The Nation: Never on Sunday

Donald Alexander, 55, a tax lawyer who in 1973 became commissioner of Internal Revenue:

The public deserves better Government than they’re getting. Part of the problem is due to the distractions that one finds in trying to do a job that is too large at best and much too large when up to four hours a day are spent running for the fire extinguisher, using it and refilling it. Some Sundays I almost catch up to the job by midnight, and some Sundays I catch up to where I should have been the week before.

I’d like to see a four-year term for Congressmen. I think it would be better for them and for the Executive Branch if they weren’t running again as soon as they were elected. I would like to see constructive oversight by a fairly small group of congressional committees. I made 63 appearances on the Hill in ’75 and ’76, which is a record for commissioners of Internal Revenue.

The joys of the job are that some days you do actually take four steps forward and only 3½ steps backward, and the tax system has been improved. I think there was some substance to some of the allegations about the use of tax information for political purposes in the past. I think that now Presidents, Cabinet members, Senators and Congressmen are treated like other taxpayers and will continue to be treated as such.