Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20
Capital Sidelights
by WILL KENNEDY.

Of tireless, wiry energy, live wire with
a square-set, fighting jaw; piercing,
kindly eyes ever searching human mo-
tives from behind tortoise-shell glasses;
high forehead affording ample space for
an active, analytical brain-that's q
| word sketch by one Of the we'll known
, Washington correspondents that George
Rossiter Farnum, assistant attorney gen.
eral, can't get away from. Whether he
| is battling the claims of German own
| eTS of vessels interned during the war
or refusing to intercede in the Sacco-
| VanZetti case, or presiding at recep-
/ ton by the Massachusetts State Society
| (of which he is PRESIDENT, or denying
| that he is a candidate for Attorney Gen
| eral in the Hoover cabinet, this human
| dynamo in the Department Of Justice
who worked his way through Boston
! University law school as a brakeman on
| the Boston q Maine Railroad, some one
comes along and reminds him OF this
pen and ink sketch. Few men have SC
| impressed themselves on official Wash
! ington in two years time. by dlnt OF
work we'll done through tirelesS effort
and Farnum enjoys social evening by
way of relaxation. He is now arranging
CATION in Congress and all the old
neighbors in the Bay State.
x 4
washington is yeritable beehive OF
experts who are extremely busy doing
unusual things that amaze the common
run of people. Take DIR. c. G. Abbot
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
| ton, who is specializing on studies oil
| the radiation of the sun and OF the
stars. The other day he amazed mem
berS of the House appropriations COM
mittee by describing how he takes the
heat from star, collecting 1t with the
great 100-inch telescope at Mount Will
son, Calf, and measuring the heat IN
its spectrum. One of the most dunn
| founding assertions he made was thai
this work was done with an instrument
| composed of the wings of common
| houSefly. 1t was so exceedingly DELI
cate that the wings of single housefiy
would be sufficient to make half dozen
| of those instruments.
With such an instrument, DR.: Ab'
bot saws, he was not only able tC
observe the heat of the star but TN
| distribution of that heat in the dit
ferent colors of the spectrum. He say
he himself was surprised to receive
word from Dr. Henry Norris Russell
director of the observatory at Prince
| ton, who advised him that there wa
| nothing he could do that would b.
| more important in the eyes of scien
tific men than to carry on this STUDY
of the distribution in the spectrum
of the radiation of the stars.
X 4 X
Another little stunt that is beint
| IL fI1a nf
national map of the world on the mil
lionth scale. A conference was held II
Europe last Summer of the various
nations interested to discuss the feast
bility of this undertaking. The Amer
lean delegation included E. Lester
! Jones director of the United State
Coast and Geodetic Survey, and MI
Boggs, the State Departments photog
rapher The plan as outlined to Con
| gresS by Wilbur j. Carr, assistant Sec
rotary of State, is for each country Il
send maps of the territory under IT
jurisdiction to the central bureau TO
criticism and Standardization.
The membership of the United
States is desirable in order that the
American Government may have U.s.
of the maps of the other portions o
the world, not included in American
It is considered most desirable ant
advantageous that this Government
should adhere to the central bureau
not only for military and naval rea'
sons, but also for commercial, geograph'
ical and geological reasons as WELL
The American portion of the interna-
tional map of the world is being pre-
pared by the United States Coast anc
| -Geodetic Survey with the help OF the
geographer of the State Department
| The State Department submits the
maps as they are completed to the
central bureau. which Is located II
| Southampton, England.
X y x X
There are now 56s,7l5 employees ir
| the United States civil service, according
| to a statement just submitted to Con-
gress. OF these 81 1888 are in Washing
| tton-36 843 men and 24,545 women
and 507,327 are in what is called ''tht
| field service" outside of Washington
452,034 of these being men and 1929;
i women.
| The. largest number of employees L
| in the postal service-3l0 .935-and thi:
does not include 34,305 clerks a
| fourth class Offices who are employed
and paid by the postmaSterS and 22,27t
mail messengers The Treasury De-
partment comes next with 51,507 EN-
ployes and the War Department thirC
with 45,408.
In the District of Columbia the
Treasury Department has the larges
number of employees, 1888. and TIT
Navy Department second with 6,637
the Department of Agriculture thirC
with 4,884 and the Department O
Commerce fourth with 4,621. Thu
White House has IS employees under
civil service-42 men and women.
| " * X
The Medical and Surgical History o
the World War has been written. Tn
revised proofs on the last volume hav
been sent to the Government Printing
Office. There are in all II volumes
This little job will be entirely completed
by the War Department before the Close
of the fiscal year. In all $500 sets ar
being printed and distributed to librarie
and to limited extent in foreign coun
tries. Each Army Hospital is to have I
set.
| ------------------------------