Evening star., 1938-06-12
They Work for the Future;
New, Day May Bring Dividends
w. P. A. White Collar Jobs Which Often Seem
Futile Have Possibilities of Big Returns
for Other Generations.

"a
Such, for example, has been the mammoth
statistical job undertaken jointly by the
Bureau Of Home Economics and the Bureau
Of Labor Statistics to get a clear picture
of Just how the American people live. In
come data has been gathered bv workers
IN the field on $4,000 families, fair cross
section OF the population OF the United
States. The job has afforded intermittent
employment to 5000 throughout the coun-
try and to between 100 and 200 continu-
ously in Washington.
Because of the work it is now possible
to tell, for the first time in any country.
just how much the average citizen makes,
how it is made and what it is spent for
This particular group has been the road
builders. They have chopped down the
trees and hewn out a roadbed through a
very dense wilderness The permanent
settlers who will build cities at the end of
the road are to come in the future.
Stock Taken on Health.
Another outstanding job accomplished
on Federal relief money and directed from
Washington is the great national health
survey conducted by thousands Of workers
under the direction of the National Insti-
tute of Health. It has been a compre-
hensive physical examination of the Am
srican people. These workers have hewn
broad road into the promised land of
longer and richer living
There are two white collar projects in
the Office of the recorder of deeds which
promise to return very considerable divi-
dends for years to come and officials there
are quite enthusiastic over the progress
that has been made and the efficiency of
the typists and clerks furnished them.
The first of these is the rather stagger-
ing job OF copying all the Districts land
records. Many of the original papers. dat
ing back well over a century, are in ex-
tremely dilapidated condition. The job
of making clean copies of them sooner or
later was inevitable. W. P. A. was a well
come answer to the problem of how to do
it. The result to date, according to officials
of the deeds office, has been approximately
s300,000 gift to the District of Columbia
1t would have cost that much and more
to have had the work done by full-time
typists employed at a standard wage scale.
Henceforth it will not be necessary to
consult the original papers except in cases
of dispute and they can be preserved for
posterity safe from handling and the dam
aging influence of light.
Property Gard -Indexed.
The second project is even more am
bitious-that of making a lot-and-square
card index Of every bit of property in the
District. 1t will result, deeds Office officials
say, in reducing the labor of searching titles,
| by at least rs per cent and simplify it
to the point where any attorney and any
intelligent layman can get the whole his
tory of piece of real estate in day at
the most
Hitherto there has been in use
"grantor-g grantee card index which has
been very complicated to use and in las
years has been. changed at least Is times
Under the new system every reference to,
any property will be filed in sequence under
the square and lot number.
These two jobs have kept about 300 per-
sons busy for more than two years.
1t is also rather difficult to put any money
value on the talking books" project of the
Library of Congress. Up to date it has in
volved the expenditure of nearly a million
dollars, much of which, however, has gone
for work relief in New York State A COM
plete book can be reproduced on a special
sort of phonograph disk, about 5000 words
to record, for the use of the blind. To
date approximately 125 copies each of 100
classics have been produced in this way
and are distributed on a loan library sys-
tenn to the blind Of the United States from
81 distributing points. 20
This sort of book is extremely expensive.
For example, the latest product is Char
lotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which has about
100000 words. The 125 copies cost about
s3,5o0, or more than s25 copy.