Omaha daily bee., 1906-06-25
HOME FROM POSTAL CONGRESS-
Continued from First Page)

became law yesterday with the presidents
signature.
Architects' Dra ftsmen Scarce,
About the only thing in the way of an
adjournment of congress on the 3Oth in
slant is the Omnibus public building bill.
This measure carries the authorization for
federal buildings throughout the country
and is one in which every state is directly
interested. 1t is several years now since
bill of this character was enacted into law
and in the meantime the force of eXpert'ar-
chitects and civil engineers employed I'M
der the treasury department in the prepa-
ration of plans has dwindled until there
is scarcely u corporal's guard left. Under
ordinary circumstances Il would be an easy
matter to obtain a new force Of competent
craftsmen to fill the vacancies. But this
year the building boom seems to have
struck every city I'm the country and the
salaries paid by architects to their as
sistants have been boosted to such a de-
gree that the government payroll has no
particular attraction for the young men
who are usually available when their serv-
ices are required. While the San francisco
earthquake and fire caused great distress
and loss of income to lawyers, doctors and
other professional men, II has proved a
boon to architectural craftsmen and civil
engineers. Scores upon scores of graduates
of technical schools I'm the classes of 1906
have found places open to them in the
stricken city and many of these young men
are already on their way to the coast
to take up positions with the architects al
ready located there, or who are about to
open branch Offices in San Francisco These
available to the supervising architect of the
treasury, but for the disaster As it Is,
that gentleman sees a dearth of technical
employees confronting him and he will
probably be compelled to delay the pre-
iiminary- work upon plans for some months
So, even II the public building bill does
provide for fifty or sixty new buildings
as it is expected to do, it's passage by no
means assures the erection of such a num-
Der in the immediate future. On the CON
trary half the members interested in the
measure, at least, will be disappointed and
many of them will close their congressional
careers before the first stone is laid upon
the buildings for the erection OF which they
have fought so strenuously for several
years past.
Ten Dollars to Avert Suicide.
Americans are natural humorists ne
matter from what section of the country
they hail, nor are they at all particular
as to the subject upon which they joke
Some two weeks ago a popular congress
man from Pennsylvania, tired of financa
worry, ended his life after writing note
to the speaker in which he gave the reasons
for his rash act few days ago another
member from a southern state received q
letter from an old friend and constituent
which read as follows:
Dear John--I see by the newspapers
that one of your fellow congressman has
committed suicide because he was fnan.
cially embarrassed. Knowing that you are
chronically hard up and fearing that you
may be tempted to follow the example sci
l enclose herewith a New York draft fol-
$40. in the hope that this will tide you
over and save your life until congress ad
journs. If it won't let me know and IL
go you another ten"
And that congressman cashed the draft
That evening his friends all drank real ole
fashioned drinks with grass in EN-" as
the Englishman described the Julep.