April 4, 1908, promoted to clerk on passing the proper examination. He was gradually promoted in salary to $3,000, and on February 16, 1924, head of division at $4,200. He was allocated on July 1, 1924, under the classification act, clerical, administrative and fiscal, grade 12, at a salary of $5,200. He went in as a laborer, classified laborer and elevator operator. They say he looks like one and acts like one now. I have heard about him. Senator BROOKHART. Do you know anything about that of your own personal knowledge? Miss HENANGHAN. I do not, but there are so many persons who do. You can find people who know all these things. Here is another: This is Mr. Allen that I was talking about a while ago. He was in the old Internal Revenue. They say he has a standing with the Senators from Virginia and nearby places, and he takes care of their people and turns we people from the West out, and they take care of him. So you could do nothing with Mr. C. B. Allen, if a little group would stand by him if he did so and so. He was appointed from a typewriter examination in the Interior Department, General Land Office, April 1, 1909, and on January 25, 1917, was transferred to the Treasury Department, being promoted on January 1, 1918, to chief, files and statistics, at $2,500; on January 16, 1921, he was made head of division at $4,500; on July 1, 1921, chief of section at $4,800, and classified as of July 1, 1924, as senior administrative office at $5,200, being promoted on May 1, 1925, to assistant deputy commissioner, $5,600, and on January 21, 1926, being increased to $6,000, and carried in the clerical, administrative and fiscal service, grade 12. And maybe he got another promotion since that came out, and he is away above $6,000. What we can't understand, we who come here from these States, is how these people can come in here as laborers and not pass the clerical examination, not be anything more than laborers, and they can stay here all right and we are being demoted. Going back to where you nullify the law, I agree with Mr. Wood. Here is a part of an Executive order, dated January 24, 1924, just before the classification act went into effect. And how is it now? You have these District women, these married women and their husbands, both drawing these big salaries, the children taking care of themselves, or a little colored girl doing it, or anything they can hire to take care of their family. Sometimes they have no family. They are all getting big salaries. So I guess they thought it was time for an Executive order to make that apply, and make us people think that what was done by the Congress amounted to nothing. So they got out an Executive order that said this: Employees will be permitted to remain in the positions to which they have been allocated in accordance with the classification act of 1923 and receive the compensation attaching to such allocations, although contrary to existing provisions of the civil-service rules, but shall not thereby be given any different status for promotion or transfer than they had acquired under the civil-service rules prior to such allocation. Senator BROOKHART. Is that an Executive order? 39513--298 Senator BROOKHART. What Executive order is it? Miss HENANGHAN. It is an Executive order. I thought they all had numbers on them. It is dated June 24, 1924. Down at the bottom it says "The White House, June 19, 1924," and it is signed "Calvin Coolidge." It is headed "Executive Order." It says: "Subject-Executive order of June 19, 1924, providing for the revocation of provisions in the civil-service rules governing transfers in accordance with the classification act of March 4, 1923." Then it says: To heads of departments, branches, and offices: The commission transmits herewith a copy of an Executive order dated June 19, 1924, providing for the revocation of provisions in the civil-service rules governing transfers in executive departments and independent establishments in accordance with the classification act of March 4, 1923. By direction of the commission, Very respectfully, JOHN T. DOYLE, Secretary. Then it has two paragraphs. It is the last paragraph we object to. One of the men on the commission said that on August 22, 1925, the President signed an order that before a person could receive $2,000 he would have to pass an examination into the classified service. If the department should try to get rid of that person, suppose they would go into court and win, because they are in the classified service. If you are in the classified service you can go into court. You can't prefer charges against them. But we have found out that if we go into court we don't get anywhere, we from the Middle West. There is another Executive order. There is an Executive order that came out when they were going to make a reduction in salaries. I believed I could go back to these people I was working with, the kind of people they were, some of them, not all of them. I don't think they could help themselves for everything they did. I was telling about Luther Stewart, of the Federal Employees' Union. Even now they are trying to throw out a little bait for the men and women to become members. I never joined it, because I found out early in the game when I talked to them that they didn't have much authority. They were afraid to tell us people from the West they had much authority, because we might hold them to something. We might tell them "Give us what you said you would. We have rights. Come across." So I didn't join. But they throw out something to make you join. Sometimes it is an increase in salary, and sometimes if you don't join they are going to lengthen the working day by one hour, and they have to impress the Senators and Congressmen with the idea that we don't want to work eight hours, but seven hours is enough to work. Sometimes it was something else. I found some of these women around me that were going to take night lessons to get ready to pass the civil-service examination. Before that in that bureau they were going around every now and then and saying "You must have a minor clerical