I Was a Security Risk
WILSON, ELLEN
I WAS A SECURITY RISK By Ellen Wilson A Naval librarian tells how she was deprived of her democratic rights when she was discharged without being told why I am a librarian. I decided to go to...
...Our having some Negro and Jewish friends, my husband pointed out, would be enough to damn me in the eyes of persons prejudiced against minorities...
...You're the best librarian we ever had...
...Ellis...
...I was given an identification badge with my picture on it to carry at work and show to the guards when entering or leaving the installation...
...During this period, in spite of my associations and reading matter, the FBI cleared me for a top-secret cryptographic job...
...In a democratic country, I felt, everyone should be free to investigate controversial subjects and reach his own conclusions...
...While I am, I guess, what is loosely known as a "liberal...
...Such a nice little lady...
...I always avoided Communists, though, disliking their ideas, methods and use of good causes for their own purposes...
...I don't know...
...Ellis submitted the detailed job description he asked me to write, Captain Hunter refused to forward it through channels to Civil Service...
...In my upset condition, I was very thankful for his kindness, even if he was a little maudlin...
...Because the position and pay were attractive, I went for an interview myself...
...Since my resignation was forced, by the terms of the agreement the Navy owed me two weeks' pay because I was not permitted to work out the two weeks...
...Certainly," I said, wondering why he did not talk to me at my desk as he usually did...
...The Navy legal officer whom I had consulted about the question did not know...
...Later, while in the Army, I labored through Marx's Das Kapital and subscribed for a time to a Socialist and a Trotskyite paper...
...his stature compelled an explanation and fair hearings when he was tagged...
...Ellis or from the Navy officer nominally in charge of the Recreation Department...
...In the meantime, I could accept any Civil Service job offered me...
...In spite of my saying I did not know why I was considered a security threat, he kept asking me to "cooperate" and tell all...
...Trying to mention anything which might be pertinent to my case, I told the Commander and Mr...
...That was ironic...
...I had no direct contact with Captain Hunter and remember seeing him only once-when he went through the Library without speaking-but I was reminded two or three times that he was definitely to be reckoned with even though he seemed remote...
...However, when Mr...
...Maybe you can tell us...
...A Negro with whom he had worked signed a petition against using the atomic bomb...
...Finally, after lunch...
...Then, afraid I might break down in front of the two men, I hastily excused myself and took refuge in the ladies' room, which happened to be empty...
...Having no wish to endure more investigation, with possible loss of another job, I decided to limit my applications to jobs having no connection with the Federal Government...
...Yes, I talked to Security this morning," said Commander Gray...
...They tell me you're a poor security risk...
...Nevertheless, I tried to chat with people as usual and continue library routines...
...There was little supervision from Mr...
...The legal officer seemed impersonal enough, but said the Navy had a right to get rid of anyone on two weeks' notice...
...He sighed...
...Ellis had gotten any information about why I was being asked to resign...
...Several months ago, someone from Security called to verify your address and I'm just wondering if they don't have you confused with someone else...
...Locking myself in one of the cubicles, I cried, making no sound for fear someone might come in and hear me...
...Our informants have to be protected against possible reprisal...
...It was pleasant to hear people say what a good library it had become and to have Mr...
...I am able to think about what seemed a Kafka-like experience without becoming depressed or overly fearful because such things can happen...
...I knew a few members of liberal and radical political groups and attended some Socialist and Trotskyite parties and meetings...
...He had no intention of letting the Navy lose control of the library...
...What recourse does this lady have...
...You can understand," he said, "why we couldn't let you question the persons we talked to...
...And I would appreciate it if you would find out what the reasons for this are...
...In making out my final check, the Recreation Department attempted to deprive me of the vacation pay to which I was entitled (as I verified by a call to the pay office...
...There must be some mistake...
...after a few weeks on the job, he was fired for "security reasons...
