<--PREV Doc #1818  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1820 Document #1819; April 2, 1956 To Philip Young Series: EM, AWF, Name Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part IX: "Concerning my political intentions"; December 1955 to April 1956 Chapter 19: The goal: A "durable peace"   Dear Phil: I noticed in the papers that for the past four months the number of people employed by the Federal Government has been steadily rising.1 Cannot this trend be checked? Even if some Departments can demonstrate an inescapable need for additional people, I think there are two remedies that might be advised: (a) Require such Department to examine all other activities under its control to see whether the necessary number could not be achieved by transfer within the Department. (b) If one Department has to go up, can we not cut another?2 As ever 1 Eisenhower was referring to an April 1 article in the New York Times that had reported increases in federal civilian employees during the first two months of 1956 (New York Times, Apr. 1, 1956). For background see no. 1444. 2 In his reply to the President (Apr. 3, AWF/N), Young would tell Eisenhower that the increase followed four successive months in which there had been reductions in the federal civilian work force. There was "no need to worry about the trend at the present time," Young would write, since it represented "the start of a normal seasonal increase." "During all of 1954 and 1955, Executive Branch levels varied only by a maximum of 50,000, excluding Post Office Department temporary Christmas employees. Despite the small normal increase in February, this level is still 2,000 persons below the comparable figure for February 1955, and 53,000 below the level for February 1954." Eisenhower's suggestions had "pretty well followed through the normal budget operation." Young would conclude: "Let me know if you want any more figures, as we have lots of them." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Philip Young, 2 April 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1819. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1819.cfm <--PREV Doc #1818  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1820

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