Hale has too much on him”; that the mayor of Fairfax, “an arch
crook,” was Hale’s close friend; that a longtime county prosecutor
was part of Hale’s political machine and was “no good” and
“crooked”; and that even a federal official with the Office of Indian
Affairs was “in the power of Bill Hale and will do what Hale says.”
White realized that his struggle to obtain justice was just
beginning. As a bureau report would put it, Hale “dominated local
politics and seemingly could not be punished.” Hoover had earlier
praised White, saying that because of his handling of the case
“conditions have been peaceful and I have had no complaint or
criticism whatsoever, and this has been a great relief to me.” Yet
Hoover—that “slender bundle of high-charged electric wire,” as
one reporter described him—was growing increasingly impatient.
Hoover wanted the new investigation to be a showcase for his
bureau, which he had continued to restructure. To counter the
sordid image created by Burns and the old school of venal
detectives, Hoover adopted the approach of Progressive thinkers
who advocated for ruthlessly efficient systems of management.
These systems were modeled on the theories of Frederick
Winslow Taylor, an industrial engineer, who argued that
companies should be run “scientifically,” with each worker’s task
minutely analyzed and quantified. Applying these methods to
government, Progressives sought to end the tradition of crooked
party bosses packing government agencies, including law
enforcement, with patrons and hacks. Instead, a new class of
technocratic civil servants would manage burgeoning
bureaucracies, in the manner of Herbert Hoover—“the Great
Engineer”—who had become a hero for administering
humanitarian relief efforts so expeditiously during World War I.
As the historian Richard Gid Powers has noted, J. Edgar Hoover