Personal Advisers Research Articles

Chapter Administration and Archives at Windsor

St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle has, from its foundation, been closely associated with the Sovereigns of England, and, through the Order of the Garter, with many of their most distinguished servants. Yet the history of the Chapel has seldom received treatment in any detail by church historians; as an exempt peculiar it has doubtless seemed too far removed from the main currents of ecclesiastical life. St. George's Chapel, however, has led, in whatever isolation from its province, a life of its own that has been of particularly marked vigour in the realms of music and theology. The members of the college serving St. George's, moreover, have had a direct influence on the life of the nation, whether as ministers of the crown or prominent civil servants, as royal tutors, or as personal advisers to the Sovereign. St. George's Chapel, in fact, may have played a far greater part in the life of both Church and State than has as yet been generally realised, and within the last twenty years a group of local historians has undertaken studies in the records of the Chapel, the interim conclusions of which already go some distance towards substantiating such a claim.

The Executive Office and Fiscal and Economic Policy

A question about the economic and fiscal functions in the Executive Office of the President would not have been raised fifty years ago. There were, of course, the economic and fiscal problems with which the President has been concerned all through history. There were problems of farm settlement, tariff policy, of monetary policy, of management of the debt, and of national public works. Each of these problems was handled in one particular department of the Government, and the President discussed the issues, presumably with the head of that particular department. If he wanted to hear the views of others, the problem at hand might have been brought before a cabinet meeting or, in some cases, the President might have discussed the matter with trusted friends. There was, however, no thought that the President would be given a statutory responsibility in these fields besides his general supervisory and legislative responsibilities. Nor was there any thought that the President needed a special staff in his own office besides the staff of the various departments and agencies. During the Great Depression, matters of economic and fiscal policy became of paramount importance for the President. President Roosevelt tackled these problems with the help of personal advisers-his so-called brain trust. He often used as personal advisers not the cabinet officers, but some trusted men placed below the head of a department or agency. In addition, a number of ad hoc emergency councils were created. But no systematic attempt was made to provide continuing staff services for the President in the economic and fiscal field prior to the Reorganization Act of I939.