| Show protection from sabotage described as inadequate civil service asks for more investigators defense heads act to avert shortage of farm labor this summer by BAUKHAGE national farm and home hour commentator service 1395 national press washington D C washington As the united states under the lease lend law literally becomes the arsenal of democracy officials lament their lack of facilities for protecting that arsenal from the enemy within our gates it if you are a fist rate saboteur or enemy agent you have only one chance out of three of being spotted by the civil service investigators before you are hired in a government plant or arsenal or navy yard that in substance is what civil service commissioner arthur flemming told a senate committee the other day when he asked for a supplemental appropriation to in increase the number of investigators wh who 0 check the record of applicants for or government defense jobs even with the close operation cooperation co of the federal bureau of investigation and the army and navy intelligence the records of only one third of applicants put on the government payroll for these jobs can be properly examined commissioner flemming revealed efforts are now being made to get congress to increase the funds for carrying on this important work there is always a certain routine checking on every worker who applies for a government defense job the police department records in the applicants home community are examined the federal bureau of investigation vesti gation the G men so called checks the fingerprints to see it if they are identified with those of an offender and finally the army and navy intelligence files are available to the civil service commission investigators vesti gators in washington this procedure identifies the enemy agent or criminal or other person with an unsavory record who has already run into trouble and been found out but the previously unidentified and potential offenders have to be spotted by the under staffed 13 district offices or the headquarters of the civil ser service vice commission in washington itself commissioner flemming told the senators that since starting to recruit civilian defense forces civil service investigators had disqualified 16 per cent of the applicants examined on the ground of diali disloyalty oy or weak character senator lodge of massachusetts questioned the commissioner on the type of person disqualified mr flemming gave an example one applicant for the position of gas welder in one of the navy yc yards ards I 1 our investigation developed was seen at communist meetings attended a communist school in wisconsin active worker for the party passed out communist literature and books others have been found to have had bad records as far back as in the previous war the civil service commoss commission 10 n says it needs more money to stop the saboteur before he begins his sabotage prepare to avert vet farm labor shortage how are the farmers going to get those extra farm hands they need in the summer months to get in the crops while the defense program is snapping up a lot of farm hands and getting them jobs in factories it is also trying to provide a practical method by which the farmer will get what he wants in the way of extra labor when he wants it of course what william knudsen and sydney hillman need right now is men to make the wheels go that turn out armament but the defense heads point out that the method they have devised for getting the workers they want will also help the farmer in the long run that method is registration of cfall all surplus labor with the 1500 full time and part time state operated employment offices the managers of these offices want all prospective farm hands to register at these offices too and are urging the farmers who are going to need help next summer to patronize these state employment agencies too defense demands may result in a shortage of farm labor later but one of the big helps for the farmer will be the employment agency if you inquire at one agency for a farm hand and that agency any registered it will consult tree free of charge any or all the other agencies spy from korea advertises his work I 1 have just had lunch with the only spy I 1 ever met who advertised his profession it is most dark right under the lamp he said to me as he scooped up a sheaf of highly intriguing documents which he had spread on the table before me slipped them into a worn portfolio and whisked the zipper we were sitting at a corner table in in one of sublimated chop suey restaurants my spy was one of these plotters but he flaunted his plots before me quite openly some secrets may be hidden behind the smiling slits of eyes of kilsoo kenneth haan tor for that is his name but he has convinced at least one senator that that information which he has turned in gratis to various secret agencies of the government is very welcome hates japanese haan is 41 short engaging an oriental cherub in glasses with a cast of countenance that would make you think he was a japanese which he says some japanese do 6 but his calling card says that he is head of the sino korean peoples league and koreans love the japanese as the pole loves the german briefly baans history as he tells it is this he was 10 years old when the japanese took over korea and his first memory of that tragic event is is the view he got from his hiding place under a chicken coop when the soldiers marched into his village haan soon left tor for hawaii then one day five years ago because he had been active among his fellow koreans he was approached by a member of the japanese consulate in honolulu who off offered bied him a job helping to organize all orientals Orient als in a sort of pan asiatic movement under the japanese the next year when a delegation of american congressmen visited the islands to study the possibility of hawaiian statehood haan told them all he knew in a public hearing A part of the documents he showed me was a letter from a senator thanking him for his services at that time in exposing the grandiose japanese scheme that was baans first advertising of his chosen profession he was soon to get more the japanese press attacked him he was spat upon in the streets his life was threatened comes to america the next year he came to america with one chief objective he says and it was in describing his purpose that he quoted the proverb about the lamp it is well known that koreans some of whom can pass for japanese and many of whom live in japan and in them the occupied portions of china maintain a voluntary spy system and grapevine telegraph they still hope to win back their independence haan claims that he wants to secure the financial and moral support of the united states government to create a real operative cooperative co korean spy system against the japanese his method of advertising adver the ability of a korean to get information from the japanese is to get it himself he told me of his latest adventure over the chicken chop suey and tea from his korean friends in japan haan said that he had learned that two japanese reserve officers were on their way to the united states to prepare japanese in this country for a war they were bearing a notorious text book of propaganda and procedure the translated title of which is three power alliance and japan am america eri war haan set out to locate the officers and get the book first notifying certain authorities in washington of his intention the task seemed so impossible that one man who be named bet 25 that the indefatigable korean succeed the book according to haan is now in the hands of the proper authorities ties here and he has 25 in his pocket how he got it is another story |
