Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-01-25
Our Perishing Records
ny pre.ler,c ) usss,n

washington, ID t@s jan 1b~~fTe In
tha Census Bureau causing $4,000 900
losA In documents hss started up the
old tune. why don't ws hsv. an ar
onives buii1ins7'
IT is tho positive belief Of .yery
| Congressman We have talked 70 that
| some dsp the United rtstee VIII bavs
sn archives building II may not be
| In tho next few decades. but In the
course Of tiusc.-arnA ybe ynu sn1 will
| be tottering around@@there in to be
plsce where government records viii
te properly preserved, ~ there srs any
left 10 preserve.
For years now, cpnxr.ss has been
| talking about this building. ~ IL 20
| he proof against fire and water, dust,
| rats. aud bursiars.-a sort ~ heaven
for documents that haze done their
share In making our histury and pass
ON into the Oblivion Of the nstionsl
archives
| laid away the tatteved papers showing
that ~a paid for ,ha Philippine Islands
and Alaska and the Canal Zone. ~
they ware destroyed the unjfsd States
Government might have dshHculty in
/ proving that II did indeed settle ise
| obligations In These deals. In tho ar
| chiver building too viii be tho big
| treaties that the United States made.
/ with historic signatures on ahsrn-tha,
| IL. the treaties will be there " nothing
/ happens To them in tire meantime. The
/ State Department has beer asking for
| 10000 for years su that ~ could buiid
| n freproof vault for sotne of It's un-
| protected papers Congress has never
| felt, however. thst II could spare that
| much money. especially ~ there is
- A a.
/ FIRE in the State Department
The archives huIitfne IL TO contain
many other thousand. OF docunents.
| from sueh important papers a. the
/ Declaration Of Independence 20 ordi-
| nary army enlistment records and land
patents There are tone Of thes~
| national documents we are not sps~k-
! ing at all ~ state records va4fch are
/ kept by the individual states No
/ body could possibly figure svaotly how
. many federal record parsrs ther ara
| SO We win ius say, after Tho manner
/ Of our best mathematical -hsyks that
/ there are enough 80 tf.s II they were
/ placed end 70 end and side BY side thor
/ would carpet most of the United ststes
/ And most ~ this mas. ~ dsathiess
/ literature Il 20 be crsn1rnod into tne
safe haven ~ the archives sufldirs
s.v All Are ystu.hl-.
A realization Of the srsent of the
national records he's caused aofna arv,r-
/ rnens az 20 whether unirrportent papers
might not he sef.iv DESTROYED Tho<a
in favor - reducing The records try =
/ few tons maintain that hiRr govern
Fnent officials should have the rixh, 20
/ say that certain paper. az. worthless
ard need not be placed in tne ns,iolsl
+ nnorgua.
Most historians hold = contrary view
I They say that the s.acss ~ sr,issriant
papers of pest wars. for instance. may
+. Iook like 70 much junk ~ the uu-
( initiated, but TO IN. student ~ history
/ they are of great value. To take
+ very obvious case Suppose .e.rs
/ after the war there .. question as 20
whether a certain national hero served
IN that wsr ss a boy The ofFlciel rec
ord would 10 his enlistment psp~rs. snd
even II ~ required long search 70 To-
cate thssa dooun.nts when found they
would be worth the trouble. Again and
again just such pspers-lan6 grants
pension claims. army records@rsvs
supplied actual historic facts 90 prove
or disprovs runsora and legends
on tho tons Of these papers of 90
ter8tisl historic value. scarcely any ere
now stored in areprodf containers
Some are in near-sreproof vaults which
means that they would not be protected
In case Of a real need for protection
Tho Treasury Department has a vault
under its front yard, in which some Of
the most important records of our
financial history lie ia what must ueces-
sarily he q damp atmosphere. even
with a heating system. And 6Ampuess
Ia n more ine.dions destroyer of papers
than FIRE: IL works slowly but steady
Tho great mass Of government rec-
ordH is not SO we'll cared for ss those Ia
such a vault. In almost any depart
ment. even IN some Of the newest build
lngs. you can walk down long corridors
lined with open shelves. and you viii
zee that these shelves are craUmed.
tier upon tier, with papers. IN some
corridors the walls appear made of a
solid mass of bundled documents bound
with red tape. You can zee this in the
| Easements and top stories Of almost
al II the buildings.
Patents Not Safe.
In the Patent Of1cs. where over a
million patents are filed, no attempt Is
made to safeguard them. except the
/ ordinary precautions of having guards
20 WatCn c0t Tor nre. and nsIChets ana
ire extinguishers hung about the walls
The building Is supposed 70 b. Are-
proof II ls true. but the papers ars IN
wooden file cases or on open shelves.
In such conditions as these. a lighted
match is dropped. or "a cigarette fiicked
over some ono's shoulder and you read
next morning Of the sort of fire that
has Just damaged the Census Bureau.
In this case records that cannot be re-
placed by two years work were de-
stroyed not SO much by the flames
as by smoke and water.
After every such occurrence there is
an agitated demand for Better care for
important papers. But where Con-
Sress viii eheerfuliy put up half a mil
lion dollars TO build a Greek temple
post Office in Mud City and ether half
millions for similar post Offices in SINH
lar towns. e demand for 81, ,o0o.oo 10
store the records Of our national exist
ence always calls for remarks about
economy and "a more seasonablc
time"