Evening star., 1950-05-22

way. Ine pEl-
mary dif1iculty n SssSs
has been the Ss
failure Of Con- s 1
gress to appro-
pirate enough 'ssssA 4sSns'
money to carry the program
through.
One reason for this has been
the confusion and disagreement
among Federal officials them
selves over how the program
should proceed.
Wednesdays conference. which
Is being sponsored by the Fed
eral Personnel Council and the
Society for Personnel Admins
tration, will seek to iron out some
of these difficulties and to arrive
at some sort Of agreement for
future plans.
Federal personnel officials are
particularly anxious to get started
on health programs for Federal
employees, especially in the pre-
ventive aspect of medical pro-
grams. They say the Government
lags far behind private industry
in protecting the health Of its
employees.
Among those who will partici-
pate in the meeting, which will
be held in the General Services
Auditorium. are Budget Director
Frederick j. Lawton, Donald s.
Dawson, administrative assistant
to President Truman; Veterans
Administrator Carl Gray, General
Services Administrator Jess Lar
son. Federal Communications
Commissioner Paul A. Walker,
Roy Reid, Agriculture Depart
ment's personnel director: DR.. R.
C. williams of the Public Health
Service and Harris Shane of La
Dor Department. Jennings Ran
dolph, who as chairman of the
House Civil Service Committee.
successfully sponsored the Fed
eral employe health bill. will be
chairman Of the conference. Mr..
Randolph Is now an official Of
Capital Airlines.
PROTOCOL -- Margaret J.
Trickett Of the Civil Service
Commission staff recently re-
ceived . frantic phone call
from q very much distraught
Army Department, which was
about to administer the oath of
office to q young lady it hired.
'Ts 1t necessary that q lady
remove her hat when taking the
oath of Officer" the Army
wanted to know.
GAO-The 900 f1rings that will
take place in the General Ac-
counting Office, 400 of them here
in Washington, will probably af-
feet quite number of other GAO
employees in other respects.
Mass disrnissals usually result
in a lot Of "bumpings." which in
turn lead to quite bit Of down.
gradings as employees are shuffled
about. A number Of GAO employees
already have suffered some sharp
cuts in salary during the past
few months.
4 -
COMMISSION - Incidentally,
the Civil Service Commission will
issue layoff notices to 80 Of its
employees here within the next
few weeks. The dismissals will be
felt by most units in the COM
mission.
MANDATORY-Bidding for the
support Of the Federal employe
unions in behalf Of the Hoover
Commission personnel proposals,
the Citizens Committee for the
Hoover Report has recommended
to Congress that employe partici-
patton be. made mandatory in
Federal personnel policy matters
The Hoover citizens group
urged that agencies be required
by Congress to deal with employe
groups on all personnel matters
before policy decisions.
y r r Il
PROGRESS-The Civil Service
Commission says that it has cut
by one-half the amount Of time
that 1t takes to process the results
Of Government job exams.
Applicants for Federal jobs now
get the results of their exams In
about SO days. compared to the
191 day average of only last year.
Much credit for this amazing i'm
provement belongs to Chairman
Harry B. Mitchell of the commits
sion, as well as the associate COM
missioners, James Mitchell and
Frances Perkins.
Il u r II
CAPITAL ROUNDUP-Note to
contributors: As q result Of the
tremendous importance of the
Houses Federal employment per-
sonnel cuts, we've lacked the space
during the past week to give much
notice to various meetings and
other events Of interest to Gov
eminent employees. However. keep
sending in your items and We'll