Evening star., 1924-07-13
Real Workers in the National Capital

service owes DR.. Stockberger especial
gratitude for putting these men in
the government service. who have
devoted years of specialized study to
specific scientific and technical prob
! ! lens as q great life work, for the
first time on an equitable salary rat
| ing. There are 1,107 such men in
DR.. Stockberger saw that they got
| their proper adjustment and align
ment across the various bureaus The
| reclassification meant for these scien-
| tifc men an increase in salary aver
aging "a per cent above their basic
pay and 81 per cent above base pay
plus the $240 bonus
DR.. Stockberger also worked out a
| series of standardized titles. The pay
| roll titles have for years been very
| numerous and not always appropri-
ate. Under the new system the title
Of all employees in the department
engaged In similar work are uniform,
and from them the type of work each
performs can be readily told.
Adjusting Pay OF 10000.
Under the new field salary adjust
ment bill. DIR. Stockberger is now en-
gagged in making an adjustment OF
| the salaries of more than 10000 field
| employees. bringing them to a basis
| comparable with the employees in
Washington engaged in work of sim
liar character and responsibility. The
titles Of these 10000 field workers
| will be standardized on the same
scheme. This simpIifies the records
and assignments and makes it much
easier to discover similarities in DO
sltlons and differences in types of
employment.
Realizing that "all work and nc
play makes Jack dull boy" Dr.
Stockberger has for years been in
dulSing in his favorite recreation. He
| is great traveller and goes on ex-
ploring expenditions to the far cor
| ners of the globe-without missing a
single day at his desk in the depart
| ment. He gets his travel and explor-
ing through reading, and lately by
radio, having built his own equip
ment.
Works Fifteen Years ON Book.
For fifteen years he has been writ
ing book! Usually when a man
puts all those years into some liter
ary work he expects to sell it for a
good price or else it may be to i'm
mortalize himself or family in biog-
raphy. Not SO with DR.. Stockberger.
All along he has known that not only
would his book not prove to be one
| of the best sellers" but that it would
go begging for publisher In fact,
it is likely that only the Smithsonian
Institution or the Carnegie Institu-
tion would publish it.
This book Will be the worlds best
authority on the laws of variation
and heredity. DIR. Stockberger has ex-
plored the best literature of biology
N n Ipy 1ey-rp, =
the fundamental principles that au-
thorities call the laws of life from
more than 700 authorities. and found
them in the French. English. German,
Italian and Danish languages.
So when you or I say fellow is "a
chip of the old block" or we comment
like father. like son"-Dr Stock
berger knows the fundamental laws
why this is so. He knows the law
under which all the girls in one fam
lily are color-blind while the boys are
not He knows why some families
have a tendency to bleed easily, why
other collateral branches do not.
Here is one of the laws of life he
has found. 1t is called the Thayers
law: "Animals are painted by nature
darkest on those parts which tend to
be most lighted by the sky's light
and vice versa"
Practical Side OF 1t.
NOW, perhaps, you think there is
nothing very practical about alk this,
but listen: Not long ago a fellow
worker in the department was much
disturbed because he found what he
thought was a double crown on the
roots of some raspberry bushes DR..
Stockberger promptly told him what
it meant. 1t was an illustration of
Rogers law of level" by which GER
tain plants adapt themselves to new
conditions. AS, for example. if you
plant tulips too deep they will pull
themselves up to the proper level, or
if you don't plant them deep enough
they will work down to the proper
level.
No one can say that DR.. Stockber-
ger is a government employe who
Just got in rut and stayed there
he has lived and progressed every
month of his twenty-one years in the
federal service and is pulling his fell
low workers and even whole Ameri-
can industries along with him, even
if he does bury himself every evening
in musty books in foreign toagues
dealing with such century-old sub
jects as the laws of heredity and life
itself.