Evening star., 1936-07-05
A|RBUREAU SHIFTS
LAID TO POLITICS
Efficient Workers Dismissed
for New Dealers, Report
Charges.

The direct charge that efficient
employees of the Bureau OF Air Com
merce were forced out to make way
for New Deal appointees is laid at
the door of the Commerce Depart
ment in the second section OF
report by the Senate Air Committee,
which is being printed as a Senate
report for distribution among MEM
bers of Congress.
The report supplements a first sec
ton which dealt critically with the
administration of the Bureau of Air
Commerce by Eugene L. Vidal, the
director, and his associates.
Among the general conclusions of
the committee were the findings that
dismissal of capable men for politi-
cal reasons and the lack of a merit
system of promotion were the chief
factors contributing to the ineffciency
of the bureau, which has been under
fire from both the manufacturing
and operating airplane industry and
from the public.
The second section of the report
deals specifically with the removal
of four district managers of the
bureau, Thomas Bourne, L. c. Elliot,
!. D. Marshall and G. C. Miller as
managers, respectively, at Newark.
Fort Worth, Chicago and Salt Lake
City. These men were furloughed in
definitely without pay on February 4,
1895.
MitchelTS Part Is Cited,
Among the members Of committee
which examined the men about the
time of the furloughing, the report
stated. was Ewing Y. Mitchell, former
Assistant Secretary of Commerce.
Concerning Mitchelrs part in that
inquiry, the report said:
Irrespective of the reasons which
may have actuated the officials of
the Bureau of Air Commerce in
originally recommending the removals,
Assistant Secretary Mitchell, who sat
as a member of the committee while
the managers were being examined
asked each and every one of them
whether they did not think that
the approval of the New Deal by
the people of the United States as
expressed in the election of President
Roosevelt required a clean sweep OF
Government employees connected with
the old deal and whether they did
not think that having held Their
Jobs for a number of years, it was
time for them to get out and let
others have a chance at these attrac-
tive and lucrative Jobs.
He put the question to them re-
peatedly and stated in no uncertain
terms that it was his opinion that il
should be answered in the affirmative
and that new people owing their ap-
pointment to the new administration
should be given the jobs in order that
these good things might be spread
around.
There can be little doubt that these
questions and expressions by Assistant
Secretary Mitchell addressed directly
to the affected managers must leave
no uncertainty in their minds that the
desire to create jobs for others was the
determining factor in the mind of the
Assistant Secretary in charge of the
bureau, irrespective of the reasons
which may have operated upon the
bureau officials themselves"
Roper Held Dissatisfied.
: The report of the committee. ol
which Senator Copeland, Democrat, oi
New York. was chairman, pointed out
that apparently Secretary of Com
morce Roper was not quite satisfied
with the actions of his subordinates
The indefinite furlough was ordered
modified and the district managers
were instructed to report to Washing
ton, there to be temporarily relieved
from their duties.
Subsequently, the report stated,
John Dickinson, then an Assistant
Secretary of Commerce, addressed this
memorandum to the Secretary:
Immediately after the issuance of
Bureau of Air Commerce on February
indefinitely furloughing the district
managers without pay) certain facts
came to my attention which seemed TO
require that the case should be gone
into further in order to determine
whether or not the intent of the order
should be carried out. These facts
may be summarized under two heads:
THAT the removals were being
made primarily or largely because the
men in question had served in the bu-
reau under the previous administra-
ton and in order to make room for
new appointees who would owe their
position to the present administration.
and.
"2-That insofar as the removals
might be justified on the basis of lack
of efficiency or competence on the
part of the employees in question, the
judgment of competence or imcompe-
tence rested upon the reports of, and
was connected with, the relations of
these men to another hold-over en-
ployee of the bureau, Mr.. J. A. Mount,
and involved an effort on the part of
Mount to secure their removal because
they were personally obnoxious to
him"
Copyright, 1885. by the New York Herald
Tribune)