Evening star., 1922-04-02
Attorney General to Hold
"Exhaustiye Investigation"
After WiImeth'S Removal.
PRESIDENT ASKED TO GIVE
REASONS FOR DIsMIssALS
Employees Federation Demands
Specific Charge or Removal
of Stigma.

Definite instructions have been
given Department Of Justice agents
to make an exhaustive investigation
of the bureau Of engraving and print
ing, from which Director James J.,
Wflmeth and twenty-six division
chiefs. superintendents and foremen,
were summarily removed Friday
night, by executive order OF Presi-
dent Harding. it was announced
last night by Attorney General
Daugherty.
number Of agents, Mr.. Daugherty
said, have been assigned to Louis A
Hill, the newly appointed director.
to make searching inquiry into the
conduct of the affairs OF the bureau.
The Attorney General, however. did
not indicate what course the inves-
tigation was to take or what might
be expected in the way of develop
ments.
Dismissal Of the employees "by
method which impugne their charac-
ter and takes away their civil serv-
ice status, including the benefits OF
the retirement act" was protested by
Employees and the Women's Union of
the bureau OF engraving and printing
in communications sent to the Presi-
dent yesterday.
The Women's Union, one Of the
units of the national federation, called
special attention to the dismissal Of
four women executives in the bu-
reau and protested not only against
the 'unfairness" of their removal, but
against the filling of the women's
positions by men-"thus closing the
only avenues of promotion open to
| the thousands of women employed in
the bureau"
Letter TO President.
! The text Of The letter sent 10 the
! President in behalf of the dismissed
/ employees by the National Federation
| of Federal Employees, signed by its
president. Luther C. Steward, fol-
| lows: Permit me, on behalf of the
National Federation of Federal En-
ployes, to call to your attention the
fact that the summary dismissal last
night of twenty-eight employees OF
the bureau of engraving and printing,
| without warning, without spacifica-
tion as to cause, and by a method
SO unprecedented as an Executive or
| der, puts those employees under a
stigma which would prevent their
| reinstatement in any branch of tne
civil service and makes them inelis-
| ible for the benefits of the retire
ment act.
| Every circumstance in connection with
| this dismissal, including the statement
! issued from the White House to the
| press, carries with il the implication
of wrong doing and asperscs the
record of men and women who have
| stances for more than twenty years
| Under the civil service law. rein
statement is not possible so long as
| that record stands,
In view Of these facts, the Nation
al Federation of Federal Employees
respectfully requests you as Chief
| Executive to render to these dis
| missed employees the justice which
| only the Chief Executive can now
| render them under the circumstances,
! namely, to clear their records of the
stigma, or else specify the charges
| against them.
Permit me to call your attention
also to a communication from a con-
stituent unit of our Federation, the
Women's Union of the bureau Of
| engraving and printing, with refer
ence TO the women who were dis
| missed by your order. / inclose that
communication herewith"
Women Upheld.
The text of the letter sent by the
| women's union of the bureau, and
signed by it's secretary, Gertrude NJ.
! McNally, reads as follows: 'On be-
| half of the Women's Union Of the
bureau of engraving and printing,
| representing thousands of the women
| employed in various processes in the
bureau, we desire to call your atren-
tion to the fact that among the
twenty-eight employees dismissed by
your order last night, without speci-
fcation as to cause, were four women
/ who hold the highest positions thus
far opened to women in the bureau
I'VE desire to register our protest
| against the unfairness and injustice
of summary dismissal without speci-
Acation as to cause and we hereby
ask that the records of these women
be cleared of the imputation thus cast
| upon them, or else that the charges
he specified The civil service act pro-
! yides that no person in the classi-
fed civil service of the United States
| shall be removed therefrom except
for such cause as will promote the
eAiciency of said service and for rea-
s6ns given in writing. and the per-
son whose removal is sought shall
have notice of the same and Of any
charges preferred against him and
be furnished with a copy thereof, ans
also be allowed a reasonable time fot
personally answering the same in
writing, and afiidavits in support
\ thereof
These women were in fact notified
that their dismissal was effective i'm
mediately and they are as yet with
out specification as to the cause.
Their personal character ia thus i'm.
(Continusd on Pare .. Column 81