Dartmouth in the New Deal
An Interviewwith Joe Carney '98
As I sat talking to Joe Carney in his office of Collecter of Internal Revenue for the District of Massachusetts on the eighth floor of the new Federal Building in Boston I saw a framed photograph of President Roosevelt on the wall near his desk. I went nearer to it and read the inscription in the president's handwriting, "For Joseph P. Carney from his friend Franklin D. Roosevelt."
Having known Joe for so many years I was curious to know how his appointment to this, the highest federal office in New England, had come about and so I asked him, "Joe, how did you ever get appointed to this office?"
With no hesitation but with that merry twinkle in his eyes he replied: "I don't really know, Phil, unless it was that the President, as a part of the New Deal he was inaugurating, wanted to have a business man fill this office and had heard that I had been more or less successful in some of the business undertakings with which I had been connected. I do not suppose that the fact that I was a supporter of his in the precampaign fight in Massachusetts had much to do with it, do you?"
(Last night I read this in a Washington despatch, "Carney had a busy day in Washington breakfasting at the White House, conferring with Acting Administrator Williams, luncheon at the White House, and another conference with Williams lasting most of the afternoon prevented Carney from attending to matters connected with the bureau of internal revenue.")
"Have you been able to make real business principles apply in a large government department where, to the outsider at least, it would appear that politics are strong factors?"
"Phil, that's where the general public have the wrong impression. There are about 275 people, men and women, employed in this office. Of these I have appointed about 75. At the outset I went about it just as though I was going into a new business venture. I looked around to find the best man available for my assistant, for this man, under the law, is the general manager, the superintendent, or what you will of the department, f selected a man from within, one who was most familiar with it and the work. I have found that I made no mistake in my selection. Then I made some changes in the key men in some of the departments and, in selecting them from the more than 4000 or more applicants I have interviewed, I based my choice not solely on the political exigency. The first and most important hurdle for the applicant to take was qualification for the position he was seeking. If he passed this then, of course, it was not an obstacle that the candidate was a democrat. From the results being achieved I think that I chose wisely.
"Contrary to the general belief about government offices this one is not made up of a crowd of clock watchers, rather they are a group of most loyal, willing workers and I honestly believe that they, as a whole, are more interested in their work and in the results to be attained than are the majority of those employed in private business. This district is the third largest in the United States in the amount of tax collected, last year the amount collected here amounted to almost $50,000,000. It is an office of considerable importance. If there was time I would like to tell you the story how this district cleared up the work of collecting and checking the floor tax imposed on liquors by the 1934 bill, how it was done in less than thirty days from the date the law became effective, was the first district in the United States to complete this work, and had collected more than $600,000 for all but two of the 7,100 dealers and these two had given bonds for the payment of the tax. Since I took office the amount of outstanding uncollected income taxes has been reduced from about $16,000,000 to slightly more than $5,000,000. You see that business principles are working nicely here."
"You mentioned the New Deal a moment ago, Joe, how do you interpret this phrase?" "In my opinion, the NEW DEAL means that we are getting back to fundamentals; that the cards will be dealt above the table. There is going to be less stacking of the cards for the purpose of creating special privilege. And, after the pot is won, there will be no high jacking of the winner to deprive him of his profits.
"I believe one effect which will come from the New Deal is that one so aptly put by President Hopkins in his opening address to the College last September. You will remember that he then said, in effect, that the day of the individualist was past, that from now on the individual must consider himself as a part of the larger unit and rather than working for himself alone he will work for the common good of all. This is not Socialism nor does it approach the mellenium, it is just plain common sense. If we have learned anything from the upheaval of the last decade it is the falsity of the idea that man lives for himself alone. If the unit as a whole is not successful the individual, who is a part of it, cannot be no matter what he may, for the moment, think. We are living in a great era, Phil."
From a source quite apart from Joe himself I learned of a most interesting fact. Like all government employees those in the Internal Revenue office had taken a 15% cut in salary. This had not engendered a most friendly or charitable feeling in them. When the Emergency Welfare Drive was put on in Boston Joe was made chairman of the committee on Federal Em- ployees. One day he assembled all of his employees of the department and gave them a talk about the fund and its purpose. He did not threaten, plead or argue. He quoted Eddie Cantor, that in such an emergency every one was in one of two positions, he should either be receiving aid from the welfare or else giving to it. Joe told them that he did not want any one who could not honestly make a contribution to do so. One hundred per cent of the employees of the Internal Revenue Department are sub- scribers to the fund and most of them are giving a half day's pay a month for five months.
Six months after he had taken office as Collector of Internal Revenue Joe had further duties and honors conferred on him. On March 5 he was named to the Board of the CWA and the FERA for Massachusetts. Washington surely has confidence in him. With his natural ability to organize Joe will have little trouble in successfully conducting both offices.
There is nothing of the politician about Joe Carney, the first Dartmouth man to hold this position of Collector of Internal Revenue in Massachusetts, the first Dartmouth man in a quarter of a century to hold a high Federal office in Boston. Calm, unruffled, quiet spoken, approachable, unaffected, with a jaw of determination and a backbone of steel he is still the same Joe Carney the class of '98 has held in such high esteem and affection since our college days together.
"Breakfast at the White House"
