Evening star., 1921-03-13
HEARD AND SEEN

VIII H. Hays has rounded out his
nrst week as Postmaster General. and
has left the impression with all who met
him here for the first time that he is
about the speediest thing in the way of
postal heads this good old town has
ever known.
1t is the rapidity Of every movement
| that impresses his new friends most.
he walks at a swift pace and darts
, here and there in a manner to make
keep up with him.
sometimes the new Postmaster Gem
eral will come out Of his Office into the
ante chamber where sit those who are
waiting to meet him. Mr.. Hays will
glance over the crowd rapidly. then find
the one he is sekeing.
Almost with bound he is at the
side of the person sought. shaking him
| by tho hand, and greeting him in the
most hearty fashion. AS he hustles the
guest into the inner office he finds time
to stop on his way to shake hands with
one or two.
In great deal less time than it takes
| to tell about it the Postmaster General
has disappeared into his office. And he
goes at that pace all day long.
He probably will become known as
the hustling Postmaster General"
In the person Of Merritt o. Chance,
Washington city postmaster. Post
| master General Hays has found an
other hustler.
The city postmaster last week went
back to the Office quarters he had
before the war. Those who call at the
post office now will find the post
| master sitting at a great table in an
outer office.
He has foresworn the Circassian
walnut Office in the corner of the
building for the more public office
next it. in which are located his sec
retary and other officials.
The city postmaster feels that he is
at the service of the whole people.
and wants every one in Washington
who wants to see him to be able to
accomplish their desire without hav-
ing to go through lot of red tape.
Postmaster Chance sat at his big ta-
Bile before the war, but when the Of
fees Of local draft board No. were
established at the city post Office he
found that the influx of drafted men
made his table too public
So he went into the beautiful wal
nut office. But now he is out again.
He intends to keep the walnut Office
for private conversations and confer
ences, but he will mostly be found in
the outer office at the service of the
people.
Senator Reed Smoot, who heads the
joint congressional committee on re-
organization Of the government de-
partments, is a sort of official COB
lin" to some He has some of the
clerks ION their toes" as the saying
is.
The senator from Utah has been
rather caustic at times in his com
ments on government employees who
loaf on the job" And, of course. ii
does look bad when Senator Smoot
or anybody else goes into a depart
ment and sees employees standing
around smoking. sewing or what not.
That such things do occur the en-
ployes admit. but the very great ma
jority of them neither indulge in
these practices in working hours nor
condone them.
They stand squarely with Senator
Smoot on this point.
But the fact remains that they un-
officially quote: Senator SMOOTH git
ye If you don't watch out"
The other day the senator happened
to visit one of the big bureaus.
one. Just big one. One of the
largest.
Another outsider happened to see
Mr.. Smoot enter.
This friend went to the chief clerks
Office and found that official reading a
book and smoking pipe. Now all
this was innocent enough. for the
book might have been an official docu-
ment, and the pipe-well, the anti
smoking measure didn't go through.
'The old man is in the building"
confidently whispered the friend.
"Who:" casually asked the chief
clerk.
Senator Smoot," came the reply.
The chief clerk closed his book with
a bang, put down his pipe, and turned
to an assistant.
"Now about that recent matter" he
began, briskly.
CHARLES E. TRACEwELL.