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Show Merry-Co-Round By DEEW PEAESOW and ROBERT ft. ALLEN WASHINGTON It is not being advertised as yet but the state department will vigorously protest the sinking of the British steamship Athenia with 1347 passengers and crew aboard. Behind the scenes, Mr. Hull and his aids regard the Athenia sinking as a far worse breach of international law than the sinking of the Lusitania. , The Athenia protest, however, has been delayed de-layed solely because the nazis disclaimed responsibility. respon-sibility. In contrast, the imperial German government gov-ernment of 101-18 never disclaimed responsibility responsi-bility for submarine sinkings except in' one minor case. Although the state department has no great regard for the veracity of the nazl government, Hull's legal experts are examining carefully the affidavits of the Athenia survivors. So far these indicate clearly that the ship was torpedoed by a submarine. However, to make absolutely lure the examination is continuing. There are four reasons whv the state department depart-ment regards the Athenia sinking as worse than the Lusitania's: 1. The Athenia carried no contraband, while the Lusitania did. 2. The Athenia was departing from Europe Eu-rope largely with Americans trying to escape the war zone. There was no.passible chance that she could be engaged in war activity. 3. The Lusitania was warned in advance by newspaper notices that she would be torpedoed. The Athenia got no notice even from the tub-marine. tub-marine. 4. Germany had agreed In an official treaty with Britain only four years ago to restrict submarine sub-marine warfare. This was deliberately violated by sinking the Athenia. All of these points will be incorporated In a vigorous protest note to Germany. Old Age Pensions Periods when national attention is focused upon war abroad always offer the best opportunity opportu-nity for scandal at home. So it might be well to keep art eye on the New Peal agency which hits the porketbook of more than half the nation's population the social security board. Near scandal in that organization just unearthed un-earthed by Paul McNutt, new boss of the federal security administration, it that between 5.000.000 and 10.000.000 old age cards in the S S B's files are not properly Identified. In other words, when it comes time to pay old age benefits next January, many people who have paid in their taxes may get no pensions. This not only has the makings of a national furore, but focuses attention upon an extraordinary extraordi-nary situation inside the security board. Ever since McNutt's appointment as administrator adminis-trator of social security, public health, the bureau bu-reau of education, the C C C and N Y A, which make up the new federal security agency, the statuesque ex-governor of Indiana has been the center of behind-the-scenes friction. The social security executives regarded him as a political interloper and resented his appointment appoint-ment To them the dynamic McNutt ambitious to make a record at an outstanding executive, loomed as a large pain in the neck. Now he it more than that: he is a menace. For in addition to the discovery of favoritism and incompetence, he has unearthed the "John Doe" cards referred to above. Reason for Joha Does McNutt has made an investigation of theoe cards and found that the inability to identify them completely is due in large part to the "decentralization" "de-centralization" of old-age records undertaken by the board some time ago. , Originally the social security board et up a centralized filing system modeled after that of the veterans' bureau and organized by Henry P. Seidemann. Brookings institution accounting expert, assisted bv a staff of experts. But early in 1937, without a word to Seidemann. Seide-mann. who had been promoted to director of tho old-age benefits bureau, 8 S B Chairman Alt-meyer Alt-meyer ordered him to decentralize his 40.000.000 old-age pension records by duplicating them 12 times and distributing them to each of the 11 regional offices. This astounding order was too much for Seidemann. He quit and with him exited most of his experts. The decentralization plan never went through, however, for the White House got wind of it and ordered Altmeyer to drop it He did. hut only partially. The records were retained under one roof, but Altmeyer. went ahead with the scheme, to da-, centralize them In twelve regional files. The result re-sult was chaos. Although three shifts of clerks worked 24 hours daily for months, the posting of accounts fell one year behind. Finally, in July. 1938. the analysis division of the S S B submitted a "report inferentially condemning con-demning the regional system and urging a return to Seidemann's original plan. A month later, this recommendation was followed, and the experiment ex-periment which had cost the taxpayers several millions and almost hopelessly messed up millions mil-lions of -records, was abandoned. Distributed, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate .V |