The Administration: Friend of a Friend

Monday, August 5, 1946

The resignation of able Harold Smith as Director of the U.S. Budget (TIME, July 1) added one more chore to the President's appointment troubles. Last week Harry Truman plugged the $10,000-a-year budget hole in a familiar way.

The President asked close friend John Snyder for a suggestion. The Secretary of the Treasury consulted an assistant, influential Under Secretary O. (for Oliver) Max Gardner. Then the White House announced the new Director: 39-year-old James E. Webb, protege of North Carolina's onetime Governor Gardner.

The surprise appointment of Webb caused Washington to look with respect to a surprising coincidence of Tarheels in important U.S. fiscal positions. North Carolina's 82-year-old Robert L. ("Muley") Doughton is chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, where all revenue-raising legislation gets its start. North Carolina's Gardner watches over Treasury collections of all U.S. taxes. The expenditures of Government departments are audited by the Comptroller General of the U.S., North Carolina's Lindsay C. Warren.

The new Budget Director is a native of Oxford, N.C., and graduate of the University of North Carolina. He once served as secretary to North Carolina Congressman Edward W. Pou, worked eight years for Tarheel Tom Morgan's Sperry Gyroscope Co. During the war, he spent his tour of duty as a Marine aviation ground officer at a North Carolina air base, Cherry Point, was back as a partner in Max Gardner's law firm and his executive assistant in the Treasury when the President beckoned.

©2010 by Deloris Williams, Nola Duffy and/or individual contributors. No portion of any document appearing on this site is to be used for other than personal research. Any republication or reposting is expressly forbidden without the written consent of the owner. Last updated 11/21/2021

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