Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-15
HEALTHY QUARTERS
ASKED FOR SURVEY
Coast and Geodetic Workers
Labor Under Office Handi-
cap, Says Report.

Eighty-eight employees Of the Wash
ington bureau Of the United States
coast and geodetic survey, or more
than 33 per cent of the entire office
force, work in rooms below the street
level. according to the annual report
| of Col. e. Lester Jones, director,
made today to the Secretary of Com
merce.
"This bureau occupies quarters
that are a disgrace--insanitary and
directly responsible for clear loss
| of 25 per cent efficiency, not to men,
ton the fact that it has far outgrown
such quarters as it now occupies de-
clares the director. The absolute
necessity for modern and healthful
quarters with a chance for expansion
| is a daily problem
The bureau is housed in five differ
ent buildings, but one of which is
designed for it's needs. explains Col
Jones. Employees under the direct
supervision of chiefs of divisions and
/ chiefs of sections are necessarily
! hundreds of feet away from the di-
] rective head and communication lis
only possible through labyrinth Of
stairs, halls and bridges
, Exposed to Destruction.
Original field records made at a cost
| of thousands of dollars. Col. Jones
| declares in his report. are continual
lily exposed to destruction by fire. y
| In a room more than twenty feet
below the street level is printed every
chart that is issued by the coast and
geodetic survey. more than SOo,00O
during the current fiscal year, the re-
port states. !
Further salary readjustments are
| needed to produce an efficient ana
permanent personnel. Col. Jones con-
siders this question. as follows:
| Congress, during it's last session.
| wisely recognized the commissioned
| officers of the coast and geodetic sur.
vey by giving them pay status equal
to the other five commissioned forces
of the federal government. The vital
| importance of this legislation cannot
| be overestimated, for it not only gave
these highly trained engineers. navi-
gators and surveyors salaries COM
mensurate with their worth. but it
literally saved service so important
to the protection of human life and
property. 1t is no exaggeration to
state that the action of Congress al
ready has had national and far
reaching effect for the welfare of the
/ country which is hard to estimate 1t
| lation became effective. but the judg-
! ment of the Senate and House is
clearly obvious. Already this service,
which was on the brink Of certain
Decentralization, has taken on a new
! life; the morale is better than ever
\ before: in fact, the real permanent
| groundwork of this old and inyalu-
able service, whose very foundation
has only begun to be genuinely recog-
nized, and after more than l04 years
of existence it is on a just and per-
manent basis.
| Other Vital Necessities.
| but with due and full apprecia-
ton of what Congress has recently
done, there are other vital necessities
| required by this service, some of them
| equally as important as the one re-
lieved by the recent legislation.
| There are three other branches of
the coast and geodetic survey which:
judged from their importance and
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