In re: Claim, Sarah E. Thompson, for compensation. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. FEBRUARY 5, 1934. DEAR SIR: Mrs. Sarah E. Thompson, the mother of William Harvey Thompson, a former prohibition agent, has talked to me about a special bill granting her compensation, and further states that she has asked you to introduce such a special bill in the Senate. I hope you do introduce such a bill and I hope that such a bill will receive favorable action. William Harvey Thompson died on or about August 3, 1927, as a result of a gunshot wound inflicted by a policeman by the name of Nerbonne on the outskirts of Tacoma, Pierce County, Wash. At the time of the shooting, and at the time of his death, Mr. Thompson was a Federal pronibition agent of the Twentieth Prohibition District, working under Roy C. Lyle, Prohibition Administrator. He had been a prohibition agent for at least a year and a half, as I recall it, with post of duty at Seattle, King County, Wash. I was the legal adviser and had prior thereto been the Assistant Prohibition Administrator, and had been very closely identified with the enforcement activities. At the time of Mr. Thompson's death he was the sole support of his mother and a minor sister. In fact Mrs. Thompson had no other means of support. Mr. Thompson's death has left her in very desperate and difficult circumstances. Mrs. Thompson made application to the Employees Compensation Board shortly following her son's death, and produced a great deal of proof in addition to the report sent in by the Prohibition Administrator's Office. After having the matter under advisement for some considerable time, the Employees Compensation Board finally rejected the claim and the matter has remained in abeyance ever since. The whole question turned before the Employees' Compensation Commission on the question of whether Agent Thompson was engaged in official duties at the time of receiving his accident. When the whole matter is boiled down the only person who actually knew whether he was on official duty was Mr. Thompson himself. He made such a statement to his mother and to others as he lay at the point of death, that he was engaged on official duties, and particularly in investigating matters which would lead up to the location of a still that was reported in the prohibition office to then be operated by one Ben Newman, a well-known liquor law violator, in Pierce County, Wash. Agent Thompson was shot by the Tacoma policeman in the outskirts of Tacoma on the morning of July 27, 1927. The Prohibition Administrator caused an investigation to be made at the time and his recommendation to the Employees' Compensation Commission was that the evidence was not sufficient to show that the agent at the time of his injury was engaged in official duty. I think that the Prohibition Administrator would have been glad then, and I feel he would be glad now, to see some way provided for the Government to pay Mrs. Thompson a compensation because of her dependency upon her son. No person, and no investigator, is infallible. There is much more than a possibility that the conclusions reached by the Prohibition Administrator at the time of his report were mistaken. Personally I look at the matter, after the passage of time, and after mature reflection, and after further personal investigation, and after talking many times to Mrs. Thompson in the recent months, in a much different light since I am in possession of more information than I had at the time the report was made. I have come to the conclusion he was officially engaged during the night of July 26-27, 1927, and at the time he was shot in Pierce County he was probably on his way home to his post of duty in Seattle, King County. It is true that late in the evening before Agent Thompson was shot, which occurred about 7 o'clock or so in the morning, that is, on the evening of July 26, 1927, I did have an extended conversation with the deceased, at which I requested him to concentrate his efforts upon locating the still of Ben Newman in Pierce County, and informed the agent that I had received rumors and information that it was located in the Puyallup River Valley, and discussed with the deceased where the suspect lived in Seattle, suggested "laying on" his residence and trying to follow him, or some of his men, to the Pierce County location, and further suggested that I had also had information that the suspect sold some of his product in Pierce County, and instructed the agent that he should concentrate upon this matter. The agent had theretofore worked to a large extent in his own way, and to a large extent, upon his own initiative as to the methods of apprehension. and I anticipated he would do so in this case. Now it is probable that he did run onto some clues or leads on the very night of our conversation, and that he was following these leads up. The agent himself only knew whether this was true, and he is dead. Much corroborative testimony has been introduced in the record bearing out Mrs. Thompson's claims. It has been often stated, and it is a fact, that Agent Thompson was a most energetic and resourceful worker. He was always at it, and the hours were never too long or the task too difficult for him. In 1927 it was not considered a violation of regulations to make use of informers and of women to secure information. Agents were permitted to expend money in the purchase of liquor, and to consume liquor where purchased if it was necessary to avoid detection of their official status. It would have been a notable accomplishment in the Seattle enforcement work had Agent Thompson been able to apprehend the said Ben Newman or his distillery. He was known to be a large operator and one of the major offenders. He was then under indictment for two conspiracies, and it was known that he had not ceased his activities but had merely transferred his scene of operations. There was keen rivalry among the Seattle agents to secure information leading to his apprehension, although, perhaps, none would have been more persistent in keeping on the trail of this operator than Agent Thompson. That was why I had been at such pains to discuss with him on the evening before his accident the advisability of subordinating all other activities and dropping them so far as possible in order to concentrate upon Newman. I had, therefore, in the course of this conversation, stated to the agent that he ought to eliminate certain of his activities, and to circumscribe his field of action. It was based largely upon my desire that he give his immediate attention to this one violator. To suggest clues leading to the apprehension of a violator to Agent Thompson was always tantamount to his immediately getting busy on that matter. There was no putting off by him of these matters to a later date due to his unusual energy. Now as I have indicated above, he may have started on this investigation, may have discovered some lead or clue which led him to the places that he visited that night in Pierce County in the hope of further developing this evidence and of taking the course