Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10
Capital Sidelights

| Uncle Sam, whom we all love, thinks
bit slowly sometimes, and that the
more than half a million civil service
employees may ever keep green in their
memories the long and faithful serv-
ices OF the pioneers for retirement
| legislation, J. G. Bowen, chief stats
tician for the Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics. offered a few interesting
| thoughts at the meeting Of the Fed
eral Club.
! 1t took Uncle Sam 100 years TO
realize that keeping trained and eff.
ficjent men on the job was far bet
| ter business policy than turning out
good. bad and indifferent clerks with
change of administration and putting
others in as reward for some ones
ability to round up votes, he points
| out.
| After the establishment Of the civil
I service, under which permanency of
tenure, with appointment and pro.
motion on merit. have improved the
| tone and efficiency of the Government
service, it took another 40 years for
| Uncle Sam to realize that clerks lose
their efficiency in varying degrees be.
cause of old age and decrepitude. and
these two words are not synonymous
| Furthermore. he had to learn that
executives had heart and would not
| turn out on the hills of poverty an
old clerk who had served long and
faithfully, as long as the clerk could
| get to his Office and sit at his desk.
and that these old clerks were pro.
tected from even a reduction in SALARY
| Government employees and execu-
| tives realized the need for a retire
ment law long before Uncle Sam did
| Some 80 years ago there was q Civil
Service Retirement Association, COM
posed of Government employees work
ing for retirement law, with Jacob
| Starr leading the way. Later Lew
ellyn Jordan became the wheel horse
| In that association. Still later, John
Beach. now in charge of the retirement
work in the Pension Bureau, and 9TH
ers took up the work.
| Most excellent work was done by
| Herbert ID. Brown nearly 20 years ago
In the preparation of reports concern
| ing the retirement systems in foreign
countries.
Much has been done for years by
| the Bureau of Labor Statistics in col
Letting and publishing information
concerning workmen's insurance and
| old age pensions operated by foreign
| countries and maintained by private
employers In the United States and
abroad
At last Uncle Sam began to think
and we have our very belated retire
| ment law. 1t Is patchwork of COM
promises, but it is start for which
every Government employee with gray
hair, or no hair at all, should be thank
full. Even 10 years ago there were at
least 80 foreign countries that had re-
tirement provisions for civil employees,
from Great Britain. Germany and
France. to Argentine, Egypt, Persia
and little Luxembourg. Further, hun
dreds of railroads. banks. insurance
companies, and Industrial plants in
the United States have put retirement
systems into operation.
DR.. Osler is credited with a state
fnent to the effect that when a man
reaches 60 he should be gently put out
of existence and his place on earth
given TO some one else.
DR.. Osler, of course, was a josher.
but he certainly sold his idea that
many men begin to break in strength
and vigor when they reach so.
How well do you know your historic
Washington?
Do you know that the only armed
defense in the District Of Columbia
against the invasion of the British in
1914 was at the northeast corner of
Second street and Maryland avenue
northeast, diagonally across from the
site on which the new Supreme Court
Building Is to be erected?
Do you know that the riverside
recreation park, Marshall Hall, on
the east bank OF the Potomac River,
opposite Mount Vernon, was the home
Of Thomas Hanson Marshall, who
served under Washington during the
War OF the Revolution, and that Capt.
John Smith visited this place in 1903.
and that there was the last home of
the Indian chief Powhatan?
DO YOU know that on the Virginia
shore near the Chain Bridge is where
the duel took place between Henry
Clay and John Randolph, April s,
1926?
DO you know that at the Little Falls
OF. the Potomac, below the rapids near
the ruins of Eads' Mill. was the final
outlet of the old Potomac Canal,
established by George Washington,
and that the outlet locks may be seen
in state of ruin?
Do you know that at the Great
Falls are the ruins OF this canal, with
several of the old lock pits in a fair
state of preservation?
Do you know that In the United
States Naval Observatory, on the
heights near Georgetown, the astro
nomtcal calculations of the United
States Navy are made, and that 1t
was here with a 26-inch equatorial
telescope that Asaph Hall made his
discovery of the moons of Mars?
DO you know that the Bureau of
Fisheries Building, at Sixth street
southwest, on the Mall, was the ar
mory where were stored the arms and
ammunition furnished to the troops
of the District of Columbia for three
months service in 1851.
Do you know that Argyle place,
west of Piney Branch road. is the
site of a stone quarry worked by the
aboriginal Indians, and that remains
OF their work are still to be found in
that vicinity?
Do you know that Walter Reed
General Hospital was named in honor
of Gen. Walter Reed, who risked his
life in demonstrating that yellow fever
germs were communicated to man
through the medium of mosquitoes?
Here were cheltered many Confeder-
ate soldiers during the engagement
Of July 11-12, 1864. In the grounds is
the "Sharpshooters' Tree" used as a
signal station by Confederate soldiers
during Gen. Jubal Early's attack on
Washington.
Do you know that at the Soldiers
Home, on the hills three miles north
Of the Capitol, the Presidents Cot.
tage" was the Summer home Of Lin
coin, including July, 1864, during the
siege of Washington?
Do you know that in Rock Creek
Cemetery, northeast of the Soldiers
Home, some of the most celebrated
men in Washington's history are
buried-such as Mayor Peter Force
and Gov. Shepherd? Here also is the
beautiful bronze memorial to Mrs.
Henry Adams, designed by st.
Gaudens. Here is st. Paul's Chapel.
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