Evening star., 1943-11-30
House Probe Asked
As Civil Service Bars
Loyalty Questions

The House today was confronted
with demand from Representative
Busbey, Republican, of Illinois to in
vestigate an order of the Civil Serv-
Ice Commission forbidding it's in
vestigators to ask prospective work.
ers any general questions" about
their political philosophy.
The payrolls of the Government
have hundreds of known Commu-
nists on them who never will be
eliminated if an order like that is
allowed to stand" Mr.. Busbey told
the House yesterday after publica-
tlon of commission circular re-
stricting Questioning activities of in
vestigators inquiring into the "loy-
atty OF applicants for Federal en-
ployment.
Under the Hatch Act and numer-
ous other statutes employees are for
hidden to join organizations favoring
the overthrow of the constitutional
form of government. The commits
sion has included Communist
FASCIST and Nazi groups in this
category
After the circular had been made
public the commission said the in
structions, with two or three minor
exceptions, are "reaffirmations" of
the policy it has followed since
August, 1942.
Instructions Specific.
The order contained this specific
section
DO not ask general questions re-
garding the political philosophy of
fhe applicant, such as whether he
believes in capitalism or what his
opinion is regarding certain events
Of current or historical nature"
In addition, the investigators were
instructed against asking questions
about union membership, to avoid
describing any group or organiza-
ton is ''communistic, or to ask
witness if an applicant was commu-
nistic, unless followed Immediately
by questions whether he or she was
Fascist or pro-Nazi. Questions
about membership in The Washing
ton Bookshop also are forbidden.
Obtain all available information
from witnesses which will help es-
tablish whether the applicant was a
Communist party line conformist,
the order added.
Stand Explained.
Within the last few weeks. the
commission said in explaining the
circular the commissions atten-
ton has been called to the fact that
some of its investigators have al
legedly, in carrying on investiga-
tlons, deviated somewhat from the
commissions policies"
Recognizing that during the last
year there has been very high
rate of turnover within the COM
missions investigating staff as a re-
suit of persons entering the armed
forces, the commission said it felt
1T would be wise once again to call
It's policies to the attention of all
investigators. The commission be-
levies," it added, that adequate evi-
dence relative to qualification of
persons seeking employment in the
Government can be obtained with
out in any way violating the civil
liberties of American citizens. Re
suits of the commissions investi-
gatory activities bear out this belief"
The commission announced that
from July l, 1910, to August %, 1943,
the cases OF 166,915 persons who had
been investigated were decided by
the commission. OF this total, 81
842 persons were rated ineligible be-
cause the commission found that
they were not suitable for Govern
ment. OF these, TIA persons were
rated ineligible solely on loyalty
grounds. -Four hundred and sixty
one were found to be members of
the Communist party or supporters
of Communist principles. and 313
were found to be pro-Fascist, pro-
NaZi or prO-Japanese.