Evening star., 1925-10-10

SONS numbering 80 persons. consists
of 727 persons. These are housed in
| the Bureau of Standards Buildings at
Connecticut avenue and Pierce Mill
road.
Many Buildings Nakeshifts.
! The Bureau of Lighthouses and a
! portion of the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, personnel
aegrega ting SO persons. are quartered
| In the Hurley Wright Building at
Eighteenth street and Pennsylvania
avenue
The Bureau of Mines. transferred
| from the Interior Department to the
Department of Commerce by eXecu-
| tive order on July l, continues in Its
| quarters in the Interior Department
Building. The Bureau of Mines has
224 employees
Most of the buildings now occu-
pied by the Commerce Department
are makeShfftS of one kind or
another. grossly unsuited for occu
pancy by any Government agency.
The departments main building Is
overcrowded. The rooms are poorly
arranged: the elevator facilities are
! Inadequate; the ceilings are low; the
corridors are narrow; there is lack
| OF storage space, and the structure
on the whole Is one of the shabbiest
oSpdi lIileHldl DuliuHlSS III the Guy.
The premises occupied by the Bu-
| reau of Fisheries, at Sixth and B
streets southwest. were partly erected
before the Civil War. They are
tucked away out of sight of the
public, and are inconvenient of ac-
cess not only to the general public.
but to members of Congress and to
the executive and administrative Off
GERS of the department who are re-
ho of I'm
reau.
Danger Of Fire.
This comment also applies to the
building occupied by the Census Bu-
reau at Sixth street and Missouri
avenue. This structure is one
of the f1imsiest temporary build
ings erected by the Government dur
ing the war 1t is not fireproof, and
there is constant danger of fire with
the possible consequence of the de-
Struction of the invaluable census
records going back to the beginning
of the Government. In the Summer
season the building becomes -unbear.
ably hot. and on many days it is
necessary to dismiss the employees for
the day at noon.
Valuable tabulating machines, spe-
cially built for the very particular
work of the Census Bureau, which
have saved the Government a tire.
mendous sum that otherwise would
have to be spent on thousands of EN-.
ployes and enlarged Office space,
which machines have cost Uncle Sam
hundreds Of thouSa nds of dollars are
In use in this building of limsy,
beaver board construction, and hav-
ing wooden support.
In discussing the fire hazard Will
nam NJ. Steuart. director of the Bu.
reau of the Census says:
Sprinklers Harmful.
Many of the rooms of the building
are used for storage of the records of
this office and if these records were
subjected to a deluge of water from
the sprinkler system they would be
destroyed just about as effectively as
II they were burned up. In fact, of
the two methods of destruction, /
should prefer fire. because the rec
ords would then be destroyed bevond
possible recovery. On the other hand,
II the records are wet by the water
from the sprinkler system, we would
PROBABLY eXpend thousands Of dollars
In an effort to recover them without
satisfactory results
These records consist primarily of
the reports of the enumerators who
nave enumerated the population at
each census. They contain the name
and personal history of each person
enumerated. Thousands of searches
are made each year of these records
Tor information to be used in legal
proceedings, the decision in many
legal cases being influenced by in.
forma ton obtained from census rec.
ords. These records could not be re.
placed. They are invaluable and vet
they are housed in building of the
character indicated"
The Public Buildings Commission
several years ago, in reporting this
fire hazard to Congress and the Presi.
dent, said: "A serious fire would Ger.
ta1nly doom these valuable records of
historic and genealogic value
Stable Is Used.
The four main buildings occupied
by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, at
New Jersey avenue and 3 streets
southwest, are old and poorly adapted
to give good service. One Is con.
verted residence, a second q stable,
and third an old hotel building
These are about IS years old. There
are 16 floor levels in the group, the
different buildings being connected by
frame runways. The bureaus work
necessitates the moving from floor to
iio'i VI ooihs maps dHu cHdTtS ana
other heavy material, most of which
must be handled on the stairs and
runways, there being but one small
freight elevator for the entire plant
Consider now the United States
Patent Office Building-where the
Public Buildings Commission has
found one of its knottiest problems
in an effort to properly house this
service. The business ard industrial
interests of the whole United States
have repeatedly made an organized
demand upon Congress for improved
housing for this great service bureau