Help Wanted

Contrary to popular myth, bureaucracies do not run on momentum alone. They need people. Yet the Nixon Administration has been operating for months with one-fourth of its sub-Cabinet posts either empty or filled with stand-in appointees. At a recent celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, eight of eleven high department offices were represented on the podium by acting officials. As they were introduced to the bureaucracy-wise audience of mainly H.E.W. workers, the ludicrousness of their transient titles touched off muffled titters that soon turned to roars of laughter. At present, offices such as the massive Social Security Administration ($60 billion a year), the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Services and Mental Health Administration are without permanent heads. The Department of Defense is almost as undermanned. It now lacks a second Deputy Secretary, and three Assistant Secretaries, including a comptroller. In addition, such a vital post as ambassador to the Soviet Union has been left vacant for more than three months.

With the Administration approaching the 100-day bench mark of its new term, the White House insists that it has been slow in filling vacant posts only because it is having trouble finding exceptionally talented people. But the suspicion persists that loyalty to the President--not talent--is what the White House is really looking for in its appointees. The staffing crisis is likely to grow worse in the wake of the new Watergate disclosures, which should leave quite a few job openings on the White House staff. This term, perhaps, the emphasis should be less on fealty to President and party and more on good and honest government.

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