Evening star., 1932-01-03
COMMERCE OFFICES
EMPTY IN OPENING
Only Few viii Be Ready for
Informal Rites To-
morrow.

Although a feet of more than so
motor trucks and an army OF men nave
been tackling the equipment IN SIX OF
the bureaus of the Commerce Depart
ment in an effort to have everything In
readiness for tomorroW'S Scheduled IN
formal opening of the departments S
SIT 100000 new building, which forms
the base of the Federal Triangle, nut
few Offices will be ready for occupancy
tomorrow morning at 8 O'Clock.
In view of this delay, which officials
blame on the failure of a contracting
firm to employ an adequate force OF
moving men, all employees have peen
ordered to report to their old bureau
buildings tomorrow unless they nave
been otherwise directed by their bureau
chiefs during the last 48 hours.
At midnight last night only one-ha!1 OF
the equipment in the old executive once
building, Nineteenth street and Penn
sylvania avenue, had been moved INTO
the new building, while vans were stlll
moving back and forth between the new
Temple of Fact-Finding" and the other
old bureau buildings.
officials expressed the belief yeSter-
day that by tomorrow night the moving
contractors will have the major part OF
the equipment for the administrative
offices, Aeronautics Branch, Bureau OF
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Bu-
reau of Fisheries and Bureau OF Mines
in place.
Only a small part of the vast amount
of equipment and records of the Patent
Office has been touched by the moving
men, and the 1,485 employees OF TINS
bureau will not be transferred to the
new building until about January ~.
Bv Tuesday the old executive ONCE
building is expected to be emptled, ana
one contractor will turn his force on
the moving of part of the Census Bu-
reau. The major portion of this bu-
reau's equipment will not be touched
until the early part of Spring, when the
last battalion of temporary workers,
employed to compile the 1880 census
figures, will be dismissed.
Four to Move Wednesday.
On Wednesday the moving men will
concentrate their Drawn upon the
equipment of the Bureau Of Light
houses. the Airways Division, the bu-
reau of Navigation and the Steamboat
Inspection Service. 1t is estimated that
employees in these divisions will not be
ordered to report to the new building
before next Monday.
On Saturday, January 16, the big job
of moving the equipment OF the Coast
and Geodetic Survey Bureau VIII get
under way Part of the heavy equip
ment of this branch is already in the
new building, including three printing
presses used for publishing ocean and
air navigation maps.
On Monday, January 25. the Radio
Divisions equipment will be placed In
the hands of the moving men. BY this
time the last of the Patent Office equip
ment is expected to reach the new
building
1t is estimated that the department,
not including the Census Bureau. will
not be funCtioning normally Until about
the first week in February.
Already observers have picked sew
eral flaws in the great temple OF truth,
dedicated to the enlarging the science as
we'll as the practice of business.
The principal criticism is that the
architects devoted too much attention
to exterior beauty and not enough to
the natural flow of light into the in
terror. AS the result many Of the Of
fees will have to be illuminated arti-
f1ciasly at all times especially the quar-
terS of the Accountant Division.
Much Storage Space.
1t was also pointed out by observers
that the architects, in an effort to pre-
serve the beauty of the building from
the outside created thousands of square
feet of space which can be used only
for storage purpose of the sixth floor
of the SeVen-floor building. TWo-thirdS
Of the space on the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth streets side on this floor of
the building cannot be put to any use
full purpose except for storage. Ample
room for storage was also provided for
in other sections of the structure.
This is particularly important in view
of the numerous complaints registered
by bureau chiefs and minor officials
who were assigned private offces in
their old quarters. They will now have
to occupy space in the large working
rooms with other employees, or in rooms
divided off into stalls by removable
partitions.
The first department official to oc-
cupy an office in the new building was
Edward w. Libbey, chief clerk. He was
busy at work yesterday morning at his
desk on the sixth floor Across the
hallway from his office, members OF his
staff were busily engaged With their
daily routine.
Mr.. Libbey is one of the Oldest en-
ployes of this department He is now
ending his tWenty-seventh year. He
entered the service of the department
as a telephone operator There were 26
telephones connected with his switch
board at that time. Three doors from
his office in the new building is one Of
the finest equipped telephone exchanges
in the country. total OF 1900 tele-
phones have already been connected to
the big switchboard, which Is hooked
I'D with the central Office of the CheSa-
peake & Potomac Telephone 20. py
80 trunk lines. other Government de-
partments are connected by 40 tie lines.
500 Calls an Hour.
Telephone users served by the de-
partment switchboard yesterday made
more than 500 calls an hour and IN
excess of 10000 daily, according 10 MISS
Anna M Hook, chief operator, VINO
was the second young woman employed
on the departments SWltcnooaTo
The department'S new telephone dl-
rpctorv is larger than those published
for Subscribers in small cities In as
signing numbers to the new telephone
system, the various bureaus in so lar as
possible have been, grouped In 100 or
200 blocks Of numbers For example,
the tplenhones connected with the ex-
change from 800 to 399 will serve the
Pirasu of Mines. from 400 to 499 Bu-
rean ~ FISHERIES. Navigation and
Steamboat Inspection; the 800 block
will take care of the administrative
offices: 600, aeronautics, airWays ana
light houses. 700, Coast and Geodetlc
Survey; 21OO, 22O0 and $500 Bureau
Of If Foreign S2 IA and Domestic Commerce;
260O and and 200, Bureau of Census