The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-12
HOW NAVYS WAR BUSINESS IS MANAGED

navy building now stands. It is just
 below the white marble palace of the
 Pan-A American Union and under the
 shadows of the Washington monument
 and the new Lincoln Memorial It will
 be. by far the largest office building
 in Washington, covering more ground
 than the combined areas of the nation
 al capitol and the library of Congress. It will have about 40 acres of floor space Ii is to be of concrete, and as
 far as possible. it will be fireproof
 throughout.
 These new buildings of the navy are nothing like the old-time office struc- lures of Washington. where rooms were set apart for one. two or a half dozen clerks, who plodded away. as it
 were. undisturbed in what might all
 most be termed solitary confinement They were famous places for gossiping
 and for the leisurely red tape meth ods of transacting business
 The present rooms are all large Some of those of Corcoran court will cover at least half an acre and the
 hundreds of clerks work away side by side at long lines of desks that run parallel throughout the room. The whole room is in view of the chief and there is no chance to put your feet on the table and read the morning news paper without attracting attention. In deed. there is no temptation to do SO. for the-business is so speeded that the
 man who lags bids fair to be run over. and the spirit of getting things
 done and doing it now" is contagious.
 There are no letter baskets for files anu papers on the desks of the clerks. Ihe principle is that everything must De done as. it goes over the table. and the mall must be answered as it comes m. Throughout the rooms above each desk Is little sign showing just what pusiness is done there and 1t is pos- sibie to find your way and learn things without asking. IT you want to know aoout the steel which the navy is buy ing. you go to the department mark ed With that sign, and if you are inter- | esled Tn food, clothing. munitions or artlcfes which make up the supply it IS no trouble to find just where such l matters are handled. There are 11,000
 firms on the mailing list. and 2s. 000 bids were received for various articles 1 last year.
 The old system Of copying letters in book has long since been thrown away. The new navy has the most
 modern fling system and, moreover, much of it's filing is done by machinery. Tn Corcoran court there are tabulat- ing ana accounting machines each of which takes the place of score or more I clerks. Some of the machines in the | words of Rear Admiral McGowan, can | do everything except sing a song or
 chew tobacco. All that you have to do l in recording the accounts of a great I battleship is to press a button or so like 1 those of an adding machine and a card Will be punched representing by holes | the eompica ted figures of each item or special conditions. These punched cards form the code words. as it were, of
 the record, which. when run through oth- CT machines, are automatically sorted into months and the other classification necessary to make a complete record for the bookkeeping. After the cards are
 sorted they go through other tabuating
 machines which print on sheets of paper about half the size of the page on which this letter is printed the exact record of the operations and make all the calcula-
 tions and additions required in connec-
 tion with the accounts. The machines
 are so constructed that they cannot make