Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-29
RED CROSS STAFF
BEING OVERHAULED
Personnel Director Denies
Cutting Process" Is
Being Carried Out.

Entering the third winter Of de-
preston and unemployment. the
American National Red Gross is pre-
pared 10 tackle the problem Of feeding
and clothing the destitute with the
smallest but most efficient stan in re-
cent years
A completely overhauled trained
staff Is being built up by a personnel
expert, brought to National headQuar-
ters especially to reorganize along the
most advanced scientific employment
lines
Edward W. Marcellus insists he is
not an efficiency expert" Smiling
broadly, he maintains he is simply q
personnel director"
But his record bellies his assertion.
He made such an efficient survey Of the
Red Cross National organization last
Summer as q member of the firm of
Edwin @. Booz Surveys OF Chicago
that he worked himself into a job
here.
Recommended By Payne.
He was appointed last month upon
recommendation OF Judge John Barton
Payne to carry out the personnel as
poets Of the reorganization suggested
by the Chicago efficiency firm.
Rettcent about discussing specifically
the changes which should be put into
effect, MarcelluS confined himself In an
interview today to general plans he is
working upon looking to the better
ment OF Red Cross employees welfare
and which he believes win work also
to the benefit of the organization it
self through more efficient administra-
ton and management
He has evolved a fve-point plan, en-
oodying selective employment, a well
rounded training course, a merit system
for advancement and promotion, a
health program and retirement pro-
visions.
whether the Red Cross Central Com
mittee, fnal authority in the admins
tration of the relief organizations af-
fairs, will approve his plan, Marcellus
declined to hazard an opinion
He was equally non-committal with
respect to reports that employees are
being laid of in this period of depres-
sion, workers designated by Judge
ever that any wholesale cutting proc
ess" was being carried out.
Actually, there hasn't been any one
released, aside from the temporary en-
ployeS," Marcellus said. except two Oh
three who would have been dropped Ill
the normal course Of business.
1T is too early yet to make any def
mite statement about what may happen
in the future under our new system"
The personnel director made it plain
however that In any going concern
there is a certain amount Of turnover
in employees
The deadwood must be eliminated If
an organization is to function prop
erly." he declared
Marcellus brings to the Red Cross
wide experience in personnel problems
A graduate Of Northwestern University
and of the Columbia University Teach
ers' College, he has served in various
industrial firms as personnel director
Immediately after the war he served
as assistant district vocational~officer of
the Federal Board for Vocational Edu-
catfon at Chicago. In the educational
field his experience has ranged from
class teacher to superintendent of
schools For three years he was
member Of the faculty at Northwestern
Centralized Stenographers.
His first accomplishment In directing
the Red Cross employment affairs was
to centrali2e the stenographers in one
department. The result has been a
more efficient and better co-ordinated
stenogrsphic service and it is likely to
save money.
In fact one Of Marcellus' principal
jobs with the Red Cross is to save