The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-10-04
DURELY
/ Official
By BALLOT BOX


What at first looked like the start
of Touchdown, drag-out fight, in
volving the Mayor, the Chief OF
Police and the Board of Street Com
missioners, has turned out to be just
another of those tempest in tea
pot"
When l read in the daily papers
that Mayor Sweeney had refused
to swear in duly appointed men,
Der of the police force, ON the
grounds that there were applications
on file from some six war veterans
(and the published reports certain
ly gave the impression that the
Board of Street Commissioners had
appointed a non-veteran to the
force, despite the veterans applica-
tions), l Immediately suspicioned
that the full story had not been
told - and l was right.
Here are the real facts of the case,
not obtained by hearsay, but pieced
together from my own investigation.
When the Board considered and
approved the application of Mr..
Stouffer, there was not a single APP
plication on file from any member
of the Armed Forces, or any dis
charged veteran, therefore the
Board was not sighting the veterans
when it appointed Mr.. Stouffer.
However, between the time the
appointment was made and the APP
pointee appeared before the Mayor
to be sworn in, some six veterans
had called on the Mayor regarding
positions on the force. Therefore,
Mayor Sweeney, who has always
advocated that, all other things be-
ing equal, our returned veterans be
given preference on all jobs, par
ticularly jobs open in any branch of
the city government, was quite with
In his rights in refusing to swear in
non-veteran, until such time as the
veterans applications had been con-
sidered.
But what the Mayor apparently
did not know, was that, although he
had interviewed these six veterans
and advised them to file proper
applications with the Chief of
Police, not single one of them had
filed an application through Septem-
Der 20 and surely no one could ex-
pect the members of the Board of
Street Commissioners to consider
appointing even war veteran to
the police force, without properly
filled-out application being submit
ted.
Finally three veterans did file
applications with Chief Peters. The
first was filed on September 81, the
second few days later and the
third just last Monday, October /.
AS soon as the Commissioners
found out that these applications had
been filed, they called a special
meeting of the Board for Monday
afternoon, October / to consider
them (the same day that the third
veterans application was fled. The
applicants were interviewed and it
is expected that the Board will an
nounce its decision at the next reg
ular meeting.
AS | see it, this whole mixup could
easily have been avoided if there
had been little more team work
between the Office of the Mayor, the
office of the Chief of Police and the
office of the Board of Street. Com
missioners.
Senator Willard E. Tydings, in his
regular weekly radio address on
Sunday afternoon, certainly tore into
the so-called Full Employment
Bill" Here are just few of his
remarks.
ut does not appropriate any
money-but it is an opening wedge
for continued deficit spending"
'The only things left out (of the
bilD are the Ten Commandments"
"The bill goes on to say that each
January the President shall look
over the United States and see what
is going on, and then he is to guess
I repeat, guess-how many jobs
there are untitled and how many
people there are out of work avail
able to fill Them
Thus you have in effect a New
Years Resolution, - that hereafter,
through the concerted efforts of in
dustry, agriculture and labor, of
state, local and Federal govern
ments, every effort will be made to
avoid depreSsions and fo do every