Evening star., 1948-09-01
Not Much Cooperation

Secretary to the President, Charles G..
Ross, in his letter to The Star printed to-
day, contends that the employment records
of Government employees are available to
congressional committees. The House Un-
American Committee contends that they
are not.
The difference between them may lie in
the meaning of employment records" !"
Mr.. Ross quotes part of the Presidents
August statement making certain records
available on written request of congress
sional committees. The second part of the
Presidents statement, however, contains
this prohibition:
mo information of any sort relating to
the employees loyalty and no inVestigative
data of any type, whether relating to
loyalty or other aspects of the indiuiduaFs
record, shall be included in the material
submitted to a congressional committee.
If there is any doubt as to whether GER
tain document or group of documents shall
be supplied the matter should be referred
to the White House" Qtalics supphed)
Robert E. STRIPPING, chief investigator for
the House Un-American Activities Com
mittee, has repeated to The Star the state
ment made in the report of the committee
to the effect that the committee has been
denied employment records" The COM
mittee has always been able to obtain
such routine data as whether or not an
employe is on the pay roll and when his
service began, Mr.. Stripping says, but it has
not been able to obtain the complete
records" about how an employe got his
}oh uho reoop,po him
Perhaps the committee has not applied
for such information since August S. But
Senator Ferguson did try to get this type
of information and he was blocked. He
wanted certain facts on the celebrated
William w. Remington. For his committee
had found out that while the case involv-
ing Mr.. Remington was being investigated
by the FBI and Federal Grand Jury Mr..
Remington held three top confidential
jobs in the Government. Senator Ferguson
wanted to know Cd if Mr. Remington's
superiors had been informed of the situa-
ton, (2) to whom and in what manner this
information was given, and 60 what the
superiors did upon it's receipt.
Under the Presidents order of August S.
this pertinent information (Which had
records themselves or FBI records of in
formers) would have been denied 1t was
denied to Senator Ferguson by the Attorney
General, presumably acting under the
Presidents policy or instructions.
That. it seems to The Star, is a denial
of employment records. And that, in The
Stars opinion, is an unfortunate failure
by the President to cooperate in getting
at the root of a matter which vitallv con-
Germs the public interest. For the loyalty
program, for which Congress has appro-
priated about s17,OOO,OO0 of public funds,
is not working efficiently when a man
under investigation for alleged espionage
can hold, during the investigation, three
important Government jobs. The Presi-
dent should be manifesting as much inter-
est as Congress in finding out and telling
the people how and where the system fell
down.
The Star has consistently defended the
Presidents policy of not making public
or sending to Congress loyalty records or
FBI reports. The policy is fully justified
But there are other details of Government
employment which Congress has every
right to know and which the President, if
he were cooperating with the committees
of Congress, could make available without
injury to an innocent employees reputa-
ton or the revelation of secret FBI files.
But the President has not been CO.
operative. He has been openly hostile,
with his references to red herring" and
his statement on August 5-the same day
he made available the information to
which Mr.. Ross refers-that "the public
hearings now under way are serving no
useful purpose. On the contrary, they are
doing irreparable harm to certain persons
seriously impairing the morale of Federal
employees and undermining public conf
dence in Government"