Evening star., 1930-11-30
Capital Sidelights
BY w1LL p. KENNEDY.


The dozen or more new members OF
Congress who are coming into the
House to fill vacancies have been
scurrying around to get acquainted
throughout the Government service
anA to learn the ropes" so as to be
able to give the best service to their
constituents. They are finding out a
surprising lot of things the Govern
ment is doing and acquiring some
amazing bits of information CLEANED
from the experts and specialists who
have devoted their lives to working for
Uncle Sam in an effort to improve the
condition of their fellow men.
Representative William j. Granfield
of Springfield, Mass, who came in as
a Democratic victor from a rock-ribbed
Republican district in the last session
OF Congress, says that in all his ex-
perience as an athlete in training he
never had so much "leg work" and
hard physical endurance tests as In
making the rounds" in the National
Capital, doing all the little errandS
that his voters back home requested.
He said, also, that never in a similar
period of only a few months had he
run into so much valuable general IN
formation that he Just had to assin-
ilate-so that his brief experience in
Congress has given him a broad bulk
OF useful information. He is now back
on the job adding to his store of post
graduate erudition in Uncle Sans big
university Of knowledge.
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Then there is e. w. Goss, the new
Republican member from Connecticut
who nils the vacancy caused by the
death on a train of Rev. James P.
Glynn. who had been attending a COL
leagues funeral. Here are a few stray
bits of varied information regarding
the activities of one Federal depart
ment that came across his desk one
day:
"A rat may be worth as much as
$500 or $400 in some cases. an official
in the Biological Survey of the De-
partment of Agriculture old him. "At
least, 1T would have been worth that
much to have a certain individual rat
exterminated," he added, showing the
records OF merchant who had grad
ually killed of all the rats in his
store except one old gray-beard who
evaded all traps and decoys and
poisoned bait. A check-up showed that
this single rat did more than $500
damage.
Next we learned that more than TO-
100000 acres Of land in ~ States were
surveyed during the last fiscal year BY
the soil survey division, working under
the direction Of DR.. Henry G.. knight
chief OF the Bureau of Chemistry and
Soils, who explained that this survey
was OF great Importance in the fmmedi-
ate future because of the unprecedented
adjustment taking place in agriculture
and because it supplies the information
upon which the Nations inevitable land
classification must be based.
Then he heard q human-interest ami
NAL story about wolf attacking a Carl
bou and becoming ingloriously impale6
on the horns Of a big bull after having
terrorized Santa Claus timid reindeers
slaughtering them right and left. The
caribou was unable to free himself from
the mortally wounded enemy upon his
horns and, unable to run, walked about
for days with bowed head endeavorine
to knock of the burden against each
tree as he passed.
Representative Goss heard also the
story of o. NJ Pratt, a lumberman Of
Holderness, N. H., who for 80 years has
been growing his trees as a permanent
crop, practicing practical and profitable
forestry, as reported by j. c. Kircher
regional forester of the United States
Forest Service. Today Mr.. Pratt ranks
as an authority on growing timber fol
profit. He started when technical for
eStry was in its infancy and now has
1900 acres OF timber which he Is man.
aging for continuous production. At his
little sawmill he recently demonstrated
to Federal foresters how pruning con-
verted the butt log from knotty lumber
worth $50 per thousand, to clear lum-
ber, worth $50. He has found also that
his hardwoods mixed in with pines yield
a good profit when cut into apple bar
rel slaves.
Then he was shown the correspond
ence between Yuen-ting Yeh of the
ministry of industry, commerce and
labor, Republic Of China, with the Fed
eral Food and Drug Administration In
Washington, which disclosed impress
sively how the Federal tea act assures
the United States of quality product
whereas only few years ago this coun-
try was the dumping ground FOR the
worlds worst tea. DR.. A. e. Taylor, In
charge of the administrations import
Office, showed the new Representative
that so impressive has been this bit OF
legislation that today the United States
denies entry to very little tea, because
the producers know it must be up to
strict standards. More than 84,0O0, ,00C
pounds of tea were examined during the
fiscal year ended June 80 last Only
about 207, 900 pounds were rejected be-
cause of inferior quality and but 800
pounds because they failed to meet the
administrations standards Of purity.