I’ve long thought that nobody can go to work for long in Washington, DC, and remain a useful member of society.

This story from the book I’m currently reading, Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman, about the industrialists and businessmen who went there in the 1940s to lead the manufacturing charge for WWII production, only helps confirm my thinking.

Of course, the ways of Washington sometimes baffled even the best business minds. The vice president of one New York bank applied for a post in the Office of Economic Warfare. He waited a long time in vain. Then one day the OEW’s director showed up at the bank to ask its president if he knew any likely candidates for the very same job. The president mentioned his vice president, and the man was hired on the spot.

He moved to Washington and soon found himself inundated with the usual paperwork related to the OEW. A month or two passed, and a letter arrived forwarded from his old New York address. It was a rejection letter, regretfully turning him down for the very post he now occupied.

Now familiar with Washington bureaucracy, this came as no surprise to him. The surprise was he had signed the letter himself.

I’m pretty sure that’s the best laugh I’ve ever gotten from a history book.