive assistants about all the public knows about this corps of assistants Is that they are supposed to possess a passion for anonymity the other thing about them which usually admitted is that they have never functioned property properly that at least Is the private opinion of one insider who has watched them come and go from the beginning the reason is simple people who expect a decision on an important matter wont take it from anyone but the pres president himself aimse must keep close check on aides A pitiful example of 0 f the breakdown of the white house machinery was the recent wallace ruckus the president never need ne ed have been in the position he was it Is not a presidents job to read over every document submitted to him no head of a business as big 1 as the government would dream of trying to do that but somebody should have read both the wallace memorandum on foreign policy and the wallace speech and apprised the president of what the they y contained and implied whether it is the presidents fault that he have properly experienced hired help is another matter that his hired help function caused the damage an explanation if not an excuse has been offered in this case the job of reading over public statements of administration members to see that they conflict was handled by the during the war before that the white house machinery had always taken care of 0 such matters that machinery ery had not been again set in motion when ceased to function the suit fault was not that the dent prevent the M wallace V baines clash but that he was not prevented from prevent preventing ng I 1 it I 1 can think of only one similar bad mistake made by president roosevelt which parallels the wallace mix up and it was due to a similar but not the same baube it involved the highly technical question ot of the public debt an assistant supposed to be an expert furnished the figures on which the president based an important public statement the eagle eyed financial writers caught it the expert was called to account he furnished new figures was wrong again and caught again the president was forced to make a second public correction the duties of a president are simply too great for any one man so presidents have always had personal advisors some times they were given an office some times they had bad no official title like colonel hou house e in the wilson regime today y we hear little about presidential administrative assistants but we hear a great deal about a group of advisors who have failed to function properly in spite of the tact fact that unlike the executive assistants they lack authority these advisors are too close to the president and they have been criticized by other members of the administration tor for s standing between department heads beads the congressional and party leaders they are all old close personal friends of the president they are inexperienced in government whether president Tr little circle ot of cronies has helped or hindered him Is beside the question no one can dispute the fact that they were chosen because of their loyalty rather than because of their experience the question is whether presidential duties as they exist today can be delegated even to a well trained highly capable staff they can is the answer IF such a taff staff is not blocked by higher authorities thorit ties les who from motives of love hate politics religion temperament taste or previous condition ot of be servitude r v etude use such authority 0 other t h than in the public good |