The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-06-02
SENATE SCRAPS WHILE THE
DEMOCRATS ENJOY THE FUN

fashionable part Of the town hs a site
FOR National Hall Of Records. Two
or three score Of property owners,
among whom wac The late Secretary
of State John Hay, obtained fancy
prices for their properly (ae always
happens when tho government buys
realty In Washington). But after a
great time in getting possession Of the
property, congress halted. The money
was never appropriated for the build
ing. Year after year the accumulation
Of official papers has gone on and the
exposure Of the old papers and docu-
ments 10 fire and to moisture goes on.
Many Worth Keeping.
To be sure, a great part Of these gov
ernment papers and records are Of little
or no value. Nevertheless there are
thousands and thousands Of such papers
annually which are worth preserving
for various reasons, but which do not
get into freproof reeeptacles by any
means. The government safes are mot
large enough to hold such papers and
practically none of the department
buildings have any receptacles that de-
serve being called steel vaults. But
there is also great need of some system
for handling these government papers
and for determining what shall be
thrown away. The law is now very
strict about destroying these records,
for which reason much is saved that
could well be burned or macerated.
The Egg industry.
Please bear in mind that there is
something at Washington besides pol
itics and legislation and White House
affairs. Eggs, for instance. And why
not eggs, pray for the laying of eggs
is really one of the greatest of our
national industries. The preservation
of eggs is another story, but the honor
able secretary of agriculture, "Tama
Jim" Wilson, has a "bunch" Of
scientists on that job.
They are starting another investiga-
tion of eggs this summer. That meaas
of the packing and preservation Of
eggs, To be sure it is only one of a
great number of inquiries and aetiv-
tiles that the federal government now
conducts in connection with the produc-
tiOn and transportation Of food prod
ucts. The storm center of this sum
mer's investigation will be in the great
egg producing and egg packing coun-
try-Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. Numer-
Gus other States will be invaded by the
inspectors, who are expected to gather
scme new brands of knowledge about
the deterioration and decomposition of
the egg.
Few people realize what an enor-
nous business this has come to be. Thus
far the department of agriculture has
concerned itself chiefly with eggs that
are frozen or dessicated. In one or
the other of these forms eggs are ship
ped to the great cities in carload lots
and supplied to the bakeries which
make them into cakes and other edibles,
where it is not always easy to say just
how fresh the hen fruit really was.
The department, however, is bent upon
protecting the cake eater and the con-
sumer of the many other forms of food
into which frozen or dessicated eggs 90.
They say there is less likelihood of
deterioration of the dessicated product
but, all the same, it is generally kept
in cold storage and when il is moved
from State to State the government
undertakes to know whether decompo-
sition of any kind has set in.
As to eggs in the shell, the depart
ment has thus far had very little to
say. The experts have studied the sub
ject of bacterial invasion, which takes
place through the shell, but the trans
portation of eggs in the shell, while
occurring much in interstate commerce,
has not enlisted the attention the gov
ernment scientists so much. The con
sumers are better able to look out for
Themselves with such eggs than they
are in edibles for which frozen and des-
sicated eggs have been used.