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anything about are the little 2x4's at the bottom of the pile. They get RIF'd all right.

You have no idea how complicated the cases get and the situations get, when you have to reduce in force, and still have a rule that can be explained to everybody, and that won't be unusually unfair to anybody. It's a very difficult thing, and you must allow some leeway in there. I mean, the man who's the head of the operation has got to have some choices. He can't be told, “You gotta RIF this man and RIF that man.” He's got to have some choice. He can keep his organization together, you see. He's built it up and he's got to be allowed to do that.

So there are always special cases coming in before the Commissioners to be pled. It's that sort of thing that goes on, goes on day after day. Of course there are large issues of policy that have to be worked out. When the President first got this motion that there was a problem with regard to the loyalty of civil servants--that, of course, was a highly secret enterprise.

That was when it all started.

I suppose so.

Where did Truman get this idea?