...Since he seemed suspicious about my politics, I made a statement (which now seems increasingly necessary) that I had always been anti-Communist and that I, as well as my husband, was non-political...
...Ellis interrupted to say he was sure I was not hiding anything...
...He must have been told not to give a statement...
...None...
...I went back to the ladies' room, promising to meet him outside as soon as I made myself presentable...
...From all accounts, he had been an eccentric old gentleman, not qualified for library work, who had done little but alienate those who used the facilities...
...Whatever the trouble is," I said stiffly, "I certainly should have a chance to defend myself...
...No, I don't...
...I thought I was doing a good job...
...When the library assistant arrived in the late afternoon of my last day, all I had to do was turn in my badge and present the pass office with the scrappings from my automobile sticker...
...He was employed at the Navy installation for over a year before resigning to enter private industry...
...Being asked to resign with no reasons given was too much to comprehend immediately, but I managed to finish the work day...
...The Navy's way of compensating for that loss was to have me forfeit the vacation pay...
...The department was actually run by Mr...
...I can't do anything tonight because everything at Headquarters is closed...
...A reservist from the South, he had been called back by the Navy and was waiting to return to civilian life and a Government position...
...Late one afternoon, almost ten months after I came to the recreation library, Mr...
...Once I had the library in better shape, I began to enjoy my work...
...The other employes had left earlier in the afternoon and the office was empty, but he shut the door...
...No reasons had to be given, and there was no right of defense...
...Since I was on a Federal Civil Service roster for librarian positions, I wondered whether non-military Government positions would still be open to me...
...Certainly I did not expect him to endanger his job security by committing himself to help me...
...Also, you are troubled for a while by a recurrent mood of fear...
...Come on, we'll go over to Headquarters right now and see if we can't straighten this thing out...
...Would you mind coming to the office for a few minutes...
...When I was able to form an opinion about the Socialists and Trotskyites, I decided that I preferred the Socialists...
...I was in the Army two-and-a-half years during the war, and the FBI cleared me for a top-secret job in Washington...
...Ellis, who had said he hoped I would fight the case, looked up and waved as I went past his office for the last time...
...As a working person, it is only logical to be an enlightened partisan of the labor forces...
...A few months later, I was to learn how wrong I had been to think the protection of Civil Service status unimportant...
...Ellis came up to the desk where I was working...
...But I'll let you know tomorrow what I can find out...
...I got in touch with a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union, and he confirmed the legal officer's statement: The Navy could summarily dismiss an employe for security reasons with no specification of charges or opportunity for defense...
...Well, what magazines or papers do you take...
...I know...
...Commander Gray's method of questioning was repetitious...
...That night, my husband and I tried to guess why the Navy might want to get rid of me...
...When I took the Navy position, Mr...
...They believed in accomplishing social reform through the democratic methods of free speech and legislative action, rather than by totalitarian methods and revolution...
...Ellis that I had shared a house one year during graduate school with two girls, one of whom supported Wallace and the Progressive party...
...I was overwhelmed by the amount of work I inherited from my predecessor at the Navy library...
...Although among these 2,400 there are undoubtedly people of dubious loyalty, we venture to guess that there is more than one Ellen Wilson, too, deprived of her job with no apparent cause and refused both an explanation and a chance to clear herself...
...Rather," he said...
...Ellis said he did not know how long I would be permitted to stay, but he hoped I would work as long as I could while he tried to locate a replacement...
...It was possible, however, that my curiosity about social and political ideas when I was younger had been held against me...
...The interview ended inconclusively, with the Security officers promising to look up my file and let me know what they could through Commander Gray and Mr...
...A man from Security called this afternoon and asked if you worked here...
...I'll be all right in a minute...
...And there's not supposed to be any discrimination against minorities by the Government...
...Although you still want to do a good job, you lose much of your drive and enthusiasm...
...Ellis, with the Navy officer dropping in for a while each day to ask how things were and, before pay day, to sign checks...
