Evening star., 1925-04-26
Capital Sidelights


approached the driver of a sedan
standing at the curb in front of an
apartment house: Are you engaged"
he asked. ''No-why?" from the
driver. II have a party of nine L
want driven to the Congressional Ii
brary." the old gentleman replied.
well, that will make two loads. "
commented the driver. The old gen
tleman waited for the second trip. and
as he, stepped from the car said to
the driver, What do l owe you?"
who's your Congressman" was
the surprising inquiry of the driver.
Why, Judge Bell of Georgia" an
swered the old gentleman; why do
you ask" as he opened his wallet.
on, guess he do as much for me, -
nonchalantly remarked the other as
he started his motor. Then, taking
pity on the old gentleman, whose face
gave evidences of his perplexity, the
driver explained, Its all right, m
Congressman Connery." That's the
way BILLY" does things-he's always
ready to do a kindness, even to
strangers.
We've gotten so used to the merit
system in Uncle Sans workshops
since the Civil Service Commission
stop to appreciate how it has affected
the efficiency of the Federal service.
For example, take the Railway Mail
Service. For seven years Immediately
preceding the adoption of the COM
petitiye examination system, the num-
Der Of pieces of mail distributed by
each employe annually averaged l.
230,731, and the number correctly dis
tr1buted for each error was 1881. The
average number of errors made by
each employe annually in distribution
was 335. For the 20 years after the
classification of this service the aver
age number of pieces of mail dis
tributed annually by each employe
was 1.504,164, an increase of about 20
per cent over the amount of work per-
formed per employe before classifi-
cation.
For the first decade following the
| classification the errors averaged one
| to every 8,627 pieces of mail distrib-
| uted. or SO per employe annually. For
the second decade the errors averaged
one to every IL ,307 pieces of mail dis
tributed, or 131 to each employe an
| nually. So we have had these men
handling a greatly increased amount
| OF work with much greater accuracy,
which is the truest kind of efficiency
X II
Increasing interest in. physical
| training is shown by growth. in the
| number of institutions which give
professional training in that subject
Forty-f1Ve years ago, the Federal rec
/ ords show, only one school in this
country gave such training. Today
more than 100 institutions, including
| special schools, State normal schools
colleges and universities, give courses
| of from two to four years, and there
| were more than / 900 graduates a
year, as the Bureau of Education sta
| tistics show.
Representative John Q. Tilson OF
| Connecticut, the new House leader
| who comes from the university town
| of New Haven, Conn, yet represents
one of the big polyglot districts of this
| country, Among the pupils of the
New Haven public schools are repre-
| sentatives OF As different nationalities
| or racial stocks, not including white
| Americans, who number 9.291 out ot
a total enrolment of 1926. Italy
/ sent the largest group, numbering H..
| S59: Russia came next, then Poland
ireland, England, etc. The countries
| contributing ranged from the West In
dies. through Europe 10 Asia. Ceylon
Australia, thence TO South America
and Canada. OF these pupils there
were / .057 born abroad.
OF such is the American republic
constituted, says Representative Til
| son. .. -t.
One of the best read men in Con
gress is Representative Il. Waltor
Moore Of Virginia, and he is an en-
| thusiast in urging others to broader
! their lives through reading. In {
| large measure through his efforts
and greatly to- his qualification, hi.
home State shows an increase Of more
than threefold in the appropriation
| for State-aided libraries. most of which
are in rural schools. This action by
1 the Virginia General Assembly make.
| it possible to aid every year some
| 1000 rural schools in the purchase O,
| library books
| Virginia is also to be given credit
for great cultural achievements along
another line of general education. In
! the State there are now 80 well or
| ganized and active musical clubs be
| longing to the national federation
| The first county federated music club
| was organized in Fluvanna County ir
| 1920. The oldest city music clut
| is in Petersburg, dating from 1898
| The purpose and activities of the
| clubs vary widely and the range oi
! dues is from 10 cents to SO a year
| In some organizations self.culture OF
| musical creation is the object: ir
! others the cultivation of musical ap
probation in the community. Practi
| cally every club in the State has re
| Gently increased in membership.
|
| The Jews-generally considered tC
| be the shrewdest in commerce-are
really great farmers, so Representa-
| tive Sol Bloom. himself Jew ano
proud of 1t, declares after a quite ex
tensive study of the subject. Today
| he says, the Jewish farm population
is more than $4,000. tling more thar
| ]. 200, 900 acres of farm lands, and the
| Jewish farmers own property valued
at more than 800, 100000.
| Petaluma, Calif.,. is known as "the
| egg basket of the world" he points
out, and there the Jews take a lead
| ing part. The Toms River section OF
| New Jersey, rapidly rivaling Peta
luna, has been developed by Jewish
farmers. The second largest duck
plant on Long Island is operated BY
/ Jew, who last year raised so, ,00(
| ducks A former Jew MANUFACTURER
Is now developing on Long Island the
| largest pigeon farm in the East
Jewish farmers are conspicuous in the
development Of the famous tobacco
| belt in the Connecticut River Valley
One of them is a pioneer in combin
1 ing cattle fattening with tobacco
! The Ia NaU No