Improvement of Ethical Standards in the Federal Government: Problems and Proposals

• Author: Paul H. Douglas
• Published date: 01 March 1952
• Date: 01 March 1952
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625228000120
• Subject Matter: Articles

149

Improvement

of

Ethical

Standards

in

the

Federal

Government:

Problems

and

Proposals

By

PAUL

H.

DOUGLAS

PURSUANT

to

a

referral

to

it

by

the

Senate

of

a

proposed

resolution

(introduced

by

Senator

Fulbright

of

Arkansas)

to

establish

a

Commission

on

Ethics

in

the

Federal

Government,

a

subcommittee

1 of

the

Committee

on

Labor

and

Public

Welfare

in

1951

held

hearings

and

took

extensive

testimony

from

a

broadly

representative

group

of

distinguished

witnesses.

These

hearings

have

been

published

and

a

summary

re-

port

with

recommendations

has

been

issued.

THE

MAGNITUDE

OF

THE

PROBLEM

As

summarized

by

the

subcommittee,

the

factors

contributing

to

the

over-all

problem

may

be

stated

in

this

way:

(1)

In

this

day

of

big

government,

there

is

much

at

stake

in

public

policies

which

directly

affects

the

income

and

welfare

of

individu-

als,

industries,

and

groups.

(2)

Members

of

Congress

have

al-

most

free

discretion

in

making

these

policies,

and

administra-

tive

officials

have

great

discre-

tion

in

administering

them.

(3)

The

great

authority

vested

in

elected

officials

is

justified

by

the

principle

that

they,

as

rep-

resentatives

of

the

public,

will

exercise

their

authority

in

the

public

interest

and

for

public

purposes;

similarly,

the

discre-

tionary

authority

delegated

to

administrators

is

based

on

the

assumption

that

they

will

exer-

cise

it

reasonably

in

accordance

with

public

policies,

and

for

the

furtherance

of

public

purposes.

(4)

Although

the

importance

of

the

issues,

the

breadth

of discretion

involved,

and

the

basic

nature

of

responsible

government

make

it

necessary

that

as

far

as

hu-

manly

possible

issues

shall

be

decided

on

their

merits,

inter-

ested

parties

are

not

willing

to

let

the

wheels

of

government

turn

unassisted,

but

in

a

great

variety

of

ways

bring

pressure

to

bear

upon

legislators

and

ad-

ministrators

in

order

to

secure

favorable

decisions.

From

these

basic

factors

emerge

spe-

cial

problems,

most

of

which,

in

the

opinion

of

the

witnesses,

call

for

af-

firmative

and

corrective

action

by

the

government.

PROBLEMS

OF

PRIOR

EMPLOYMENT

One

of

the

most

pressing

problems

is

that

the

government

is

employing

ma-

ture,

well-established

businessmen,

es-

pecially

in

numerous

positions

in

de-

fense

agencies

which

deal

directly

with

the

very

industries

from

which

they

re-

cently

came.

These

men

are

needed,

and

their

work

for

the

government,

like

that

of

every

other

public

servant,

must

be

considered

a

patriotic

service.

The

employment

of

these

men

in

defense

agencies,

nevertheless,

creates

ethical

problems

and

hazards.

Can

they

be

perfectly

fair

if

cases

come

before

them

which

directly

or

indirectly

involve the

company

from

which

they

came?

Can

1

The

members

of

the

subcommittee

were

Matthew

M.

Neely,

Hubert H.

Humphrey,

George

D.

Aiken,

Wayne

Morse,

and

the

pres-

ent

author,

who

was

chairman.