Evening star., 1944-11-25

In the three Lowell Mellett.
years since Pearl Harbor, J. Edgar
Hoover's efficient and Jealous FBI
has turned up only 500-odd cases of
subversive activity and the greater
part Of these have involved only
technical violations of the law.
Not only have nearly all citizens
been loyal themselves, but the gen.
eral disposition has been to regard
ones neighbors in the same light.
The witch hunts of the last war have
not been repeated.
Some understanding of this whole
some state of affairs seems to have
penetrated the walls of Congress
We are told now that the Dies COM
mittee, decimated by election casu-
alties, Is about to end its miserable
smear career and that there will not
be another This will save the tax
payers little money.
Further Saving Possible.
Congress could go further and
save more money by looking into one
OF the by-products of the Dies ac-
tlvltles. Partly as consequence of
that committees continual clamor,
all Government departments have
undertaken to protect themselves
against any SUSPICION of harboring
disloyal employees. Not only has
the investigatory work of the Civil
Service Commission been largely
increased to meet the demands Of
the various Government agencies,
but some of the agencies have
greatly expanded their own investi-
CATION forces
Even so, practically all agencies
are so far behind in this work now
that it is fair prediction they will
not have caught up with it by the
time the war ends And unless the
end of the war brings a change of
policy men now in the Government
will find themselves being investi-
gated as to their loyalty long after
they have left Government service.
On my desk is form letter from
the War Department. I am asked
to give my confidential opinion of
the "trustworthiness, moral charac-
Ter and loyalty to our Government"
of an old friend of mine. I am to
tell ID how long I've known him:
90 whether I would rate him as
excellent, good, fair or poor as to:
ta) moral character, (by reliability
Co personality. Id discretion, (e)
integrity, f) sobriety; 90 whether
to the best of my knowledge and
belief his loyalty to the United
States Is unquestionable or doubt
full; ~ any other information.
Now If my recollection of the
geography of the vast Pentagon
Building is correct, the officer who
signed the letter is located only
few steps away from the Office of
this friend of mine about whom
he inquiries. They probably know
one another very well, since nv
friend has held a responsible lob
in the War Department-not for
a day. not for a year, but darn near
forever; six years, to be exact.
Obviously the officer never saw the
letter he signed; it is just one of
vast stream that crosses his desk.
There Are Others.
Dozens of equally ridiculous in
stances have come to my attention
and most any one in Washington
can duplicate the stories from his
own experience, No reflection on
the Government investigators is in
volved. They have simply been
attempting to do the impossible
considering the fact that the Gov
ernment personnel now numbers
close to 100000 men and women.
1t is hard TO say how many thou
sands of investigators would be re-
quired to keep the Government
records on the subject of loyalty
up to date, and equally difficult to
see what value the record has unless
1t is up to date. as
There are limited number of
Government jobs in which LOYALTY
is the supreme qualification. Con-
gress could save some money bv