...After Commander Gray formally invited me to sit down, I inquired if he and Mr...
...I said yes and he said, 'Well, get rid of her.' The only thing I can figure is that they may have made some mistake...
...Like the Socialists (and many Democrats and Republicans), I am pro-labor and anti-Communist...
...I don't know...
...How could I be a security risk all of a sudden...
...But I think I may be able to help you if you'll cooperate with me...
...I don't understand...
...She is one of the 2,400 "security risks" whom the Administration claims to have discharged...
...and have been interested in social and political theory...
...Finally, though, as my distress increased with Commander Gray's repeated requests that I confess whatever I was guilty of, Mr...
...Ellis remained silent...
...Since he had been kind in the past and I could use the money, I reluctantly agreed...
...Protect the accuser but deny the accused knowledge of charges made or a chance for rebuttal...
...I knew he was unhappy about the situation, but he could not do much as a vulnerable non-Civil Service employe with a family to support...
...I realized Commander Gray was trying to be kind, and I was grateful for his offer...
...During the ride to Headquarters, Commander Gray repeated his offer to help me...
...It was not easy to work the day after Mr...
...Being a temporary Civil Service employe without the protection of permanent Civil Service status, he was summarily dismissed without an investigation of the charges or a hearing...
...You're being allowed to resign...
...The interview at Headquarters with the legal officer and two security officers made me feel the impossibility of defending myself against Navy Security's image of me...
...if YOU love liberty, it is impossible to be pro-Communist...
...Ellis might change positions in the future and not be at the Navy installation to write recommendations for me, I thought it wise to request a letter from him stating what kind of work I had done while I was librarian...
...In this way, he was given access to Security's file on me and was effectively silenced...
...For a while, Mr...
...And Captain Hunter, executive officer of the department, was too busy as chief of the Security Department to pay much attention to the library...
...Since top-secret war work was done at the Navy installation, security measures were enforced...
...You have been," he said, looking uncomfortable...
...I had to display an identification sticker on the windshield of my car...
...The legal officer explained that a security case is not as serious as when a person's loyalty is in question...
...And I would give you the highest recommendation...
...Ellis, my civilian supervisor, and the installation's Commanding Officer express appreciation for what I had accomplished...
...I thought of a case my husband had told me about...
...I didn't know," he murmured, patting my arm...
...If you try to be conscientious and yet lose a position, your attitude toward work changes...
...Ellis remarked...
...In graduate school, I had become interested in learning about various political philosophies...
...Ellis did not know if the Navy judged people on the basis of association...
...Had a hard day...
...But, if you'll put your cards on the table, I'll represent you in this...
...Ellis said he expected it to come under Civil Service shortly, as had similar Navy librarian positions in the vicinity...
...Civil Service status, with its higher pay and increased vacation and sick leave, would be an inducement to stay...
...I tried to make some conversation as we walked down the hall, but Mr...
...I had a great deal of freedom in running the library...
...The check was sent...
...I said I would be glad to discuss anything which might throw light on my case and that I would appreciate his trying to find out what he could from Security...
...I exclaimed...
...I asked...
...Then why am I being asked to leave...
...I'm sorry," I said, dabbing at my eyes...
...He made himself felt again on the subject of Civil Service...
...Soon, a woman called my name, saying Commander Gray wanted to see me outside...
...I also would not apply for city or county Civil Service positions, which required me to disclose whether I had ever been requested to leave a position...
...I would be answering any letters asking for a recommendation...
...After a year and a half in my first library position, I was asked if I knew someone who would be interested in becoming the librarian of a local Navy installation's recreation library...
...She also had associated with Communists at one time in her home town...
...But how can that be...
...I was never told anything more or given an opportunity to answer the unspecified charges...
...Once, Captain Hunter had his secretary call to complain that I had had the temerity to send an overdue-book notice to my "executive officer...
