Evening star., 1934-11-13
PATRONAGE RIDER
RULING GUSTS 900
FROM TREASURY
McCarI Decides Former Dry
Agents Must Pass Civil
Service.
DECISION ENDS LONG
DISPUTE OVER JOBS
Employees Dubbed Hoover Re-
publicans" by Foes in Con-
gressional Fight.

Controller General McCarl today up
held the patronage rider" to the
Treasurys appropriation measure re-
quiring several hundred former Prohi-
bition Bureau employees to take new
examinations to hold their jobs. Con-
currently, the Treasury Department
announced that about 900 of these
would be dropped December l, having
failed to pass tests given by the Civil
Service Commission several weeks ago.
The defamation, principally in in
vestigative posts, hits the Alcoholic
Tax Unit of the Internal Revenue
Bureau, to which the men had been
shifted in the reorganization OF the
Governments liquor enforcing activi-
ties.
Most of those affected are in the va
In Washington.
Large Group Exempt.
At the same time, the McCarl de-
cision held that the legislative rider,
ny oCLldIO1 NANIAC2Ao1s DSAAAO
crat, of Tennessee, did not apply to a
large group of clerical and mechanical
employees who. Attorney General Cum
mings had held, would be included in
its terms.
All of those to be dropped had COM
petitive civil service status which was
destroyed by the new legislation. Only
about one in five out of a group of
some 1900 were able to qualify anew.
Many of the most effective investi-
gative agents lost out, it was said at
the Treasury.
The McKeller amendment was
based on the Senator's allegation that
some TOO former prohibition agents,
reappointed when the Prohibition Bu-
reau was abolished, were Hoover
Republicans" who had been hand
picked by a Republican hold-over
Clique" in the Treasury after being
dropped from service. It presumably
was designed to reach only this group,
but McCarl held it was so broad it
caught about 500 others whose en-
ployment had been continuous.
Decision Ends Dispute.
This was another point on which
the Attorney General was overruled
by the controller general, who held
that under the presidential reorgani-
zation order of June, 1888, there could
be no such thing as continuous en-
ployment for those affected in a re-
organization move; but that they were
automatically dropped from service,
hny
bureau to another between suns. so
to speak. This was the point on which
the 500 were caught.
The controller generals decision
ends-for the present at least-a con-
troversy that had its inception nearly
year and half ago, when President
Roosevelt signed the famous reorgani-
zation order abolishing some govern
mental groups, and consolidating the
functions of others. In the list of the
abolished groups was the Prohibition
Bureau of the Department of Justice,
which, under the order, officially
passed out Of existence on August
10, 1888.
Bureaus Work Divided.
In abolishing this bureau it was
specified that the investigative> func-
tions should 60 into the Justice De-
partment's Division of Investigation,
and all work dealing with permits into
the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Any
other work left over was to be dis
tributed through Justice as the At
torney General might decide
Under this set-up several hundred
Prohibition Bureau workers were
dropped and about 500 transferred to
the Division Of Investigation. Later,
as need for more help developed, a
few more than TOO of those dismissed
were brought back into service.
Then the fight on these TOO opened
at the Capitol. 1t was alleged that
only Republicans had been brought
back and when an effort was made to
knock out the reappointments and the
Attorney General held they were legit-
innate, the appropriation rider, aiming
at the same end, was put through.
In the meantime the investigative or
ganiZation had been shifted into the
new Alcoholic Tax Unit of the Treas
ury.
Upheld by Cummings.
This rider prohibited payment of
any funds after December to any
one of several classes of employees
dropped from Justice between June
10 and December 81, 1888, and later
reappointed in the Treausry, until
they took new tests.
Secretary Morgenthau, contending
that an efficient force had been built
up, asked Attorney General Cummings
for an opinion on the law. The At
torney General upheld it, and said
that it was so broad that it would
catch not only the investigative work
ers, who were the targets Of the
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