Evening star., 1923-02-11
Capital Sidelights
ny WILL p. KENNEDY,

bills this winter will he tbt4rssts1 10
know how the prsstdsnt am tbs hrst
lady OF the land are gs.ttnE s16bs
In tho White Houss. which 10 we'll
known 20 be dscidsdiy drsft1. lieut..
Col. Clarence o. Sheriff., the Engineer
Corps of'1oer dstaiish 70 take charge
OF such mattsrs for the President.
has reported TO Congress that ths
White House coal hill amounts 10
about $4,000 annually. Al the sans
| time hs gave Mrs. Harding crsdit
for making every effort TO have tho
coal consumption out down. saying
that for example. she requires the
heat In tho east wing 10 be COM
pletely cut off. save when It is abso-
lutely necessary.
The fuel that was purchased for
| the White House In tho fiscal year
1911 was as follows: Stove coal for
| tho executive mansion. s44S tons.
Is1.113.1o, an average Of sI3.17; furnace
| coal for tho executive mansion, 1914
| tons. $3300.61, an average OF 31z.34
per ton; furnace coal for greenhouses,
7o1.1 tons. ss.S46.s7. average cost.
|
| for coal OF $13,080.6s: wood for the
executive mansion. 37.5 cords Of
chestnut at $12 per cord. $3.50; gas
| for cooking. 4s330O cubic feet at 20
cents a thousand. $32s.s1.
| School children. wrestling with
problems of punctuation. may have
the value Of tho Insignificant comma.
| impressed upon their minds by the
serious consequences of misuse which
have twice been emphaMzed In Con-
| gress within a week. Omission of
a comma in the text OF the war risk
Insurance act took away from the
thousands Of officers and men In the
coast guard all the benefits OF tho
act after August 2S. 1919. according
ination made before the House COM
mittee on interstate and foreign COM
merce by Lieut. Commander F. c.
| Billiard.
| When the House was passing the
| bill to amend the Constitution to
prohibit tax-exempt securities. Rep
resentative Edward c. Little of Kan
punctua tion." and advised his COL
leagues not to make a case for the
Supreme Court, warning them that IL
they did not omit the comma the law
business would become more profit
able than it has been for 100 years.
ter to have lawyers, not professors,
/ writing the amendments to the Con-
stitution. House Leader Mondell sug-
! gested that "some folks use few or
no commas at all and some sea tier
/ them in almost anywhere.
Representative Little recalled that
| the Bible was written without pune
| tuation, as Homer and the English
people, formerly, at least. read their
| laws without reference to commas -
He argued that the comma under dis
| cussion could serve no good purpose
! and might do lot of harm. He in
sisted upon the omission of a wick ed
and useless little comma that prob
ably will start prairie fire of litiga-
ton
| The Library of Congress, occupying
the most beautiful library building
In the world, facing the Capitol. has
a printing and binding plant under
its golden dome. although not one IN
a thousand Of the people who use or
visit the Library daily know of this
workshop. The principal task of the
| printing office is the production of
library catalogue cards. of which
| 12,021,5s2 were printed in 1922. and
| the monthly catalogue of copyright
entries These catalogue cards go 20
a large number OF libraries through
out the country. They are printed in
| ffty-two languages and dialects. This
printing shop has an average OF
| twenty-five employees and their COM
puted product last year was S50,60S.-
III
| The Library bindery is engaged
| largely ir binding books and news
papers and mounting maps for use
| and preservation by the government.
These include many rare publica-
tons and the precious manuscripts
of famous Americans. which are far
| too valuable or perishable to risk
handling outside the Library building.
| This bindery has an average OF sew
enty-two employees and their product
was computed at $135,067.3O.
X r *
| Being a prohibitionist has proved
! open sesame" to the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis for one
Jose A. de Ia Torriente, a citizen of
Cuba This question was raised when
a Joint resolution came up in the
House to authorize Secretary DENLY
to permit this young Cuban to re-
ceive instruction at the Naval Acad-
emy. Representative Thomas l.
Blanton OF Texas suggested that
Wn under asirI recent dsveiopments here in
Logging OF embassy liquor) it might
be well to place some restriction
upon this young man to mako sure
that he will not bring with him a
supply OF beverages the possession
- nh t&A