The More Things Change ...

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"... the established system of doing business ... broke down early in the war. ... the civilians, expert and inexpert, who attempted to carry on business which properly belonged to their departments, where they succeeded at all in doing better than the [War] departments themselves, did so usually by violations of the law--the very law which, in large measure, prevented the departments drom doing as well as the civilians did. ... The history of war contracts shows clearly that there were many men in the War and Navy Departments who were entirely competent to foresee the needs of their country in the crisis and to prepare plans adequately to meet them. They were prevented, however, from doing this by the laws or administrative regulations defining the scope of their authority. Therefore, as is usual at a time of heated public opinion, they were accused of incompetence because they did not get results which they were unable to get only because this very public had insisted on tying them hand and foot. ... We have sacrificed and will always sacrifice efficiency and dispatch for what we think is safety. Even when we happen to get a competent public servant for the niggardly pay which the people of the country are willing to give for any public office, we tie his hands in this way and make him bury his talent. There were numerous cases of this kind ... and men suffered in reputation, not because of their inability to measure and provide for enlarged responsibilities in the crisis, but because the public was impatient of their ability to do so under the conditions the public had laid down."

-- Government War Contracts, J. Franklin Crowell, 1920 (Editor's Preface)

Best holiday wishes to those serving our country, trying each day to do the best they can while being tied hand and foot by the system.