Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-17

field parties Of four men each, with two
teams. and provision of the means within
the discretionary use of the Commission
ers to pay for third complete field party
for the buster part of the year whenever
needed; also recommends that the Office
of second assistant surveyor at 1880 per
annuIn be created, the incumbent to have
general charge of the suburban division of
the office work. now necessarily assuming
large proportions because of the near com
p.etton of the whole street extension plan
and the consequent transfer to the office
of permanent record of the data produced
by the street extension department and the
necessary Interpretation of those plans on
the ground.
appropriation sufficient to further ex-
tend and perfect the card-index system
inaugurated in the office by him.
He states that these cards simplify
every branch of work. and are now
complete TO all the county record books.
The large collection of valuable data,
much Of it of very ancient date, in the flies
of this office is necessarily almost useless
without d thorough index. The entire work
will take years if but one clerk be employed
thereon, but when once done will be of far
reaching value the current work is easily
Kept UP to date.
The Old Records.
Speaking of the old records of the Office
the surveyor says:
Because of the same great pressure of
prevented any attention to other than the
most urgent cases of current work, no:h-
ing whatever has been done on the reha-
Utilization of the older records, which work
l began in 1895 except the completion of
the verification of the copy of book one of
the records of squares. and the placing of
this copy in active service, retiring the
original This branch of the work of the
office IS absolutely dependent upon the per-
sonal revision of the surveyor, who can
delegate to no one matter vital to the
legal and landholdng interests. 1t cannot
therefore. be resumed until there is some
lessening of the pressure upon the Of
fee for current work. giving me more
time for general improvements. Mean
while every month increases the iilegibility
and destruction of priceless records, of
which excellent copies are Already made
but which are useless until revised and
compared. In addition to the injury by
time and the constant use by the public
for hundred years affecting the old rec
ord books, there are many exceedingly val
liable old maps on file here. which are con-
stantly being used in court and in other
ways, to determine some of the most i'm
portant questions that arise as to
municipal action as we'll affecting pri-
vate rights.
"A large percentage of these old maps are
in such bad condition from dust and wear
that they are almost beyond saving I rec
oHmend that an appropriation of 81 900 be
asked for, for the purpose of reproducing
the photo-lithographic process. In this con-
nection l would suggest the ACCESSIBILITY of
transferring to the record books by the
same mechanical process all plats of SUD-
division and dedication which would other
wise require considerable of the time of a
draughtsman to copy from the originals.
II should like to have the means at my
disposal to keep constantly to date, In atlas
form. a plat of each square of the city
proper and of each suburban subdivision
on large sCale-Showing exactly the pres
ent lines of parcels or lots-as produced by
deeds of transfer and by wills. Progress
sive cities are already ahead of US in this
feature. Such a system would be of the
greatest service to this Office and to the
general public, which is now compelled to
search many books for the data which
should be on one page.
"All things considered says Mr.. LOCKER
Il estimate the volume of business of the
office as fully 40 per cent heavier than last
year. 1t Is We'll to note in this connection
that Mr. Richards, In the annual report of
July, 98. says that since the reorganization
of the office in 80 the work has almost
doubled over that done Under the fee sys-
tenn. with but slight increase of the force