Evening star., 1947-03-24
Investing in Security

Investing III SSCuTIty
President Truman's executive Or
der prescribing procedures for the
administration of an employees 10y
atty program in the executive
branch of the Government" fills a
long-felt need. The growing urgency
of this need has been apparent for
some years to the Civil Service Com
mission, the Federal Bureau of In
vestigation and other agencies and
individuals concerned with national
security. It remained for the Cana
dian Royal Commission, through its
revelations of a Communist spy
ring that had infiltrated into the
most secret governmental agencies,
to arouse the general public to the
perils of. official laxity in guarding
against disloyal employees.
AS The Star warned in comment
ing on the Ottawa disclosures, what
happened in Canada may well be
happening in this country. It would
be naive to assume that Communists
or other un-American and poten-
TALLY subversive elements have not
taken full advantage of the made
quacy of the security safeguards
heretofore existing in the Federal
establishment. The best efforts of
the past have left plenty of loopholes
and, for the past year, the whole
investigative program of the Civil
Service Commission has been slowed
to virtual standstill by lack of
funds. The commission was COM
PEELED to leave the bulk of loyalty
screening to the individual depart
mentS, only two or three of which
have any facilities to do the vital
work. Consequently it is not sur
prising to learn from the Presidents
Temporary Commission on Employe
Loyalty that most of the agencies
have conducted no inquiries what
ever for the past year. These agen-
cies, the commission said, "have re-
lied almost exclusively on the verac-
ity attributed to the oath of Office
and affidavit executed by the. new
appointee, and signature to these
two instruments is taken as a prima
faeie evidence Of loyalty" The alb
Surdity Of this loose way of check
ing on employees was emphasized by
the Canadian Royal Commission,
which found that Communists and
Communist sympathizers had no
qualms about disregarding their
oathS when their overriding loyalty
to the party required it.
The new executive order is revo-
lutionary in that it sets up for the
first time specific loyalty standards
for all employees and establishes
some machinery for enforcement
of these standards. In addition to
providing for continuance and ex-
pansion of Civil Service screening Of
all applicants, it will remedy an
outstanding defect in the previous
programs by extending the investi-
CATION to cover Federal employees
already on the payroll. Literally
thousands of these employees entered
the service before loyalty checks
were inaugurated.
AS Senator Wiley, Republican, Of
Wisconsin commented Saturday,
however, the real effectiveness of
the Presidents program will depend
on chow well it is executed" Past
experience has shown that no such
program can be executed success
fully without sufficient appropria-
tions. It is obvious that the Civil
Service Commission, the FBI and the
departments cannot hope to put the
new plan into effect unless Congress
is willing to finance the effort. If
any member of Congress should
doubt the necessity for such pro-
gram, let him read the Canadian spy
findings and the report of the Presi-
dents Loyalty Commission. Once
Congress familiarizes itself with
these documents, there can be no
doubt that the requisite money will
be Forthcoming. This will be sound
investment in governmental security.