WOC'S AND GOVERNMENT ADVISORY GROUPS FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1955 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:10 a. m., in room 346, Old House Office Building, Hon. Peter W. Rodino, Jr., presiding. Present: Representative Rodino. Also present: Herbert N. Maletz, chief counsel, Kenneth R. Harkins, cocounsel, Thomas M. McGrail and Jerrold Walden, associate counsel, of the subcommittee. Mr. RODINO. The meeting will now come to order. Our first witness for today's hearing will be Mr. Wojtul, vice president of the Continental Can Co. Mr. Wojtul, will you kindly take the witness chair? Will you kindly give the reporter your name and your association? STATEMENT OF PETER P. WOJTUL, VICE PRESIDENT, CONTINENTAL CAN CO., INC., NEW YORK, N. Y., ACCOMPANIED BY HELMER R. JOHNSON AND ALLEN TRUMBULL, OF WILLKIE, OWEN, FARR, GALLAGHER & WALTON, NEW YORK, N. Y. Mr. WOJTUL. My name is Peter P. Wojtul, vice president, sales, Continental Can Co., Inc., New York. Mr. RODINO. Would your associates identify themselves? Mr. JOHNSON. I am Helmer R. Johnson of the firm of Willkie, Owen, Farr, Gallagher & Walton, of New York, and with me is Mr. Allan Trumbull of the same firm. Mr. RODINO. Before proceeding with the hearings today, the Chair would like to make a preliminary statement. We continue today with our hearings on the subject of WOC's in Government. The testimony and documents to be presented form a case history of one WOC. This case is particularly interesting because the WOC prior to his appointment was the Washington representative for the company and also because he continued to perform his duties as Washington representative while he served as a WOC. As a result, at one moment he was representing his company and at another he was representing BDSA. It would seem to be obvious that in such circumstances when a man is serving in a dual capacity, actively performing duties for his company and the Government at the same time, conflicting respon sibilities can readily have a detrimental effect on one or the other of his principals. Our interest is not in the individual who served as the WOC in this case. No reflection on the man's character is intended by this study; on the contrary, he was a person of excellent competency and integrity, and served both the Government and his company very effectively. I am sure the testimony today will bear this out. Our interest in this case exists because, on the one hand, the WOC was loaned to the Government by his company, and, at the same time, there was imposed upon him by the company the obligation to con tinue his full-time duties and responsibilities for the company. Neither the company nor the Department of Commerce appeared to consider this dual responsibility imposed upon the individual to be in any way oppressive to him or unfair to either principal. Whether it was or not can be answered perhaps after our hearings this morning. Mr. McGrail, you may proceed. Mr. MOGRAIL. Mr. Wojtul, would you state your position in Continental Can Co.? Mr. WOJTUL. I am vice president, sales. Mr. McGRAIL. And the head office of the company is in New York City? Mr. WOJTUL. That is correct. Mr. McGRAIL. You are located there? Mr. WOJTUL. That is correct, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. You have a Washington office? Mr. WOJTUL. Yes, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. And you had a Washington office, the same Washington office in 1954? Mr. WOJTUL. Yes, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. Would you state, describe the makeup of that office in January of 1954? Mr. WOJTUL. You mean by personnel? Mr. McGRAIL. The personnel and the size and so forth. Mr. WoJTUL. The personnel consisted of Mr. Rowlands, who was in charge of the office, and Miss Wurdemann, who acted as secretary and general assistant, handled the switchboard, et cetera, and we had one, I guess you would call him a general all-around porter, chauffeur, and messenger boy. Mr. MCGRAIL. What was the purpose of your Washington office! Mr. WOJTUL. Well, I might say our Washington office was first set up immediately after the beginning of World War II. At that time our operations were very severely curtailed due to the shortage of tin. And the office was originally established for the purpose of trying to obtain Government business or any kind of business to substitute for the loss of our can business during the war. And as time went on the operations grew, during the war with all of the priorities, allocation problems, and all of those that came on with the war. Also, the problems that came along with the defense work we did obtain. That office was used, also, as a central point. for handling, clearing all of our applications for priorities, allocations, et cetera. In addition, as time went on it grew to help some of our customers with some of their problems in Washington. The Washington office carried on. At various times we had quite a few more men there than we had in 1954. Today I would describe it this way, that our Washington office is there to assist any of our various divisions. We have plants and divisions all over the country in various types of operations to assist them in anything that they may have to do with the Government and to some extent, to a much minor extent, to assist our customers who may have problems down here. Mr. McGRAIL. In January of 1954, Mr. Rowlands was in charge of the Washington office? Mr. WOJTUL. That is correct, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. And to whom was he