POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

A number of years back the federal government established a law called the Hatch Act that provided a protective blanket for civil servants so that they could devote their talents to the jobs assigned to them free of political influence. That was a big step forward. Recently Congress has been considering various proposals that, if enacted, would weaken the Hatch Act and allow civil servants to take an active part in party politics, even to the extent of running for elective office. If that comes about it will destroy one of the most important bases of a sound civil service system. And I see no reason for the proposed changed. Any career person can run for his boss' job now, except that he can't do it while working for that boss. The government employee has the same rights that all citizens have, or should have, except that he can't go out and campaign for or against a candidate. Any weakening of the Hatch Act would be a terrible blunder.

GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNED

In a speech in December, 1971, a department-level government official said that in his long career as a public servant he could not recall a time when the public demonstrated less faith in their government that it had done over the previous decade. In good form he went on to say that he was supporting the administration in its effort to bring the government at all levels closer to the people and to lessen the gap between the government and the governed. I agree wholeheartedly with his stated objective (though I must add that conditions didn't really improve during several years following his statement). It is most important that the governed and their government at all levels understand each other and work for the good of the nation. It is true that as the population multiplies and as its culture and scientific knowledge advance, more and greater differences of opinion develop, and these differences are apt to create voids between people and between the people and their government. A government cannot ignore widespread doubts concerning its credibility, and it is equally important that those in the governed category try to better understand the problems of government. Government career people are charged with the responsibility of carrying out policies, sometimes against their personal inclinations, and they must understand that basic policies are established by the elected or duly appointed representatives of the people.

There is an old saying that is more often true than not: "It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease." On the other hand, there is a modern expression, or a political term, if you please: the "silent majority." When the "silent majority" is favored, it means that we are not going with the minority opinion, even though it is "squeaking." Nevertheless, a well-organized minority very often has its way, and we do not hear from the masses, the "silent majority," until the project or action has been completed, and then often it is too late. The best political administration is one that can identify and understand the needs of the silent majority and then effect the objective with the least irritation of the minority. To the degree it can do that, it will remain in office and accomplish much for all of the people it represents. The same is true of the career person who applies these principles within the framework of his authority and responsibilities.

There is not always a clear distinction between what is best and what is not so good, or even bad. The elements of timing, imagination, and good judgment are important in reaching a proper conclusion. It is also important for an individual in authority to resist a natural inclination to play God by deciding what is best because of personal preference rather than real need.

Maybe I am somewhat biased when I state that government employees, by and large, are at least as well, of not better, qualified and as earnest in their endeavors as are people in private enterprise. I agree that some people in the government service do not bring a great deal of credit to their agencies or departments, but the same is true in organizations outside of government—in civic affairs as well as in private enterprise. The big difference is that government employees are always on the public view. They live and work in a fishbowl. Yet, some of the greatest scientists and best administrators this country has ever known have devoted their lives to the service of their government. Civil servants are observed not just by the public but by politicians and various special-interest groups who believe they can be helpful. Often well-meaning friends cause the greatest problem; though more often than not differences of opinion between friends, when a friendly attitude is maintained, lead to the best solutions. If we can direct all government processes so that everything we do is for the betterment of our country and our fellow citizens, it is a good bureaucracy and it is good politics; otherwise, it's terrible and destructive.

The key to the success of any organization is its leadership, which by another name is administration. I believe a few fundamental tenets are worth examining. They were formulated in my mind as my career advanced. Some of them are derived from statements I have read, which I have altered to a considerable extent based on my experiences and observations. As an administrator, one will find that these principles hold true regardless of the size of an organization or whether it is in government or private enterprise. As soon as a person has one employee under his supervision, he assumes a degree of administrative responsibility, and the following tenets become more important.

(1) Accept yourself and go on from there. Don't be afraid to be different and to set your own pattern. Be gentle to yourself for only insofar as you have the right attitude toward yourself can you have the right attitude toward others.

(2) Be humble. Humility begins with the recognition of your dependence on others—and an appreciation of their accomplishments and help to you. A person becomes humble only when aware of the enormous debt owed to others and when he realizes how little he knows of all there is to know.

(3) You can be courteous and still be firm. Go forward with warmth and a gracious, hospitable spirit. A firm, courteous request is far more effective than an order, and it produces better results.

