More & Less Politics

This week the new Hoover Commission, which has been authorized to survey the whole range of executive-branch activity, sent to the Congress its first report on reorganization of the U.S. Government. Its main recommendation: that more politically appointed, non career executives should be placed in positions that call for making and defending public policies. Herbert Hoover's commission of seven Republicans and five Democrats recognizes the damage that can be done when an incoming Administration is hamstrung by civil service rules protecting policymakers who are against its general program and outlook.

To balance the political appointees, the commission urged creation of a politically neutral "senior civil service"--an echelon of from 1,500 to 3,000 well-paid career men whose function it would be to ensure efficient continuity from one Administration to another. Between the political and nonpolitical groups a line should be drawn defining a "clear division of labor," which the commission said does not presently exist. At the lower levels of Government service, the commission recommended less politics, suggesting that 1) political clearance be eliminated for 32,000 rural mail carriers; 2) U.S. marshals and field employees of the Customs Bureau and the Mint be brought under civil service.

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