...The Civil Service Commission would get access to the Navy's file on me and make a decision on the matter...
...I don't have as much education as you do," he said...
...According to the only agreement made when a non-Civil Service employe was hired by the Navy installation, employment could be terminated on two weeks' notice by either party...
...A significant development the day after Commander Gray offered to help me was his promotion to assistant head of the Security Department, under Captain Hunter...
...I am not active politically...
...Ellis it was my last day...
...But certainly we have the right to choose our own friends," I protested...
...So I called Civil Service, explained my predicament, and was told that, after termination of my Navy work, I could request Civil Service to determine my eligibility...
...I couldn't believe it...
...Commander Gray and Mr...
...After that, Commander Gray stopped questioning me and became more friendly...
...It was three months before I could catch up on the backlog of books to be catalogued...
...And there's no law against signing a petition...
...When Mr...
...Furthermore, my minister father had been a conservative Republican...
...Although I never became a Socialist, I admire the intelligence and integrity of Norman Thomas and I am glad that the Socialist platform has suggested to the major parties such ideas as Social Security and national health insurance...
...For some reason, I don't seem to be very popular around here...
...J. Robert Oppenheimer is luckier than Miss Wilson...
...However, more than a year after losing my Navy position, I am finally beginning to feel comparatively secure in a new job...
...Ellen Wilson" is the pseudonym of a California librarian who has become a statistic...
...Forcing back sobs, I hastily washed my face and tried to compose myself before going out to meet him in the passageway...
...Ellis seemed ill at ease...
...There, there, little lady...
...I received no answer to my request...
...And my mother, also a conservative Republican, became superintendent of a church home after my father's death...
...Ellis explained...
...I recalled, too, a petition against universal military training which I had signed as a student after World War II...
...Recognizing that Mr...
...Ellis, wary of emotionalism, said little...
...A good many people opposed conscription," Mr...
...They're not firing you," Mr...
...I couldn't think what I had done...
...The notice, I discovered, had come from the technical library and I had relayed the information to him through his secretary...
...In a way, Dr...
...It had been drawn up and signed by a group composed of Methodists, Quakers, two Socialists, one Trotskyite and a couple of idealistic students...
...Ellis talked to me...
...I decided to go to library school after realizing that two degrees in liberal arts had not qualified me to earn a living doing anything I liked...
...Evidently, he had guessed why I excused myself abruptly-for he was like a different person, putting his arm around my shoulders and attempting to comfort me when his sympathy made tears fall again...
...I speculated as to whether that might have contributed to the Navy's attitude about me...
...For example, he said, someone who drank quite a lot could be judged a poor security risk...
...When an employe stopped working there, the badge and sticker scrap-pings had to be turned in at the pass office...
...Ellis came in and asked me to come to the office with him to talk to Commander Gray, the officer in charge of the Recreation Department...
...When I was offered the position, I decided I could not pass up the experience and greater opportunities it presented...
...If I were being judged on the unfair basis of association, rather than my own ideas, knowing her could be used against me...
...Although I liked the girl, I disagreed with her politics and thought the Progressive candidates dupes of the Communists...
...The installation was not very accessible by public transportation, and it had been difficult to keep librarians...
...Two days after the trip to Headquarters, however, Captain Hunter, the Security chief, called to tell Mr...
...Ellis unhappily informed me of what had happened, I said it was not too important to me whether I worked for the Navy or for Civil Service...
...Although a friend, a library-school teacher, suggested that I frankly state on applications that I had been asked to resign for unspecified security reasons, I did not have the fortitude necessary to go through another ordeal...
...How could I get another job if I'm forced out of this one...
...My husband phoned Commander Gray to say that, if a check for the withheld vacation pay was not mailed to me immediately, we would go to higher Navy authorities about it...
...Do you belong to any organizations...
...I didn't sleep very well last night...
...I've been told to ask for your resignation," he said...
Vol. 37 • May 1954 • No. 18