(4) You must be adventurous, opening doors to new experiences and constantly on the lookout for better ideas to improve results, including morale. An imaginative and adventurous administrator must develop a sound philosophy through discussion and reasoning. He should share it with the staff and should be willing to test suggested changes. He should have the fortitude to adopt or to drop suggestions and ideas, according to whether or not they promise desirable results. Remember the tortoise: it can go nowhere without sticking its neck out (of course it should know when to pull it in, too).

(5) Look for and recognize your weaknesses, and build your organization to compensate for them. In this way you will build a staff that will share responsibilities, for no administrator has the time or ability to be all things to all people. Your entire organization's ability and confidence in achieving goals will intensify as the going gets more difficult.

(6) Always give credit where due. Your success will depend to a great extent on your recognition of good concepts, ideas, and the abilities of many people. Your own credit lies in your ability to put such concepts, ideas, and abilities together to their best use.

Whether in a small or a large organization, it is necessary to plan for the future and to develop a policy that keeps up with progress. But good judgment must be exercised on how much of a plan or policy can be carried out at one time. I believe that Thomas Jefferson advanced this point as well as it can be stated and in as few words as possible. The inscription on a wall at the Library of Congress quotes Jefferson as saying, "Let us then take what we can get, and press forward eternally for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good."

CONSERVATION AND WILDERNESS MANAGEMENT

Howard C. Zahniser, in my opinion one of our great conservationists and a leader in the passage of the Wilderness Bill, said: "Wilderness is a natural area where nature is the host and man the guest who doesn't remain." And Howard R. Stagner, one of the great naturalists in the National Park Service, in one of the service's books entitled The National Park Wilderness, put it this way: "Wilderness is a physical condition. Wilderness is also a state of mind. Both concepts are important—the former in the matter of protection and management, the latter in evaluating the benefits of wilderness, both in planning for the intelligent and beneficial use of this important cultural and recreational heritage."

These two quotations point to the basic aspects of wilderness: its value, use, and need of careful management. What are the values of wilderness? Why not use the wilderness to provide man with his changing goodies and to serve his expanding desires which are nurtured by his bent for short-term economic enterprise? What bearing did wilderness have on the history of man, and, even more important, what will it contribute to his history yet to be made? Howard Stagner offers these answers: "Wilderness is expanse . . . and each fixed or fleeting form reflects the artistry of nature. Wilderness is a whole environment of living things . . . and the prosperity of its native wildlife . . . measures the perfection of its waters and floral mantle. Wilderness is the beauty of nature, solitude, and music of stillness. Wilderness invites man to adventure, refreshment, and wonder."

These values and the anticipation of the unknown are the backdrop of our great nation. One of the great authors who have contributed much to our national park system is Freeman Tilden. In a little booklet he did for the service a number of years ago (The Fifth Essence, an Invitation to Share in our Eternal Heritage, Washington, D. C., The National Park Trust Fund Board), he wrote:

The early Greek philosophers looked at the world about them and decided that there were four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. But as they grew a little wiser, they perceived that there must be something else. These tangible elements did not comprise a principle; they merely revealed that somewhere else, if they could find it, there was a soul of things—a Fifth Essence, pure, eternal, and inclusive.

It is not important what they called this Fifth Essence. To modern science, weighing and measuring the galaxies with delicate instruments, the guesses of the ancient thinkers seem crude. Yet these men began a search that still goes on. Behind the thing seen must lie the greater thing unseen.

"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."

It is true that any thoughtful person may find and meditate upon the Fifth Essence in his own backyard. Not a woodland brook, not a mountain, not a field of grass rippling in the breeze does not proclaim the existence of it. But here, in this little book which we hope you will enjoy, you will find reference to a consummate expression of this ultimate wealth of the human spirit which lies behind that which may be seen and touched. It is to be found in the National Park System. . . .

There has never in the history of nations been a cultural achievement like this one. We shall not boast. Perhaps no nation has ever enjoyed the peculiar benefits that would make it possible. But, at any rate, we have preserved a part of our precious heritage before it became too little and too late.

Freeman Tilden's book was written before the Wilderness Act became law, but his statements can well apply to wilderness no matter where it is. The preservation and understanding of our wilderness, our open spaces, our free flowing rivers, our seashores, and the history of man are all a part of our conservation of a heritage far more valuable than we realize. I do not believe we fully understand how much we as a nation owe to the generous foresightedness of so many men and women. I think it is well summed up in a statement made by Allan Sproul, at the time he was head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, in recalling his experience as a young ranger on duty in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park:

In my present work I am chief executive officer of an institution with over twelve billion dollars of assets, with over five billion dollars of gold belonging to foreign governments and central banks in its custody. I had something more precious in my care when I was the "lone ranger" stationed in the Mariposa Grove. In my ignorance I did not know of it then, but I feel it now when I go back to the Grove to worship in the shade of the Giant Sequoias. I thank God they are still there.

