Evening star., 1924-01-27
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

ever come before Congress in normal
times. although during the war we
had several considerably larger. This
preparation of approximately $775.-
100000. combines the Treasury and
Post Office department appropria-
tions. For the Treasury Department
Lmore than s16O.o0o.000 is asked and
for the Post Office Department more
than s60o.ooo,oO0.
This bill will carry about one-third
of the total for all of the regular an
tnual appropriations, which will
amount to about one billion. eight or
nine hundred million dollars.
| Representative Ernest r. Acker-
man of New Jersey, who has been a
stamp collector for fifty years. has
just received and is showing to his
colleagues some stamps of twenty
billion marks denomination. Repre-
sentative Ackerman barely escaped
the earthquake in Japan and has now
received the earthquake issue of
stamps from Japan, on which there is
no perforation nor gum on the back
At the solicitation Of Representa-
| tive Alderman the philatelic exhibit
OF the Post Office Department. which
won a special gold medal and blue
ribbon of honor at the London exhi-
bitfon last spring, has been sent into
New Jersey, where II will be dis
played at Elizabeth, Plainfleld,
Newark and Englewood before start
ing on Its western itinerary.
This exhibit. almost priceless from
the standpoint of philatelists, was
made up as Americas entry at the
international stamp exposition held
there by Third Assistant Postmaster
General Glover. The exhibit has
just returned from tour of the
| country.
Under the administration Of Public
Printer. George II. Carter there is
operated shop laundry in addition
to shops in which practically every
kind of artisan is employed. During
| the year the laundry washed 904,723
/ hand towels, SO as to provide each
| employe with a clean towel every
working day. It is estimated that
this laundry work saved the govern
ment SS,618.S9. as compared with the
commercial charge for the same
amount Of work. In addition, the
|
, cleaning rags, which would other
wise have been thrown away, thereby
saving Sl,l69.10 in the expenditure
for new rags.
One of the best fishing grounds
under the American flag that Repre-
sentative Florian Lampert of Wis
| consin has found is at the Gatun
lock in the Panama canal. about
seven miles from the Atlantic. There
is a dam ninety-seven feet high
which creates an artificial lake, and
below the dam on the spilway is this
fishing ground. On his recent trip
to the canal Representative Lampert
caught tarpon four and d half feet
long. He caught him with three
bout 1900 feet on a reel. and
| worked for more than an hour TO
tire out the tarpon.
An evidence of how the campaign
speeches in the coming presidential
contest will be listened to with
avidity by farmers and their families
is shown by a special survey of about
1900 Representative farmers just
completed by the United States De-
| so per cent of the 1900 farmers re-
p, ported that they own tube radio re-
ceiving sets. employing three or more
| tubes, while approximately 90 per
that they use homemade sets, rang
ing from simple crystal detectors to
| tube sets.
| = =
| James j. Davis, Secretary Of Labor.
! hoe ,eeo traiped in rho hand school of
experience as an extemporaneous
speaker rather than as a writer. He
| has evolved a style that brings his
points home. When he was city clerk
| a prisoner was asked by the city at
| torney where were you previous to
the sth and Immediately subsequent
| therefor" A box car had been robbed
| on the Sth and the prisoner. who
claimed to be a steel worker. had
| been arrested in the freight yard.
| The prisoner hung his head as if at a
tiently ordered: Answer the question,
| or I'll send you up for vagrancy."
Davis. who had himself been steel
worker. understood the prisoners pre-
! dicament He didn't understand the
| phraseology. SO Davis translated il
| into language he did understand and
the man easily explained how he came
to be in tho freight yard.
This man was an expert puddler."
Secretary Davis points out. "A pud-
| dler makes iron bars. They were go
ing to put him behind his own bars
| because he couldn't understand the
legal jareon. This taught me a les
son. Big words and improper phrase
ology are prison bars that sometimes
| separate the workers from the pro-
fessional man.. To tear down the
prison wall OF thick -shelled words
and make America one nation with
one language is one of the tasks of
| our new education.
when the stork in the fable in
vited the fox TO supper he served the
bean soup in a long-necked vase"
Secretary Davis recalls by way of
homely illustration. The stork had
of the vase and drank the soup with
ease. The. fox had short muzzle
and couldn't get it. The trick made
him mad MAJ and he bit the stork,s head
vite the manual worker to a confab
and then serve the feast in such a
long-necked language that the la
borer can't get it?"
Had Gen. Pershing used red
nostriled war horse at st. Mihel in
stead of reclining on soft-cushioned.
out-of-sight Limousine, he might have
been President today" thus writes
Gen. Isaac r. Sherwood, who is the
oldest man in Congress, who went
into the civil war as the first volun-
teer soldier in northwestern Ohio as
| q private and came out a brigadter
general. who is today the Oldest living
general of the civil war and who has
always been a great lover Of the
horse.
For many years Gen. Sherwood
drove about Washington one OF the
best spans Of horses ever driven in