Evening star., 1947-05-21
Miss DoWnes Gives
Testimony on Job
Held by McCIinfie

iSiu Tssinhs
- On Friday, May 9, The Star pub
o1ished testimony of former Repre-
James v. McClintic OF
? Oklahoma that he had been given
job in the Interior Department in
1912 collecting franked envelope
autographs OF members of Congress
for the private collection Of Harold
u. Ickes, then secretary.
The testimony was given before
n Senate Judiciary Subcommittee
considering the nomination OF for
rner Representative Jed johnson Of
Oklahoma to be q Judge OF the
= United States Customs Court.
- An Associated Press account OF
another session of the hearing last
Saturday. published in The Sunday
Star, failed to include the testimony
of Miss Ellen Downes, employed as
freceptionist-secretary in Mr.. Ickes'
office when he was head of the. In
terror Department. This omission
has been called to the attention of
1.-The Star by Mr.. Ickes. Miss Downes'
+testimony follows in part:
= Senator Cooper-Do you know
what Mr.. McClintic did?
Miss Downes-I do not, and dc
not remember when I first met him
II know he had an Office, and dc
mot know what he was doing and
what he was supposed to be doing
Asked to Do job on the Side.
Senator Cooper - Mr.. McClintic
stated, I think, that you told him
Mr.. Ickes wanted him to collect
autographs.
:, Miss Downes-That I remember
in that I asked him to do it. I do
hot remember how 1t originated,
whether Mr.. McClintic offered to
help me or whether 1t appeared that
he was not as busy as was at the
moment, and I asked him to help
me, and he was very kind about
doing it. I think I had better ex-
plain what it was. 1t was some
thing that the Secretary had asked
me to do sometime on the side.
= Senator Cooper-In the testimony
Of Mr.. McClintic. page 48 of the
FIRST days hearings, he said as fol-
lows: "The first job assigned to me
was by the Secretarys secretary, a
young lady by the name of Miss
Downes. She said to me The Sec
'7retary wants you to help him in his
collection of printed autographed
signature, those that you find on
envelopes.
: "In further testimony he stated
that he spent quite period of
slime in collecting autographs from
franked envelopes of the members
of the Senate and House covering
"a period of three or four years,
stating it was a tremendous job be-
cause many of the members had
been defeated and some had died
and some had not written to his
department. Do you remember
that?"
Miss Downes-Yes, I do. 1t was
q job that the Secretary asked me
TO do and I did it on the side. It
was very minor job. 1t was to col
lect one of each envelopes of the
different Senators and Congress
men while the Secretary was in
washington. 1t was in connection
with his own stamp collection. l
had agreed to do it on the side
when had time to do it.
J. discovered that in the Depart
ment ,of Interior. LAS, ia all of the
departments, there is central mail
center and there they received all
the mail and sorted it out and routed
1t throughout the department. ay
I also discovered that the con-
gressional mail came in together
and the envelopes were thrown away
all in one basket, so I asked the
messenger room clerk. instead of
throwing it into the waste, to
bring it to me, and that was the
way I collected most of them.
80 OF. 40 Franks Involved.
At the end of Congress, I think I
had something like 80 or 40 or per-
haps so that I had not been able
to get.
Most congressman and Senators
communicated in the course of
year with the department.
1t was at that time that dis
covered that there were some few
Congressman who were not in
Washington, and I found 1t very
difficult to get them. and it was at
that time that Mr. McClintic agreed
to help me.
I do not know whether I cleared
1t with the Secretary. I do know
that the Secretary did not originate
the idea. I think I went to him
and said, May I ask Mr.. McClintic
to help?"
There were not over 80 or 40 in
volved. I typed up the letters and
Mr.. McClintic sent them out over
his signature and he did get re-
ssponses from number of them;
humber were friends of his.
n Once or twice he came up to
the Hill to call on a few friends,
but I think it was in all a matter
of few hours rather than an
extended period of time. I would
not say spent a great deal of time
sAx