Evening star., 1929-10-06
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

John Edgar Hoover, who represents
the United States Department of JUS
tice In making a new investigation of
the local Police Department called
suicide" and the Federal grand jury
has called murder" is one of those effi-
cient ofIicials In the Government service
whose advancement proves that "you
don't need pull in Washington"
His job in the Department of Justice
is special assistant to the Attorney Gen.
eral and director Of the Bureau of In
vestigation. William J. Burns old job.
This man Hoover 16 years ago was a
messenger IN the Library of Congress,
entered the Department of Justice IL
years ago as a Junior file clerk at q
salary Of 1890. He now receives $500,
having climbed up to the head of a
bureau that has an annual appropria-
ton of something like $2,000,0O0 and a
personnel of 600.
He has general charge of the investi-
cation of alleged offenseS against the
laws of the United States, except coun-
terfeiting and prohibition. He directs
also the work Of the special agents en-
ployed in detecting crimes and collect
ing evidence for use in proposed or
pending suits or prosecutions.
The 200 survivors of the Sd United
States Volunteer Engineers who served
in the war with Spain under Col. David
DuBose Gaillard, who built the Gaillard
Cut of the Panama Canal, are receiving
an interesting souvenir.
Luther Ely Smith of ST. Louis, who
served as lieutenant under Col. Gaillard,
conceived the idea of sending the year.
books of the survivors organization to
James A. Hess, one Of the survivors,
who worked with Gaillard on the canal
cut and who is now at Pedro Miguel,
Canal Zone, working for the United
States Government on locks operation,
who has mailed them to the survivors,
bearing stamp carrying the portrait
Of Col. Gaillard and postmarked from
the scene OF his great engineering
achievement.
Mr. Hess is a brother of George W.
Hess, director of the United States Bo-
tanic Garden. and is now a visitor in
the National Capital. Among the noted
survivors of that famous engineer outfit
is Maj. Gen. Edgar Jadwin, who re-
Gently retired as chief of engineers,
United States Army, and who was also
diers' Home, a member of the Federal
Oil Conservation Commission and a
member of the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission, which has
developed the most stupendouS plan
ever attempted for establishment OF
any capital city. He was lieutenant
colonel of the engineer company under
Col. Gaillard during the war with Spain.
Another Is Col C. w. Sturtevant. who
was appointed by former President
Coolidge as a member OF the Mississippi
River Control Board.
The survivors have erected memo
rial tablet to Gaillard at the Gaillard
Cut, and at the ceremony Of unveiling
the tablet Mr.. Hess spoke for the old
engineer regiment.
Frank H. Funk. who nearly twoscore
years ago was famous throughout the
country as a member of the Yale foot
ball team, who is best known through
out the agricultural section as the
originator Of Funks famous seed corn
and who some few years ago held the
purse strings for the National Capital
as chairman of the subcommittee that
drafted the appropriation bill for the
District Of Columbia, Is trying TO stage
a comeback.
Mr., Funk has announced himself as
a candidate for Congress at large" from
Illinois, that State having two seats In
the National House in addition to those
from the Is congressional districts
Mrs. Medill Mccormick, who now occu-
pies one of these "at large" seats. has
announced herself as a candidate for
the Senate. The other lat large" seat Is
occupied by former Gov. Richard Yates
who claims that while he was a boy
Lincoln patted his head.
Mr.. Funks father was in Congress In
the years l893-95. He has had a long
and varied career in public life-na-
tional, State and local-and served
in the House from 1921 to 1927.
HI" Is the grandson OF Isaac Funk
who settled in FunkS Grove in 1924, mn
family having been among the earliest
settlers in Illinois and prominent II
farming. live stock, banking and politics
for more than q century. Mr.. Funk
owns and operates a famous 2,200-acre
farm, 3la miles long and mile wide.
which he runs on scientific lines.
One of his special hobbies is the Ben.
jamin Funk School, named for hi.
father, which is located on his farm or
land donated by him, the plant includ.
ing Fairgrounds and agricultural expert
mental plots. This school has teach
ers, 125 pupils, 3 inclosed buses fol
transporting the children. cottages fol
principal and janitor, a large audito.
rum and a three-year high schoo
| course. This rural school, which is
miles from the nearest town, now serve.
| as model for other districts.
X y **
LEST we forget"
! New York, himself q physician, calleC
attention of Congress to the fact that il
was the seventy-fifth anniversary of thu
| birth of Gen. William C. Gorgas. "whost
| ministry Of science was an internationa
boom"
He went to Cuba during the Spanish
War to combat yellow fever, and left tht
island in 1902, practically free of tina
| disease.
| Through systematic campaign
against the mosquito he virtually drov'
malaria and yellow fever from the 18th
mus OF Panama, thus contributing
largely to the completion Of that dream
| OF centuries-the Panama Canal.
1t was Gorgas who took the Waite
Reed theory of the transmission O.
yellow fever and gave it practical appli
cation, and new world of productivit,
! was made available to the human race.
In 1914 Gen. GorgaS became Surgeon
Genera! OF the Army. and during tn,
world War he organized a system O
strict physical examination of all mill
tary applicants. Under his supervisor
more than 1000, 600 young men wer,
examined, of whom $500 600 were in
| quoted into the service. Never befor,
was physically finer army put into tn,
neld OF battle. and never before was ,
oooy OF troops kept in such excellen
physical condition.
A Gorgas memorial laboratory ha
been established in Panama, in which
concentrated and constructive effor
10 outlaw disease is being made.
symoolizes the new spirit of interna
tlonal cooperation in the attack upor
tne universal enemy of mankind-dis.