The Brownlow Committee Fifty Years Later

A retrospective approach to an event of half a century ago carries the risk of unwarranted benignity. That risk is compounded if one was, as I, a participant in the event.' I can only declare my interest and proceed with my present task, disciplined by awareness that this year is also the bicentennial of the Constitution, the centennial of Woodrow Wilson's seminal essay, The Study of Administration, and year one of a reaffirmation of the checks and balances system. Let me recall some of the atmosphere in the summer of 1936 when the staff of the President's Committee on Administrative Management was at work. We and the Committee had met for two days in May, but during the summer the Committee members were little in evidence. Louis Brownlow and Charles Merriam spent most of that period in Europe, attending meetings of international public administration organizations and looking at European administrative practices. Before his appointment to the Committee, Luther Gulick had committed himself to a study for the New York State Board of Regents, and, of course, he continued to direct the Institute of Public Administration. That left active management of the staff's work to Joseph P. Harris, the Committee's Director of Research. His distinguished contribution has been too little credited in

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