status to be permitted to take the civil-service examination." That opened my eyes. I thought all these people had taken the civil-service examination. I would never have come here from Oklahoma if I hadn't. That was an eye-opener to me. Two or three times that came around. And I found out these women were going to go to night school. I thought, "Here is my chance. I will go and see what kind of lessons they are getting, whether they just began work in the second or third or eighth grade or high school. I will see what is necessary to take the examination. It was held at the Thompson School, and I live near the Thompson School. I slipped into the back of the class after it began, and I saw these white-haired grandmothers sitting up there, and up in front was a little teacher about 20 or 25 trying to teach them complex fractions. I went a second evening, and one of the women in the office where I was, called me down, a little gray-haired lady. She said, "What were you doing in the class at the Thompson School? That is for those who belong to the union. You don't belong to the union. You have already passed an examination. What were you doing there?" I said, "I am going to find out what they are doing, and maybe I can get something that will help some of the people who would not be afraid to try the civil-service examination," people that I felt could pass just as well as theṣe Washington people that had to take the examination. So I went back again. The teacher came back to me and said, "Don't you want to join the class?" I said, "No; I don't. I just came to find the text you are using. I thought it might be beneficial to me some day." She talked to me and showed me the text she was using. The next day this little woman said something more about my going over there, and what was I over there for. She said it loud enough for two women out here, one of them who had been in the class, to hear her. And, by the way, these two women out here, one of them a District woman that worked in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for years, and she was getting $1,680. Sitting opposite was a little teacher that taught in Kansas when Mr. Capper was governor, who got $1,320 or $1,380, a public-school teacher in Kansas for years. The other woman going to night school got $1,680. Under McCarl's ruling she can't get $1,680; but she is getting it. That woman said, "What were you doing in the class?" I said, "If you don't quit talking that loud that way to me and bothering me and disturbing me I will go in and report you and see if we can not make you keep quiet." She kept quiet after that; but another woman said, "Miss Henanghan, they are not going to allow you in the class. They are not going to allow any visitors in the class. The women told me that." I thought, "Well, I can't get to go to school any more." So the third night I went over again, and the little teacher had changed the room onto another floor. I went up to see if I could see the teacher. You always have to ask the teacher. I knew that much. I motioned to her, and she came out. I said, "Is it true that you are not going to be allowed to have any visitors in class?" She said, Well, yes. She said, "Mr. Lindsey "--by the way, Mr. Lindsey was the chief in Public Debt, in the claims section where I had worked, and he was chairman of that local Federal Employees' Union that was giving that money to that teacher. She said, "Yes, Mr. Lindsey has sent word not to allow any visitors." 66 Senator BROOKHART. Your idea is that the union was conducting the school to aid incompetents in the District to get through as against the outsiders? Miss HENANGHAN. That is what they were doing. I don't believe they passed the examination. Some of them said that. Another lady told me that is what happened. Senator BROOKHART. We will suspend now until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Whereupon, at 1 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned until the following day, Tuesday, June 19, 1928, at 10 o'clock a. m.) APPOINTMENTS AND DISMISSALS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1928 UNITED STATES SENATE, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION OF ILLEGAL APPOINTMENTS AND DISMISSALS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 o'clock a. m., in room 250, Senate Office Building, Senator Walter F. George presiding. Present: Senators George (presiding) and Brookhart. Present also: H. E. Morgan, Director of Public Information and Recruiting. Senator GEORGE (presiding). Senator Brookhart can not be here until 11 o'clock. Do you care to go ahead at this time? Miss HENANGHAN. Just as the committee says. I would like for them to be here. I do not want to be interrupted. I don't think that many of these men have time to read all these things. If it is a subject they are not interested in, they will not read it, and I would like to say it. But just as the committee chooses, of course. I have nothing to say about it. Senator GEORGE. I will be glad to hear you, if you wish to go on now. If not, we will have to adjourn until the other members get here. That might be at 11 o'clock, and might be later. It might be at 1 o'clock. Miss HENANGHAN. Will Senator Dale be here? noon. Senator GEORGE. I think Senator Dale will be here in the afterHe is in his office now, but can not come down this morning. Miss HENANGHAN. I Would rather wait until more of the committee can be here. I wish Senator Pine could be here. Do I understand you to say he will be here? Senator GEORGE. My understanding is that he will not be here at this time. I understand he is out of the city and will be for some time. Are there any other witnesses who want to be heard this morning? Mr. CAIN. I would like to have the opportunity to make a statement. Senator GEORGE. All right, we will take you, Miss Henanghan, I suppose, at 1 o'clock, unless in the meantime Senator Brookhart comes in. TESTIMONY OF GEORGE L. CAIN, WASHINGTON, D. C. (The witness was duly sworn by Senator George.) Senator GEORGE. Give your full name and address. Mr. CAIN. George L. Cain. 113 |