I think we need to concern ourselves also with the timeliness of action. Every policy officer cannot help but be a planning officer. Unless we keep our eyes on the horizon ahead, we shall fail to bring ourselves on target with the present. The movement of events is so fast, the pace so severe, that an attempt to peer into the future is essential if we are to think accurately about the present. If there is anything which we can do in the executive branch of the Government to speed up the processes by which we come to decisions on matters on which we must act promptly, that in itself would be a major contribution to the conduct of our affairs. Action taken today is often far more valuable than action taken several months later in response to a situation then out of control.

There will of course be times for delay and inaction. What I am suggesting is that when we delay, or when we fail to act, we do so intentionally and not through inadvertence or through bureaucratic or procedural difficulties.

I also hope that we can do something about reducing the infant mortality rate of ideas -- an affliction of all bureaucracies. We want to stimulate ideas from the bottom to the top of the Department. We want to make sure that our junior colleagues realize that ideas are welcome, that initiative goes right down to the bottom and goes all the way to the top. I hope no one expects that only Presidential appointees are looked upon as sources of ideas. The responsibility for taking the initiative in generating ideas is that of every officer in the Department who has a policy function, regardless of rank.