The Washington times., 1921-06-26
Ask the P.O. Info Man
Is Tourist Slogan Nou;
He KnolDs Everything
Postofflcs information Service
Answers Question Every Two
Minutes About Capital.

appropriate an inscription over the
windows at 400 PennsyIvania avenue
In place OF the sign-"lnformation
Postal. Governmental. civsc"--desiE-
mating the office that has proven so
Unexpectedly popular In the month OF
its existence that consideration Is al
ready being seriously given the sug-
geston that similar bureaus be estab-
lished In postoffices In All the largest
cities throughout the country.
Where are Welsh rarbits raisedf IL q
sebra q white horse with black
stripes or . black horse with white
stripes1 Where does the tail Of a
snake begtnr How long r. . strinG7
are samples OF queriss which have
grown 10 to be expected.
Reaiizing that tourists coming 70
Washington have lost much valuable
time trying to locate places, the mat
ter of ar Information center was In
formally discussed by members OF the
Cabinet shortly after March l. Finally
II was left 10 the postoffice and on
May "a. Postmaster General Hays
Gent out to every postmaster In the
country the following notice. with
instructions TO give II the widest pos
sible publicity:
WISH OF THE PRESIDENT.
at is the wish of the President that
visitors 20 the seat OF Government
shall have every opportunity to get
full information concerning all Gov.
ernmcntai departments II is ssps-
ciaiiy his desire that all those who
come to Washington to transact busi-
ness with any department or bureau
of the Government may quickly be ad-
vissd as to the exact location and
means OF reaching the particular de-
partment or bureau, In which may be
centered the business which they de-
sire to transact
For this p1rpose there has been
established q bureau of Information
on the ground floor of the Postoffice
Department building, located on Penn
syivania avenue at Twelfth street.
which is In charge OF competent peo-
pie who will definitely answer queries
of this chaaicter.
"The public Is advised of this ar
rangement and invited TO make use Of
the facility
The office was placed in charge of
David l. Garvey. who entered the Gov
eminent service from Topeka, Kan,
twenty-seven years ago and formerly
served In the division having in
charge the rural motor truck routes.
Garvey still daily faces the battery
OF questions and his latest records
show that his bureau is answering
more than 200 questions daily. AS the
office is open seven and q half hours
or $50 minutes a day IL will be seen
al - - q ~
rate OF about one every two minutes
from In the morning until <:3o
O'Clock In the afternoon. Ss- sst
1T is impossibie to describe the
whole series of questions we answer
for these seem to cover the whole
range" said Mr.. Garvey yesterday.
Only this morning q man who had
just reached Washington frobn the
Philippines came In TO ask whore he
could locate a certain captain whose
initials he did not know. but who
was stationed on the islands during
the war. He said he had written to
number Of mutual friends but none
OF them had been able to tell him ex-
cept trat the officers had been order
ed TO the States. We called up tho
adjutant generals office. told the cap
tain's last name and mentioned the
fact that he had served In the Phil
iipines In 1e17-is.
ON HIS WAY REJOICING.
In a few minutes the reply came
that the much-sough captain was
with tho Twelfth Infantry at Camp
Meade. and In a few minutes the
globe trotter had car on his way to
Maryland rejoicing.
"we are cooperating closely with
various Government departments and
there is hardly day some bureau
chief does not call up to ask where
he can locate some particular bureau
in another Government Office. 30
many changes In divisions werc made
during tho war that even Washing
tonfans are at q loss as to how to
direct people so they mill in here and
we keep our lists up-to-date so we
can give them tho desired informa-
tion with little trouble.
Despite the fact that the daily
papers print the programs for band
concerts every day, large proper
tion of callers came In 20 learn where
they can hear music that night. We
have a complete list of concerts. CUB
Ject to daily change. so we don't ex-
perience much difficulty in meeting
sh@h SihuApoh.
LETTERS ARE TABOO.
"But IL you want to do us a favor
tell the public we do not want letters
seeking information. While person
al visits and telephone queries are
most welcome we have no clerical
help to handle correspondence so the
one who tries the mails IL usually out
of luck
AS soon as the postal branch Of
nee rs installed at Eleventh street
and Pennsylvania II Is expected the
Information bureaus office will ex-
tend ifs 7,ours to 6;s0 each day,
which will make IL the same as the
branch station IL is pointed out
that the Government clerks who de-
sire information at present are
under handicap by tho present
hours, but under the proposed plan
IL win be possible TO seek the infor-
nation after their days work is done.
HOLD FUNERAL RITES