Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-20

is gong to receive an appointment Il
the board until ne gets to- Washington
When the board has assembled in the
Office Of DR. Olmsted. the reports and to-
tails are brought forth and gone over
again and again. each member of the
board considering them separately. and
arriving at his own conclusions. Each
board member makes an estimate for
each state without consulting any other
of the members These individual esti-
mates are then considered by the entire
board under the supervision of DR.. Ohm
sted. and are discussed. Finally the
board reaches what it declares true
weighted average.
So expert are the members of The crop
reporting board. and SO scientific and
exact their calculations. that, i'm prepar-
ing their individual estimates. it has
been found their figures are often almost
Identical
While the board is framing its report.
the precautions against a leak. always
more or less in evidence, extend to the
last letter in stringency. On the day the
report is given out the bureau of Statis-
tics, and. indeed. all the Department of
Agriculture, Is guarded on all sides Until
the report has actually been flashed out
the department is as cut off from the
world as a clustered nun of the middle
ages: No one is allowed to leave the
building, no visitors may enter and no
one, not even an employe. may ascend
to the second floor where the bureau is
located, and where the board. behind
locked doors. is completing its consulta-
ton. \ heavy beam of wood and iron
is placed across the stairway and
stalwart Waterman stands guard there.
in addition. to keep the upper floor in
Violate. Also. all telephone communica-
ton is cut off.
In the bureau itself the precautions are
even more stringent. Throughout the en-
tire morning no clerk is permitted TO
leave the room. Despite the fact that
there are guards and barriers to prevent
persons from reaching the second floor.
clerks are not even allowed out in the
corridor. for it is barely possible that
some one might sneak upstairs. and a
single whispered word might be enough
to give out a tip" Also the clerks are
asked to keep away from the windows
for single gesture might convey a tip
to some one waiting on the lawn outside.
OF course. to be In position to give
such a tip the clerk would have to dis
cover the combination of the safe, sneak
into the building and go over all the re-
portS-a gigantic task. Hence the prob
ability OF leak is SO remote as to be al
most absurd-but the government prefers
TO play absolutely safe and take no
chances.
Meanwhile the newspapers have been
notified days ahead of time that the re-
port is to be issued at certain minute
on a certain date-and shortly before
noon I'm case it is the cotton report that
is to come out representatives of the
big press associations, of trade journals
and of individual newspapers begin to
cOngregate in the corridor at the en-
trance. Immediately upon entering the
building they visit the telephone operator,
and arrange for connection with their
paper or with some telegraph office, which
is to be secured and held open for them
This Is done in advance, because after
the report has been issued every second
is valuable. Every newspaper man wants
to be the first to flash the report to his
office. By SO doing his office in turn may
be able to supply a brokerage house in
advance Of its competitors-and that
house may profit hundreds of thousands
of dollars. or mayhap millions. as re-
suit
The telephone connections arranged for
the newspaper men congregate around a
small table placed at the foot of the
stairs to await the coming Of the report.
Meanwhile. the board, upstairs. is arriv-
ing at its final conclusions Perhaps a de-
bate will arise which will delay the fix
ng of total until the last minute Usu-
ally. however. the report is ready ahead |
IF time, and the board sits in the Statisti-