responsible? Mr. WOJTUL. He reported to me. Mr. McGRAIL. Mr. Rowlands has since died; is that correct? Mr. McGRAIL. Do you recall that Mr. Rowlands received an appointment as a WOC in 1954 with the Department of Commerce? Mr. WOJTUL. I do, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. And that was on February 25, 1954, and his appointment was that of Deputy Director of the Containers and Packaging Division, of the Business and Defense Services Administration of the Department of Commerce, and the appointment continued, at least, until November 15, 1954? Mr. WOJTUL. That is correct, sir. Mr. McGRAIL. Mr. Chairman, I have a couple of documents to establish that, Nos. 118 and 88, which I would like to offer. Mr. RODINO. They will be inserted in the record. (The documents numbered 118 and 88 are as follows:) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, BUSINESS And Defense SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Washington 25, D. C., February 25, 1954. WILLIS L. ROWLANDS NAMED DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CONTAINERS AND PACKAGING DIVISION Appointment of Willis L. Rowlands, of Alexandria, Va., as Deputy Director of the Containers and Packaging Division, Business and Defense Services Administration, United States Department of Commerce, was announced today by BDSA Administrator Charles F. Honeywell. Mr. Rowlands is on leave of absence from his position as Washington representative of the Continental Can Co., of New York, N. Y. He is serving the Government without compensation under a system of rotation whereby experienced men from industry provide their services for periods of 6 months or longer. The new Deputy Director replaces Ross Perry, of Shadyside, Md., who has been named Assistant Director of the Containers and Packaging Division. Mr. Rowlands is a native of Staten Island, N. Y., where he was born April 2, 1905. As a child he moved with his family to Ridgewood, N. J., receiving his early education and training in that city. Beginning his business career in 1924, Mr. Rowlands engaged in various enterprises, including 12 years in the insurance field in New York City. In 1941, he became associated with the Continental Can Co., and after serving with the company in various positions until 1948, was appointed its representative in Washington. Mr. Rowlands is married and has one child. 67271-55-pt. 1-56 CONTINENTAL CAN CO., INC., INTERNAL MEMORANDUM To: No. 43, head office. Attention: Mr. P. P. Wojtul. From: No. 101, Washington, D. C. Date: November 23, 1954. Since November 15 I have been "unofficially" off the rolls of the Business and Defense Services Administration. "Officially" I am still listed as Deputy Director of the Containers and Packaging Division. Charlie Lewis has requested that I permit my name to be carried as Deputy Director until January 1 as he has been unsuccessful in securing an actual commitment for a replacement. As a result of my trip to New York last month the Riegel Paper Co. has agreed to furnish a man, but he will not be available until January 1, and no official notification of this has yet been received by BDSA. I can see no objection to this arrangement as it does not require my actual presence in BDSA and, consequently, does not take any of my time. W. L. ROWLANDS. Mr. MCGRAIL. May I ask Mr. Wojtul, do you have the same documents which your office submitted to the subcommittee available now! Mr. WOJTUL. I believe counsel here has photostats of them. Mr. McGRAIL. Fine. At the time of Mr. Rowlands' appointment. were you or any other official of your company particularly interested in getting a representative from your company into the Department of Commerce as a WOC? Mr. WOJTUL. I would say that we have never sought that sort of an appointment, and that Mr. Rowlands-we agreed to Mr. Rowlands' taking this position rather reluctantly, after many months had been spent trying to find someone else. As a matter of fact, we had sent a retired employee of ours, Mr. Rapelye, down to Washington. He spent 2 days here to see what the work would consist of with the idea that he might take the position, but he turned it down. Mr. McGRAIL. When was that? Mr. WOJTUL. That was, I'd say, I believe in December 1953. Mr. RODINO. Do you say Mr. Rowlands was rather reluctant to take the position. Did he express this reluctance to the Government or to you, his employer? Mr. WOJTUL. Well, I would put it this way: I would like to say it this way: That first of all, according to my best recollection, the first I heard of this vacancy, Mr. Ferris White, of the Can Manufac turers Institute-the request was given to him-I heard it at a Can Institute meeting. Mr. White said that the Department of Commerce was looking for someone to take this position. As I am fairly active in the Can Manufacturers Institute, and I, among others, was asked if we would furnish someone. We at first replied that we had no one and we canvassed the other companies, all the companies in the institute. All the companies in the institute were advised of this opening, and asked if they would furnish a man. No one had a man. Finally, the request came back to us, asking if we could not possibly get someone down there. And we finally thought that Mr. Rapelye, who had worked for the Government, not in the Containers Division of the Department of Commerce-but in the WPB, during the World War-who had retired from our company-might take the position. And we sent him down here, and he did spend 2 days talking to various people in the Department of Commerce about the position. |