Washington D.C. - 1936-1937

YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1909 (1350) Key Blvd. Apartments 1936-1939

After I had been with the FBI for about 2 years one of the fellows that I was working with told me of a job at the Home Owners Loan Corporation at $1440 per annum (I was still receiving $1260). They were to give a competitive examination on the Home Owners Loan Act for the job. I got a copy of the Act and together we practically memorized it. When the results of the exam came out we were the two highest and were offered jobs. So I resigned from the F.B. I in the spring of 1934 and went to work for the Home Owners Loan Corporation.

The work here was reveiwing loan dockets to see that they contained the proper papers before they were passed on to the loan examiner. A woman was supervisor over the section containing about 15 employees. After I had been there a couple of weeks, and having learned to work fast and efficiently at the F.B.I, I was doing about twice as many dockets as the other employees. We had to submit a report of the number we did each day. After a week or so the supervisor called me in and complained about my rate of work and insisted that I must not be doing them throroughly. I suggested that she check some of them and I am sure that she did. Most of the employees in the section were women who were in no hurry to do their work and they complained bitterly about the pace I was setting. Nevertheless I continued to do all that I could.

I had only been with the Home Owners Loan Corporation about eight months when they decided to decentralize all of their activities and handle the work from regional offices. I was called into the personnel office and offered the job as assistant Manager of the Dallas office at $2300 per annum which in those days was a lot of money. It was a big temptation but after talking it over with Dorothy I decided that my education came first and so turned it down.

I immediately began looking for another job. A man named Abe Cannon who was the first Stake President of the Washington Stake was in the personnel office of the Public Works Administration. I went to see Abe about a job and he promised to help me. Just a few days before I was to be layed off at Home Owners Loan, he called me to go to work with the Public Works Administration. I started in the voucher audit section as a clerk at $1440, the same salary I was making before. Within a few months I was promoted to an auditor at $1800 which was really a big surprise.

In the P.W.A. they had an investigation division to look into all of the fraud that could and did result from the money they were spending on public works contracts. I was very interested in getting a job in this division and let it be known. About this time there was a lot of scandal involving the Director of the division, with money being involved, etc. The Director was fired and an architect who knew nothing about investigation work was brought in to run the division. Two post office inspectors were assigned to "clean house" and they really did a thorough job. The "Chief Clerk" of the division was a middleaged woman and evidently was quite inefficient. The inspectors got to know my boss and asked him for a recommendation fob someone to replace her. I was recommended and got my first real break. The job paid $2600 per annum and gave me an opportunity to become acquainted with the director as well as other top personnel so that I could get on as a "special-agent" as soon as I finished law school.

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