Evening star., 1948-01-16

charge which undoubtedly will be
echoed by his Republican colleagues
in the months to come.
He president TIuman) appar-
emily wants to keep these payrolls
padded for the next November elec-
tion," Mr.. Vursell declared.
Most Government employees, of
course, would like to remain out
of the political line of fire during
the forthcoming elections. But it
appears that, whether they want
to or not, they are going to be an
important issue in the 1948 cam
paign.
FOOLISH QUEsTIoN-A new
conner to one of the old-line depart
ments was told by one Of its officials
of a terrific struggle that had re-
Gently taken place there between
two rival factions. Each faction, it
seemed, had been bent on ouSting
the other. from control of the
agencys affairs.
WC1C yOu Oll I1lC cIOO'
naively asked the newcomer.
I'm still here, amt T." the official
snapped with faulty grammar, but
with impeccable logic.
PAY PICTURE-The first days
hearings by the Senate Civil Service
Subcommittee on Federal pay raise
legislation indicates there is very
good chance that postal employees
pay bill will be passed by Congress.
1t would seem, however, that the
outlook is not quite so rosy for the
rest of Government employees.
At yesterdays hearing in jam
packed committee room, more than
80 members of Congress appeared
before the subcommittee to indorse
$500 or $1,000 pay raises for postal
employees. Only a few advocated
pay boosts for other Government
workers as well.
OF course, the hearing was on the
postal pay bill-the general Federal
employees pay measure will be taken
up probably next week. But some
legislators made it plain their in
dorsement of a pay raise for postal
workers doesn't necessarily mean
they favor wage boosts for all Gov
ernment employees. Included in this
category were Senators Baldwin of
Connecticut, Ecton of Montana and
Flanders of Vermont, all top Repub-
lican members of the full Senate
Civil Service Committee.
The Senators said they weren't
necessarily against pay raises for all
Government employees, but they in
dicated they thought the postal en-
ployes had a better case. This Is
expected to be contested vigorously
by Government employees groups
next week. who assert that. the
typical Government worker Is just
as hard hit by high living costs as
postal employees.
At any rate, Chairman LANCER of
the committee is in favor of pay
raises for postal workers as well as
all other Government employees, and
that is one bright side in the pay
picture so far as Federal workers
are concerned. But the general pic
ture is not too encouraging at this
time.
LOYALTY-Don't worry if it
takes some time before your agency
notifies you the FBI has given you
a clean bill of health in the Federal
loyalty investigation program.
Most agencies will notify their
employees in due time of the FBI's
findings, but they are waiting until
all employees in bureau are pro-
cessed in the preliminary FBI check
before telling them.
This is because some employees in
an agency are checked sooner than
others. If an agency were to notify
these employees as soon as they were
cleared, other workers in the agency
would begin to worry that they were
under suspicion and were being sub
jected to a fullscale FBI investiga-
ton.
In most cases, of course, this
wouldn't be true. 1t would simply
mean that the FBI hadn't COM
pleted its preliminary findings in
their cases. So, to fofestall needless
anxiety and worry on the part of
Government workers, most agencies