Evening star., 1946-10-25

vi tllCLl lIiC dCD1l S-ol1o tllC
to stay on is very strong. 1t always
is in these cases-so strong, in fact,
that a large number of them, one
way OF another, always do succeed
in doing exactly that. Of course,
when the final dissolution occurs,
appropriations for OPA will auto
matically be discontinued, and,
there being no money to pay with,
the payroll automatically disappears
and all $4,000 Of the OPA army
will be out.
At least, that is the theory. Logi-
caliy, that should happen-put it
practically never works out that
way-and probably will not in this
instance. For example, take the
Office of War Information. When
the var ended all need for the
Owl was obviously over. Always a
slopplly managed, humble puppy
sort of agency, its unavoidably
prompt liquidation was il accord
with public sentiment and there
were no tears shed except, perhaps,
among; the employees. The Owl
heads resigned and large majority
of the 20,000-odd -payrollers rushed
to get other JOBS IN private life.
Many Stayed on Payrolls.
But not all of them were able to
do this-or wanted to do it. About
5000 remained. Most of these were
transferred to the State Depart
ment. Others managed to get on
the payrolls of various Federal
boards and commissions. Thus
when the supposedly complete Owl
Liquidation occurred, instead of the
Federal payroll being reduced by
the whole 10000, a fourth of that
number managed to stay on. The
excuse for the State Department
absorption Of so many was that
they were needed to man the new
postwar State Department news and
information service, an affair OF
somewhat doubtful merit, which
barely escaped annihilation at the
hands of Congress and is still in
precarious position. But If 1t hadn't
been that, there would have been
some other excuse.
1t is no easy job to reduce Gov
ernment payroll Nothing demon
strates this better than latest flg-
ures of Chairman Harry F. Byrd OF
the Joint Committee on Reduction
of Nonessential Federal EXpendl-
lures. These show that year after
the war, in all departments, save
only War and Navy, the NUMBER OF
civilian jobholders on the Federal
pavrolls has been increased instead
of decreased. This does not make
sense, but it is nonetheless true.
Though the emergency war agencies.
said Senator Byrd, had officially re-
duced their jobholders by 1O5,364, |
the fact is that 1881 of these are
still on the payrolls transferred to
the old-line agencies
Jobs Manufactured
Though" he continued, I'VE have
slowed down to an almost natural
peacetime pace. the vast majority
of office workers during the war still
remain on the payroll. The conclu-
sion that jobs have been manufac-
tured in order that they may be
retained is inescapable.' This is a
serious charge by a responsible man.
1t was made just at the close of the
last session of Congress, and Senator
Byrd warned that he is determined
in the coming session to put an end
to this business of transferring per-
sonnel from liquidated agencies to
manufactured jobs in others.
This makes the prospects for the
OPA army dark, indeed. For, in
addition to the determination OF
Senator Byrd. there is the proba-
bility that IN the next Congress the
penl1h1icans will control the House