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numbers of items must be fished out of the pool by fishermen 

 whose main bait is overestimation. If the administrators do 

 not fish out a sufficient amount to pacify the particular group 

 whose interests they represent, they must blame the farmer, 

 the consumer, the soldier, Lend-Lease, the laborer, or else 

 they themselves will be blamed. In the case of food, the pe- 

 culiarities of weather are so widely understood that as the 

 food problem becomes more acute, food administrators will 

 probably try to shift the blame onto Providence. In that 

 event the weatherman will be used to whitewash adminis- 

 trative mistakes. The real mistake was to place confidence 

 in the weatherman, who is known to be unreliable. 



The Baruch report made the suggestion that the synthetic- 

 rubber program should be "bulled through." Newspaper re- 

 ports indicate that the rubber czar did just that. However, 

 there is a limit to the number of programs that can be "bulled 

 through." When the number of programs becomes too large 

 and the conflict among them becomes too great, "bulling 

 them through" results in bull fights aptly called the "Bat- 

 tle of Washington." 



The career of the swashbuckling administrator is more 

 likely to be brief than brilliant. Sooner or later he offends 

 someone and is eased out. 



Some administrators do not run their organizations. In 

 fact, some are run by their organizations, and there is little 

 that they can do about it. The administrator who is the most 

 likely to be "successful" is the man of inaction, who does 

 nothing and offends no one. For others, resignation is the 

 only means of escape. 



Most administrators face a strange dilemma. If they suc- 

 ceed in carrying out a policy, someone suffers and their job 

 is in danger. If they fail in their charge, their original backers 

 turn them out of office. 



