Presidential Papers, Doc#52 Memorandum. <EM>Personal and confidential To Arthur Sherwood Flemming, 21 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #52; February 21, 1953
To Arthur Sherwood Flemming
Series: EM, AWF, Microfilm Series: Official Files, Wilson Corr. ; Category: Memorandum. Personal and confidential
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953
Chapter 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork

 

Congressman Clarence Brown came to see me this morning.2 He mentioned a procedure that was recommended in the Hoover Commission Report for getting rid of unsatisfactory civil service employees.3 I told him that I felt sure that the plans you were developing along these lines would be effective. (He seemed to think that at the time of the Hoover Commission you were possibly too much concerned with academic justice to the individual rather than with good to the government.) I hasten to add, however, that he spoke of you in the most complimentary and highest terms. He just was concerned that we not overlook this necessary point.

He seems very friendly to all our efforts in the reorganization line, and I suggest that when you get a chance you might contact him just for an informal conversation.4

Incidentally, if any time you think it would be helpful for me to meet with particular members of the Senate or of the House, you could arrange the appointment and bring them either to my office or the White House as the situation might seem to indicate. You understand, of course, I do not mean we should make this a frequent practice--I am talking about acute circumstances.

1 Flemming (LL.B. George Washington University 1933) had spent nine years on the U.S. Civil Service Commission beginning in 1939 and during World War II had also served in the Office of Production Management, on the Navy Manpower Survey Board, and finally on the War Manpower Board. In 1948 he had assumed the presidency of Ohio Wesleyan University while also performing government service as one of President Truman's appointments to the Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (for background see William E. Pemberton, Bureaucratic Politics: Executive Reorganization during the Truman Administration [Columbia, Mo., 1979], pp. 79-108). Chairman of the Manpower Policy Committee, Defense Mobilization Office, since 1951, Flemming had taken part in Eisenhower's preliminary government reorganization planning (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 1020 and 1044). The President would name him Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization at the end of March; the Senate confirmed him in April.

2 Clarence J. Brown, newspaper publisher and prominent Ohio Republican, had represented his district in Congress since 1938; in 1947 he co-sponsored legislation that led to the Hoover Commission. He served as a member of the Commission (Pemberton, Bureaucratic Politics, pp. 79, 83), and in 1953 he sat on the Government Operations and Rules committees.

3 The Hoover Commission in 1949 had recommended that the President "direct the heads of all departments and agencies to put into effect a simple, clear-cut, and intelligent procedure for discharge of incompetent employees." It gave specific suggestions as to what the procedure should be (U.S. Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government [1947-1949], The Hoover Commission Report on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government [New York, 1949], pp. 130-32).

4 See n. 1 above and nos. 26, 155, and 341.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum. Personal and confidential To Arthur Sherwood Flemming, 21 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 52. 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/52.cfm

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