Bureaus are breeding grounds for bureaucracy, and Hoover\u2019s was no different. Hoover might be interested in virtually everything his agency did, down to the smallest detail, but he could not do it all himself. He might read virtually every piece of paper passing through the Bureau of Investigation, he might direct its movement, but he could not control it. Paperwork in Hoover\u2019s domain, as in anyone else\u2019s, had a life of its own.\u00a0 In Lewis Taylor\u2019s case, all necessary documentation by the Denver field office was completed by May 13. The application folder was mailed to Washington for further action but instead was simply filed away. A confused Taylor, who had already registered his intent to accept the job of Special Agent, wired Hoover on May 29, \u201cDoes failure to hear from you mean that application has not been accepted.\u201d The concerned Director instructed Clyde Tolson to look into the \u201cconsiderable mix-up,\u201d adding, \u201cI certainly hope there are no other files in the same condition.\u201d Tolson could not determine what happened in Taylor\u2019s case but did revise the internal routing of documents to prevent a completed case from being \u201cfiled without action.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Taylor was ordered to undergo a physical examination. After that, things again moved quickly. The young man passed his physical on June 5, and two days later an appointment letter was prepared.\u00a0 Before the letter could be issued, the Bureau notified New Mexico\u2019s two U.S. Senators.\u00a0 On June 11, Senator Phipps gave his go-ahead, but Senator Waterman put a hold on the appointment until he talked to the Attorney General. Waterman gave his release on the 15th<\/sup>, but by that time it was too late to place Taylor in the next new agent class in Washington. On June 17, therefore, Hoover cancelled Taylor\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n The disappointed applicant busied himself with practicing law in Clayton, New Mexico while he awaited his next chance. All the early paperwork was not without result. When new funding became available, Taylor was directed to take a new physical examination. He did this on December 21, 1929, and a new letter of appointment was prepared on Christmas Eve. Then the file sat once more, probably inside the Justice Department, until a new job offer was mailed on February 17, 1930. The eager New Mexican telegraphed his positive reply five days later, and on March 3, forty-seven weeks after first expressing interest, Taylor entered the school for Special Agents.<\/p>\n It was the task of Inspector Keith, the Bureau\u2019s training director, to \u201cdevote particular attention\u201d to training each new agent. Taylor, like all new agents, was to be \u201cfully instructed in all phases of the Bureau\u2019s work.\u201d\u00a0 Taylor learned well the Bureau\u2019s \u201cManual of Rules and Regulations\u201d and \u201cManual of Instructions,\u201d scoring 93 and 100 on the respective tests. Keith described Taylor as \u201cyouthful, inexperienced, and inclined to be gossipy.\u201d The kid from the New Mexico sticks impressed Keith \u201cas sort of a small town politician.\u201d Nevertheless, Keith was sure Taylor would \u201cdo his best to make good,\u201d making a satisfactory Special Agent, but probably never rising beyond that.<\/p>\n On March 30, 1930, probationary Special Agent Taylor entered on duty in the Chicago field office. Special Agent in Charge E.J. Connelly assigned him to general case work. After thirty days, Taylor was developing as expected. His final (60-day) rating is missing from his file, but at the end of May he graduated to permanent status in the Bureau.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bureaus are breeding grounds for bureaucracy, and Hoover\u2019s was no different. Hoover might be interested in virtually everything his agency did, down to the smallest detail, but he could not do it all himself. He might read virtually every piece of paper passing through the Bureau of Investigation, he might direct its movement, but he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-war-begins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}