in the twilight of his life, beveridge came to repudiate some of the earlier expansion of governmental power that he had championed in his earlier career. in one notable address, delivered before the sons of the revolution's annual dinner in june 1923, beveridge decried the growth of the regulatory state and the proliferation of regulatory bodies, bureaus and commissions. "america would be better off as a country and americans happier and more prosperous as a people," he suggested, "if half of our government boards, bureaus and commissions were abolished, hundreds of thousands of our government officials, agents and employees were discharged and two-thirds of our government regulations, restrictions and inhibitions were removed."