board. Get rid of ‘em! How can a corporation president tell if his publicrelations department is performing adequately? One way would be to give thewhole department a six-month vacation with pay, and see what happens toprofits. In most corporations, profits will rise slightly, because theday-to-day costs of expense-account lunches and typewriter ribbons will notbe incurred for six months. ========== A modicum of thought will show myriadsof ways in which even the most impenetrable bureaucracy can be thrown intothe cold light of objective, rational examination. Perhaps the biggest andmost dangerous bureaucracies are the political ones—the government agenciesthat consume tax money and produce little but aggravation. These are more

firmly entrenched than most bureaucracies, thanks to the Civil Service

regulations that were originally set up to safeguard honest workers againstthe rampant politics of the spoils system. “The place to start reforming the

political machinery is at the top— with the politicians themselves. The basic

problem with most politicians is that they are convinced that the most

important thing in life is for them to be re-elected. So we must dissuadethem of that belief. We have already dissuaded the occupant of the WhiteHouse from believing that he has a chance to be re-elected more than once.

The Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution limits the President to no

more than two terms in office. Might it not be a reasonable idea to extendthis concept throughout the root and branch of our political system? Whyshould anyone-serve twenty terms in the Congress? Is, this nation so poor intalent that“ certain men must grow into their dotage in political office? Whynot make it mandatory that no officeholder can serve more than two

terms? This is bound to produce a “get up or get out” syndrome amongpoliticians. Instead of working for re-election to the same office, they’llbe struggling manfully (or womanfully, as the case may be) to get elected toa higher office. There’s more prestige, it pays better, and the opportunitiesfor graft will be larger—if’that’s the kind of politician we’re talkingabout. But this motivating force might work out to the benefit of thetaxpayer. The politician might actually have to accomplish something thatpleases the voters before he can seriously consider himself a candidate forhigher office. After all, there are four hundred and thirty-five Congressmenin the US House of Representatives, and only a hundred Senators in the UpperChamber. If a Representative were limited to two terms and wanted to move upto a Senator’s seat, he just might be tempted to be an effectiveRepresentative. Crazy idea, of course. It would never work. But if it weretried, it would have to be installed in parallel with another, even crazieridea: universal public service. The root problem of American politics is thatmost Americans don’t work at it. Most of us vote, and we don’t even do thatas intelligently as we should—particularly in local elections. But if we areever to break up the governmental bureaucracies that surround us at the

local, state, and Federal levels, then we must all of us be willing to put afew years of our lives into public service. Everyone in the nation could bedrafted at age eighteen, man or woman, no exceptions except physical ormental incapacity. This would provide an army of workers who would serve in

the governmental agencies for two years each. Everyone in the nation could bedrafted again at age forty, with more lenient exemptions (possibly) toprovide a corps of leaders for the youngsters. Many Americans are findingthat they want to change their life-style at about age forty; a year or so inpublic service would be a good chance to review their lives, see wherethey’ve been and where they’d like to go. And it would be good for thecommunity, the state, the nation. When each of us realizes that he or she is

going to devote a few years of service to the community, then we might beginto demand higher standards of performance from our governmental agencies andour elected representatives. It’s only when the inner workings of theorganization are laid bare that we can reasonably understand what can and

cannot be accomplished. But that’s just one of those crazy science-fictionalideas. It’ll never work. It’s just as silly as expecting a President as“hard” on Communism as Richard Nixon to visit Peking. THE EDITOR