Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-16

WASHINGTON, ID. c., April 12.-Manufactur-
Wv seeking government contracts, young
who want commissions, young girls
looking for jobs inventors SPIES cranks senators,
mothers of soldiers the fighting line importers,
foreign diplOmats-these only a few of the
types of visitors that pass through the never-rest
ing door of the department. Two thousand
persons have been granted passes in a single day,
which means that more than two thousand were
turned away.
The person who first sorts this difficult throng
is Mrs Mallie Roberts Nichols, the door
. keeper for the war department Her task is to
question every applicant for admission unless his
business is known to her, give him pass to fill
out, and then indorse the pass, if she fit. No
further description of it is necessary to show that
Mrs. Nichols task is one requiring great deal of
tact and patience and a remarkable memory These
qualities she has, and the memory she has supple
mented by file which contains over six thousand
entries, and is growing and changing daily. For
keeping track of the bureaus and divisions of the
department is endless job. This department
long ago outgrew its share of the war, state and
navy building, and parts of it are now scattered
all Washington. Some of them have moved
seven times since the began, and few there
that have not moved once twice. Mrs. Nichols
is perhaps the only person alive who tell at
just where any office of the department
is located. Furthermore, she is willing to tell
To the stranger in Washington she is invaluable
If she cannot make him understand by mere words
the location of the place he seeks, she will draw
him map. She regards it as her patriotic duty
to see that each deserving applicant at her desk
gets all the information she can give.
Needless to say entrance to the war department
is thing which cannot be granted indiscriminate-
ly. In the first place. there are some persons who
might do incaculable harm If they obtained it, and
in the second place there many who would only
waste the time of the workers. Mrs. Nichols
believes that in her task of asserting the applicants
she is aided largely by intuition. She takes pride
in the fact that bent michief has yet
passed her desk, although she has stopped one i'm
porter who was wearing the uniform of the United
States army without right, and one man who final
ly admitted that his intention to commit sui
eide in the secretary's office a protest against
some imaginary wrong
Inventors of devices with models and
drawings under their arms among the visitors
almost every day, and they almost always ad-
mitted One of these inventors was not more than
six years old. He gravely announced that he want
ed to the secretary of war, and for long time
refused to divulge what business he had with that
officer. When Mrs. Nichols explained that she must
know his business before admitting him, he final
ly told her in an impressive whisper that he had
invented device Ito kill the Germans and that
he did not intend to show the plans to any less
person than the secretary Of war Mrs. Nichols felt
that the spirit manifested worthy of being en-
couraged whatever the invention might be, and she
sent him up to the secretary's office. 'Mr. Baker
was unfortunately out but the plans for the Ger
man killer" were examined and admired by every
one in his office and the young inventor was sent
home with the assurance that his ideas would be
laid before the proper authorities.
Visitors to the secretary make up an enormous