Letter to Edgar F. Puryear on Receiving Report of the Review Committee on Deferment of Government Employees.
[ Released November 1, 1945. Dated October 31, 1945 ]
Dear Mr. Puryear:
Thank you for sending me the report of the Review Committee on Deferment of Government Employees under your chairmanship.
I think that a splendid job has been done in keeping down the number of deferments of employees of the Federal Government. I know that a great deal of this accomplishment is due to your own patience, energy and patriotic determination to see that the Selective Service System operated fairly and efficiently among government employees without disrupting the Federal service too much.
I take this opportunity of thanking you and congratulating you on the results achieved.
Very sincerely,
HARRY S. TRUMAN
[ Honorable Edgar F. Puryear, Chairman, Review Committee on Deferment of Government Employees, Washington, D.C. ]
Note: The 4-page report, which was released with the letter, is printed in the Congressional Record (vol. 91, p. A4825).
The report stated that Committee activities had resulted in the approval of a far smaller proportion of deferments than had been secured for non-Federal employees during the period covered by the report (February 1944-August 1945). The report also noted that due to Committee policies occupational deferments for Federal employees had been constantly reduced over the preceding 18 months, and that as of August 15, 1945, 80 percent of all agencies of the Executive Branch of the Government had no approved occupational deferments.
Harry S Truman, Letter to Edgar F. Puryear on Receiving Report of the Review Committee on Deferment of Government Employees. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230466