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mental health resources, commitment procedures, rehabilitation programs—all have a part in combating the problem.

A similar list of complementary and mutually reinforcing activities could be made for each of the Department's most urgent and difficult problems.

To have a hope, then, of solving any of these problems, there has to be an integrative process. Fragmentation must be replaced by integration to produce a whole greater, not less, than the sum of the parts. Planning, program development, and resources must be seen comprehensively and in perspective and, where necessary, not only brought together but fitted together.

If, as some people urge, health and education and the rest of HEW were split apart and made into three separate agencies, this would not in the slightest diminish the importance of close cooperation among them, nor would it eliminate the need for some external authority to resolve issues arising among the three agencies, to reconcile their respective roles in a joint plan, or to coordinate their performance under such a plan. To be carried out at all, these functions would have to be assigned to the President's personal staff, either in OMB or under the Domestic Council. But both OMB and the Domestic Council already have all they can do to achieve better integration among the departments and agencies now reporting directly to the President. There are real advantages, moreover, in giving responsibility for integrating human services programs to a Presidential appointee who is both visible and publicly accountable, rather than to the White House staff. These, indeed, are major considerations underlying the President's proposal for a Department of Human Resources, which would embrace not only HEW's present activities but add such related functions now performed elsewhere as food inspection and manpower development.

HEW PEOPLE

OF ALL THE things directed toward improving the Department's operations, I am proudest of what we're doing to help improve the opportunities and capabilities of the people who do the Department's work.

When my appointment as Secretary of HEW was announced, Oliphant produced a cartoon for the Denver Post, showing the Secretary's office filled with sniggling, smirking coffee drinkers clustered around the Secretary's chair. The caption was, "Come in, sir, we represent the thousands on your staff. You will find us petty, uncooperative, devious, unreliable, and thoroughly bureaucratic." After nearly a year and a half on the job, I am here to say “it just ain't so." HEW career people bring to the task of Government something which few politicians, and alas, even fewer Republicans, have-many years of continuous service in the executive branch. Those of you who rise to the top of the Civil Service and the Public Health Service and, so far as I have been able to see, those beneath you, have a wealth of knowledge and insight into the problems of government that politicians rarely attain. You are men and women of strong principle and high competence. You respect the role of the political appointee, which is to express, on behalf of the President, the will of the electorate, and you deserve to receive respect in return.

As one who considers himself both a “politician” and a “bureaucrat," I embrace both labels with equal satisfaction. I do not deny, of course, that the word "politician" can have sleazy connotations, just as the word "bureaucrat" can imply inertia. But politics is the art of reconciling competing claims in a free society, and bureaucracies are the indispensable means of translating policies into results. All of you in this Department who have devoted your careers to government service deserve to take special satisfaction in this fact, especially since you are playing significant parts in helping millions upon millions of other people.

To enlarge opportunities for this kind of career service, to strengthen the capabilities of those who participate in it, and to increase the chances of advancement within it, we have initiated a number of interrelated activities.

The most significant and far reaching of these is our upward mobility program. Comprised of several interrelated components—the public service careers program, the Upward Mobility College, job restructuring and refined career ladders, the STRIDE program, special training programs for the disadvantaged, and

career counseling-the program is designed to enhance the training, development, and career advancement opportunities of some 65,000 DHEW employees in grades GS-1 through GS-7 and wage board equivalents.

Undoubtedly, the most innovative and farthest advanced of these is the Upward Mobility College-sometimes known as "The College Without Walls"— which literally brings the campus to the student by offering, at work, a full range of academic courses leading to an associate or bachelor's degree. We currently have approximately 1,740 employees enrolled in this program in the Washington-Baltimore area. We expect to expand this effort and extend it to the field as rapidly as the necessary arrangements can be made.

Recognizing the unique problems which affect the status of women, both within the Department and in society as well, and our limited knowledge of the fundamental causes and nature of these problems, we established in February 1971 the women's action program. Its broad charter is to examine all departmental activities from the point of view of their concern to, or impact on, women. The program has already given us new insights into the problems faced by women in our society and has begun to define means through which HEW programs can be used to alleviate them.

