The National tribune., 1909-08-19

| is not improbable that some change:
will be made in the aeroplane furnished
by the Wrights. as a number of change:
have been made in the Baldwin dirigibl'
| by Lieuts. Foulois and Lahm.
This is house-cleaning time at the
Capitol Building, and Elliott Woods
| Superintendent, is one of the busies
men in Washington. Since Congress
was in session much longer this year
than usual there is not so much time tc
| make the necessary cleaning and re
pairing to which the big building i:
| subjected every Summer. One hundred
| and fifty carpenters. painters, mechan-
| ics electricians, laborers, scrubwomen
and others are as busy as can be. Some
| idea of the job may be gained when ii
| is known that there are 430 rooms in
the Capitol to he scrubbed. $50 windows
to be washed, $50 doors to be kept in
proper swing, 145 fireplaces and 105
toilets to be kept in order and other
| things in like proportion. The Senate
restaurant will be made more roomy.
and two new elevators will be installed
on the Senate side, and the Brumid
paintings in the committee rooms and
corridors will be removed. Putting in
the new elevators may neceSSitate the
removal of one of the Capitors famous
paintings, the Fight of the Monitor
and the Merrimac," and it is not decid-
ed just yet where it will be placed. The
painters will redecorate the Senate
Chamber and committee rooms and the
marble room will be frightened up. The
Vice Presidents room will have new
suit of mahogany bookcases. Mahogany
lockers and marble tile floors will re-
place the old ones in the Senate cloak
ROOM On the House side there will
not be so many improvements made.
The minority room and the Committee
on Pensions room will receive some at
tention. The House has ordered that
its seating arrangement be changed, do
ing away with the desks and putting in
benches like they have in the English
House of Commons, but it would take
considerable time to make this pro-
posed change, and it will have to be
postponed until another year.
People generally try to make them
selves believe that the Government
clerks at Washington work a few hours
a day, have a holiday the next and then
go off on a months vacation; but things
are not quite so easy as that, and espe
cially does this apply to the debate re-
porters on the extra session of Congress
which has just ended. These faithful
workers have set down and turned into
copy for the printers 9,776,000 words
since the discussion of the Payne-Ald-
rich tariff bill began in March. That has
kept them hustling and allowed of no
lagging of mind or hand, since they
had to take every speech in all of its
ramblings and Interruptions. The task
of these stenographers is probably as
trying as any that the Government sets,
and while the pay is good they earn
every cent that they get for it. They
must necessarily be men of keen wits
and with nerves capable of Withstand
ing the nerve-racking ordeals thru
which they must go nearly every day
and part of the nights while Congress is
in session.
1t appears that the Treasury Depart
ment is the next to experience shake
up. Efficiency tests, said to be even
more sweeping in character than those
started by Secretary Nagel in the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor, are
to be used. Secretary McVeigh has ap-
pointed Assistant Secretaries Norton,
Hiles and Reynolds to work out the
plan of reform, consequently there is
much uneasiness among the clerks,
many of whom have written to their
Congressman for advice and informa-
ton. The circular sent out by the De-
partment notifies the officers in Wash
ington and elsewhere that they must
have on file a complete efficiency record
of each employe. The employe is given
a card, and is required to make out his
own efficiency rating, and the heads of
the Departments are required to also
supply records of their employees. The
cards cover a great many subjects, in
Guiding quality and quantity of work,
the character of appointment to the
service, etc. Many appointees of the
Treasury Department obtained their
places thru political influence, and they
are up in the air. wondering whether
ry-v of Ia xtTilI 11a a
from now. Some others, under the
Civil Service, figure that they will be
ousted because of the effect of the new
Census bill, which allows only one MEM
Der of a family to serve the Government
in the Civil Service.
An endurance test of no mean proper
tions was conducted by the U. S. Volun-
teer ife-Saving Corps, in the swim
Beach, a distance of five and a half
miles. Seventeen of the swimmers were
young life-savers, but only II got thru
the treacherous water. Seven of the
swimmers were seized with cramps, and
were taken into the boat that followed.
One collapsed within 10 yards of the
boat, and went 70 the bottom. Then
there was an exhibition of real life
saving, and he was quickly fished out
and revived They got along extremely
well until they reached the eddies of
He'll Gate; then their troubles began.
1t was with the EXTREMIST difficulty that
any headway could be made, yet one
after another got thru, and Peter OFT,
who had the honor of finishing first,
made the course in one hour and 81
minutes The first five finishing re-
ceived medals.
Attorney-General Wickersham has a
big job before him collecting data that
President Taft will use in making rec
concentrations to the next Congress re-
garding the amendments to the Sher-
man antitrust law and the interstate
commerce act The Attorney General
Is now at work in New York, where he
will be busy with a sort of branch office
for the next month or two. He is at
the head of a committee of six appoint
ed by the President to get the informa-
ton and advise him regarding these
questions.
According to Hon. Herbert c. Squires,
Minister to Panama, who has just re-
turned home on three weeks leave Of
absence, the Panama Canal will surely
be finished. according to Col. Goethalss
estimate, in 1913 There are now 5000
men at work on 1t, and they are push
ing the work as never before. THE
sanitary condition of the Canal Zone is
as good, If not better" he says, than
Ii is in any Northern section where the
same number of men are employed"
Uncle Sam has a queer strike on his
I, E.yanciSrn "a of ~