Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-06-24
Powell Is Goat When He
Could Have Been a Hero
Continued From Page One)

I
a horn and that basicly he is not
responsible for the fainting fits in
dulged in by his feminine workers.
Yet it also is abundantly clear that
he could have avoided practically ali
the unfavoraple publicity and pos
sibly most of the Paintings by the
use Of a bit Of tact and diplomacy
which would have cost him prac-
tically nothing.
Here's a look at the record"
such as AL Smith used to call for.
To begin with, Mr.. Powell die
not select the present quarters
the commission; that was done BY
, the director of the Division of Con
tract and Purchase back in early
1887. It is undiSputed that even
then Powell said they were 'inade
quate."
He had no say in the matter, just
as he today hasn't any say as to
quarters in which the fifty-odd en-
ployment offices are located all ovel
the State. The Division of Purchase
and Contract is solely charged with
this responsibility
In the next place, Powell protest
ed when the original quarters, which
were on the second floor, were exs
tended to include the third floor
He sought transfer of the entire out
fit to more cOmmOdiOuS and better
ventilated quarters
When he was over-ruled, he asked
the Social Security Board, (Federal
agency which pays the U. C. C.'s
expenses and consequently is vested
with control over what is and isn't
spent) to approve an expenditure
approximately $500 for cooling
units which would keep maximum
temperatures on the third floor to
about IS, rather than the 100 and
up which have prevailed recently
The board refused his request.
He asked for $1,000 to cut wind
oWs in the south wall, which would
give ventilation enough to keep
down excessive heat. This, too,
was refused
And so there was Powell, in
quarters against which he had pro-
tested and without the cooling agen-
cies he had requested. There wasn't
anything he could do about it except
resign, and that wouldn't have reme-
died the condition; just put him out
of a job.
Last summers experience, when
the officers we're confined to the
second floor, showed that it gets
hot-stifingly, stranglingly hot-and
SO when summer came on this year
Powell and Mrs. Spillman made one
more effort to avert what they saw
was coming. They knew that third
floor was going to be even worse.
And so as early as the first week
in May, a petition was circulated
among the employees asking that
summer working hours be establish
ed from a. m. to 2 p. m. 1t was
signed by practically the full force;
nobody objecting and only those left
off who for one reason or another
were not approached.
Then Mrs. Spillman took the pc
tition personally to Governor Clyde
Hoey and discussed it with him, urg
ing the many and manifest advant
ages Of the proposed hours.
She was referred by the governor
to Assistant Director of the Budget
Robert Deyton, who some days later
told her that the commission might,
of it's own motion, dismiss some of
the employees who work on the third
floor a little earlier and let them
start work a little earlier; but he
refused the request, in the main,
on the contention that the public
outside of Raleigh expects govern
noent offices to he omen uniform
hours, which in the summer time are
from $3.50 a. m. to 4:30 p. m., with
an hour for lunch.
So that relief was cut off. Powell
felt he couldn't operate the COM
mission efficiently with varying
hours for various groups of his
employees; the duties are too closely
coordinated, he said.
AS last resort, the Social Secur-