The basic principle contained in the law that established the National Park Service can apply without any difficulty to all widerness areas and parks administered by every level of government (excepting, of course, such intensive-use areas as ball fields and playgrounds). The words in the law I refer to are: "To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Love of country together with our common need for the benefits derived from wilderness areas demand a nonpartisan approach to conservation. The best learning and wisdom our people have to offer must be devoted to the selection, protection, and management of the resources that are so necessary and beneficial to mankind.

A PERSONAL NOTE

John West was the chief usher at the White House for a great number of years and served under many presidents. The chief usher is the man who supervises the operation and activities of the White House. It is a difficult and very important job. John retired a few years ago and wrote a very interesting book about his experiences. At one place in the book he states that President John F. Kennedy once bawled me out. I don't want to contradict John West; he is a friend and we never had any trouble working out business contacts on matters pertaining to the White House and the White House grounds. But honestly, I don't remember ever having been bawled out by any president. I met and got to know all the presidents in office during my years in the federal service, although I doubt whether Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, or Harry Truman really knew me. The ones I knew best were Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. If John is right, I must be one of the very few bureaucrats who have been bawled out by a president without being fired.

This book is intended to point out what life is like as a federal government civil servant. I have included the reprimands that I have gotten, but one of the nicest things that ever happened to me was to receive a letter from the former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. I have her permission to quote the letter. I was contemplating retirement as early as 1962, and on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. I retired in January, 1964, and moved to New York. In late August of that year a special messenger delivered to our home in Bronxville a package and a letter under the seal of the president of the United States. The letter had been written by the former first lady in her own hand and the package contained a gold box bearing the presidential seal and the dates that John F. Kennedy served as president. Below that appeared the engraved signature of Jacqueline Kennedy. Following is the text of her letter:

August 22, 1964

Dear Mr. Wirth:

This little gold box comes with a long story attached to it.

President Kennedy was going to give you the Citation of Merit—this last Fourth of July. He had created it the year before—for people who had done so much for their country—and he was going to award it to a few people each Fourth of July—in his beloved Rose Garden.

He talked to me last summer—about giving it to you. You were retiring as head of the Park Service—and that was sad for him. He was so cognizant of all you had done for so many years. He recognized all the pride and devotion and service that had been such a part of your life—and you were the one who made him see all that the Park Service was—and then in his term—you were retiring. That made him so sad—because together you had done something extraordinary.

You know how much he cared about the White House and how it looked to the world. His love and care for the grounds were in the tradition of Washington and Jefferson—though he didn't realize that—or consciously strive to emulate them. He just knew that the President's House should live up to an ideal—and you helped him achieve that ideal.

I was always so amazed and touched that with all he had to do—he could find the time to care about the gardens. He loved the Rose Garden so—it brought him such peace—and to gaze out at green lawns instead of crabgrass ones. He was so proud when it looked beautiful—and then he started to receive Heads of State there—instead of at Andrews Air Force Base.

He was so aware that it was you who made all that possible. He felt so relieved and sure that the White House would stay the way his vision of it was—once it was safely under the guardianship of the Park Service.

Now he is gone—and you are no longer the head of the National Parks. But the two of you will always be linked together—and you made possible for him some of his happiest hours—for which I am so grateful to you forever.

Once I knew, this winter, that he would never be able to give you the Citation which he wanted to give you so much—I had this little box made.

But I kept putting off giving it to you. It would have revived so many memories.

Now that I am about to leave Washington I feel I must send it to you—as a poor substitute for what you would have had from President Kennedy.

But please accept it with our devotion—and please know that all you did was appreciated more than I could ever express—.

Sincerely,
Jacqueline Kennedy

If I was ever bawled out by President Kennedy, I certainly don't remember it; but if so I must have come back pretty strong, for apparently it didn't linger in the mind of either the president or the first lady. On the other hand, John West has provided me the opportunity to reproduce this beautiful letter from Jacqueline Kennedy expressing her feelings and those of President Kennedy toward the National Park Service and myself. I had hesitated to publish it because it is such a thoughtful and personal thing she did on behalf of the late president and herself. But, John West, your statement and my ego left me no choice, and so I thank you very, very much.