We also created this past year an Office of Special Concerns. It fulfills two major functions which I cannot see a Secretary of HEW doing without: It provides a listening post within the Department which enables the Secretary to hear the grievances as well as the aspirations of members of minorities, and it is a channel through which people in these minority groups can achieve both selfexpression and advocacy for action.

Another important effort is the DHEW management intern program, designed to train carefully selected young persons for future administrative and managerial assignments. Consistent with our overall desire to enhance the career opportunities of HEW employees, the number of trainees entering this program was doubled to 40 last year, with half of these being "in-house" selections. A positive-and successful-effort is being made to attract a larger number of minorities and women to the program.

Two fundamental concepts govern these efforts: First, we are convinced that whatever we do to improve the careers of our lower graded employees, the disadvantaged, minorities, and women will at the same time improve the Department's performance. We fully expect, through these efforts, to attract and retain a more stable and highly motivated work force. We believe this will result from our efforts to show that HEW-a "Department of the people"-truly cares about its own people. And second, the mission of this Department and the nature of its programs dictate that we must exercise positive leadership in the national effort to recognize and promote human dignity and individual worth. We cannot do this merely by precept or even by furnishing money to support worthy undertakings. We must first "practice what we preach," and this is a challenge that I, personally—and I trust the entire Department-wholeheartedly accept. Our collective goal should be to make of the Department an institution closely

knit in its operations, unified in its purposes, and capable of enlisting the loyalty and pride of all those who belong to it.

I cannot leave the subject of the people within HEW without saying something about two other vitally important groups. The first is the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. The Commissioned Corps, as a separate personnel system, has been studied repeatedly over the past decade, and during that period the health functions of the Department have expanded enormously and have themselves been reorganized several times. My decisions regarding the personnel structure for the health arm of the Department reflect my belief that we can develop a flexible and responsive personnel system capable of meeting not only today's responsibilities but tomorrow's as well. In the implementation of this system, I am determined to avoid further shocks and sudden disruptions and to assure that the personnel of the Commissioned Corps are treated with the fairness that their long and distinguished history requires.

Finally, a word about those with whom I work most closely-the heads of agencies and the assistant secretaries. There cannot be many Cabinet officers who were as fortunate as I was, on assuming office, in finding talented and dedicated people already in place, and in enjoying the benefit of their continued service. We all owe these people a very great deal. Over the last year and a half, through the diligent efforts of the Executive Manpower Board, we have brought to full strength a team which I believe to be one of the most distinguished and competent in the whole Federal Government. These new people, and those whom they joined here, have come together to give the Department a sense of movement, direction, and professionalism. They have made it possible to envision a renovated and invigorated Department, responsive to the human needs of this country, and capable of helping to restore confidence in government.

If we are to make this Department what it can be, and what any honest recognition of our responsibilities to the American people requires that it be, then we shall need the best efforts of everyone within the Department-civil servants, Presidential appointees, officers in the Commissioned Corps, employees of all grades, women and men of all races and backgrounds. I believe we are already gathering momentum, and that, with the help of each person in the Department, that momentum will deepen and broaden, to the ultimate benefit of those whom we all seek to serve.

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CONCLUSION

WHAT I HAVE been saying comes down, I believe, to this: We in HEW

are charged with a fourfold task-to identify the problems of the people and of the institutions with which we are concerned; to eliminate the gaps between promise and performance by setting and meeting attainable goals; to make the best possible use of the resources we have; and to fight for the additional resources we know how to use well.

We know how enormously difficult a task this is. We know how much remains to be done-how great are the needs of our fellow citizens and the demands for more money, more manpower, new ideas, new technology, better management, more efficient deployment of resources, and more responsive institutions.

But we also know that in performing this task, we are bringing closer the fulfillment of the promise of America. It is still an inspiring promise. And if at times our progress toward it seems frustratingly, even agonizingly, slow, there can be no greater reward for any of us than the satisfaction of playing a part in bringing it closer.

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