that he did take, even though it might have appeared to be in opposition to the suggestions that I had made to him. The deceased agent himself stated that he did get busy immediately in investigating the matter that I had so impressed upon his mind. After the agent was shot he was in such a desperate physical condition that no extended report could be given by him of all his actions. I should also add that some 2 weeks possibly before his fatal shooting Agent Thompson had been severely injured in an automobile wreck in Skagit County, Wash., caused by the inexperienced driving of another agent of an automobile, and due to no fault of Agent Thompson. He lost a great deal of blood in this accident and was bandaged and patched up, particularly about his head, and in my opinion came back to work much sooner than he should. It is possible that the great loss of blood suffered by him through cuts on and about his head may have made him act a little abnormal on the morning on which the policeman shot him, without probable or just cause as I have always believed and still believe. The act of the policeman was that of a man lacking judgment and proper balance. All special pension bills and special acts granting compensation are based upon the equities in the case and are made necessary because oftentimes the usual legal interpretation seems to make it impossible to bring the case within the strict letter of the law. It might have been considered difficult to bring the circumstances of this case within the strict letter of the law, but I hope in this case that a broad view will be taken and will be granted appropriate compensation. Yours very truly, O W. M. WHITNEY. JOE D. DUTTON AUGUST 3, 1949.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed Mr. BYRNE of New York, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following REPORT (To accompany H. R. 5777\ The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 5777) for the relief of Joe D. Dutton, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to pay the sum of $90 to Joe D. Dutton, of Griffin, Ga. Such sum is reimbursement for the amount of a certain forged post-office money order, cashed by him while serving as Army mail clerk at Army post office 584, Tier. Germany, on June 16, 1945, for which he was held accountable. STATEMENT OF FACTS It appears that Mr. Dutton, an enlisted man of the United States Army, while serving as an Army mail clerk in Germany, cashed at money order in the amount of $90, the endorsement to which had been forged, and that he subsequently refunded to the United States out of his own personal funds a like amount to pay the claim of the payee of said money order. Mr. Dutton stated that the tremendous pressure of the work at the Army postal office at a time when the troops had been alerted and the understaffed personnel of the Army post office was serving a force of from 20,000 to 30,000 men for a volume of business that frequently aggregated more than $15,000 per day accounts for his failure to have the genuine of the remitter's signature verified The postal officer in command of APO 584 stated that he had found Army Mail Clerk Dutton to be capable and careful and that he placed considerable. reliance upon his ability and judgment The officer further stated that he never knew of Dutton's having any difficulty over any of his financial transactions. The inspector who investigated this case was H. Repts., 81–1, vol. 5- -82 also of the opinion that Mr. Dutton used his best judgment in effecting payment of the order and was convinced that he was making the payment to the rightful owner. The Department of the Army in its report states that, under the facts and circumstances in this case, the relief should be granted claimant. The Postmaster General, in his report, said that the Department will interpose no objection to the enactment of this measure to relieve Mr. Dutton. Therefore, your committee concur in the recommendations of these two Departments of the Government and recommend favorable consideration to the bill. Hon. EARL C. MICHENER, House of Representatives. OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL, DEAR CONGRESSMAN: Further reference is made to your request for a report upon H. R. 6019, a bill for the relief of Joe D. Dutton. Records of this Department disclose that the sum of $90 was collected from Mr. Dutton to adjust the claims of the payee to money order No. 15746, issued June 8, 1945, at APO 584, a branch of the New York (N. Y.) Post Office. Mr. Dutton repaid this money order to a person claiming to be the endorsee but who, as indicated by investigation, was actually a forger and an imposter. It appears that the forger established his identity as the endorsee of the money order by the presentation of evidence in accordance with regulations issued by superior officers. Mr. Dutton admits the issue of this money order and the repayment thereof to an endorsee. However, he ascribes the fact that he failed to have the genuineness of the remitter's signature verified to the tremendous pressure of the work at the Army postal office at a time when the troops had been alerted and the understaffed personne of the Army post office was serving a force of from 20,000 to 30,000 men for a volume of business that frequently aggregated more than $15,000 per day The postal officer in command of APO 584 had stated that he found Army Mail Clerk Dutton to be capable and careful and that he placed considerable reliance upon his ability and judgment. The officer further stated that he never knew of Dutton having any difficulty over any of his financial transactions. The inspector who investigated this case was also of the opinion that Mr. Dutton used his best judgment in effecting payment of the order and was convinced that he was making the payment to the rightful owner. Since this Department has no appropriation from which service personnel may be relieved in cases of this nature, and since this case did not meet the requirements of the General Accounting Office for remission, there was no administrative action which could be taken to relieve Mr. Dutton of his financial responsibility. Based on the above facts, this Department will interpose no objection to the enactment of this measure to relieve Mr. Dutton. Pertinent papers are herewith submitted in accordance with your request. This report has not been cleared through the Bureau of the Budget to ascertain its relationship to the program of the President. Sincerely yours. J. M. DONALDSON, Hon. EARL C. MICHENER, Chairman. Committee on the Judiciary, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, Washington, D. C., October 20, 1948. House of Representatives. DEAR MR. MICHENER: The Department of the Army has no objection to the enactment of H. R. 6019, Eightieth Congress, a bill for the relief of Joe D. Dutton. This bill provides as follows: "That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $90 to Joe D. Dutton, of Griffin, Georgia. Such sum is reimbursement for the mount of a certain forged post-office money order numbered 15746, cashed by |