Evening star., 1936-11-15
By John Clagen Proctor.

4" Ing 70 De Dig town! In
deed, 1t reminds US Of what
u the country bo- aid when
he first saw New York-he couldn't
see the city for the houses-and soon
we will not be able to see anything in
Washington but houses. Naturally,
the last few years. the city's growth
Is due in large measure to the or
ganizing of O large number Of new
Federal branches and bureaus and a
corresponding increase, of course, in
Government employees.
In years gone by, when q new
branch Of the Government was start
ed, we hardly noticed any increase in
population because of that fact, but
not so now, for today when it is
decided to open up o new Federal
activity, new. large corps Of em-
ployes is engaged, and soon even the
casual observer notices the added num-
Der Of workers in the city.
OF course, the Government is grow
Ing bigger and bigger all the time, and
we accordingly notice it all the more,
but then We must expect this, for
after all the United States is not
the little Republic Of 100000 1t was
when the Government moved here in
1900 and when the City of Phila-
delphia, from which 1t moved, had
population Of only $4,000.
At this time the executive depart
ments included only the Department
OF State, Department Of the Treasury,
Department Of War, the Attorney
General, Postmaster General and the
Department of the Navy. The Treas
ury then had on its rolls 50 employees,
the Navy Is, the War Department
1s and the Post Once Department,
including the Postmaster General and
his assistant, just Q persons.
But we have grown considerably
since then, and with our 12z000, 900
people, more or less, we can but expect
the Government to employ an army
of workers to look after our many
needs.
HOWEVER, though this growth ex-
tends back to the beginning of
the Republic, yet much of it has oc-
CURED within the recollection of those
living, who can remember when there
was no Department of Agriculture
until 1889, no Department Of Com
merce and Labor until 1903, and when
this latter department was separated
into two departments in 1918. And so
1t Is with many of the Federal bu-
Teaus begun within more recent years
and which have grown into great i'm
portance. AL Of which reminds the
writer Of a gentleman he met the
other day and whom he first became
acquainted with about 1884, just after
he had graduated from high school
and was working in the bird depart-
ment Of the Smithsonian Institution
and who. in 1885, went with the Fish
Commission.
Dr.. Hugh M. Smith is the name Of
the gentleman referred to, q native Of
this city, q descendant Of several gen.
erations Of Washingtonians before
him and member of the Association
Of Oldest Inhabitants. A graduate of
Georgetown University Medical School,
he received his M. D. degree in 1888
and was given the honorary LII. D. by
Dickinson College in 1908.
His ancestors settled in the District
Of Columbia at an early period. His
great-grandfather on his paternal
dde. Daniel Smith,. was born N
Georgetown in 1900, and married
there Ann Harvey. A unique relic,
still preserved by DR.. Smith, is sin
gle slipper worn by his great-grand-
mother in 1914, at the time Of the in
vasion Of Washington by the British,
the other one having been stuck in the
mud when she was running down Cap
ttol Hill, in which section she had
been visiting in order to get away
from the enemy. The slipper, still
preserved and which was bought in
Alexandria, has the price mark of 8
shillings and pence.
Another of DR.. Smiths ancestors
was Robert r. Hazard, a city in
spector Of wells in the early days. Prior
70 coming to Washington he lived at
Wakefield, Va, and his daughter-Dr.
Smiths ancestress-was born there.
In the Fish Commission we first find
DR.. Smith holding a high Office in
1894, when he was made assistant in
charge Of the division of statistics and
methods Of the fisheries. In 1908,
when the commission was taken from
the Smithsonian and placed under the
newly formed Department of Com
merce and Labor, he becace the deputy
commissioner and in 1914 he was ele-
waited to be the commissioner, the Of.
nee he held when he left the service
in 1922.
"A 8 AN ennploye Of the National Mu-
scum for many years the writer
Smith, who was stationed in the old
Museum Building for q while, and he
also acquired o certain amount Of
knowledge about the early history Of
the Bureau Of Fisheries, now under the
control Of the Department Of Com
merce, and became acquainted with
many of those who worked in that
branch Of the service.
The Bureau of Fisheries was estab-
hshed in 1871 for the purpose Of in
vestigating the causes of the alleged
diminution Of the fishes Of the coun-
try and of carrying on the work Of
increasing the supply Of food fishes
in waters belonging to the United
States. Eleven years later, we are
told that extensive operations in fish
culture are prosecuted yearly in AL
bermarle Sound, at Havre de Grace,
Md; on the Sacramento River, Cali
fornia, and the Penobscot River,
Maine, where the commission has sta
tions, and many will recall the carp
ponds on the Monument lot, which
were under the direction Of the
bureau.
Even several years before this estab-
1ishment was regularly provided for,
Congress made at least two small ap-
propriations for conducting investiga-