Evening star., 1955-02-20
Coffee
G. O. P. Finds Out
You Cont Change
Human Nature

UT VhtttUH SHoue
You may tempt the upper
classes
With your uillatnous DENT
tdsses,
But He1uen Dill protect
the Uorktng grill
old music hall song.
The Republican campaign
against Federal coffee drink
ing shows amazing results.
A simple comparison will
demonstrate the facts. Just
remember back two years ago
when President Eisenhower
took Office.
AS many as Is Government
workers would stand In line to
buy coffee. Secretaries stag
gered through the corridors
bearing trays filled with
steaming paper cups. At the
Pentagon alone somebody
drank a cup of coffee every
second of the working day.
Now look what Mr.. Eisen-
hover has accomplished in
two years. AS many as Is
Government workers stand in
line to buy coffee. Secretaries
stagger through the corridors
bearing trays filled with
steaming paper cups. At the
Pentagon alone somebody
drinks a cup of coffee every
second of the working day.
In other words, the cam
paign to break up coffee breaks
is q bust. The people who
have the worst coffee nerves
are the ones who try to keep
others from drinking the
brown brew.
Good Try
But Republicans made a
good try. They figured Uncle
Sans employees were spending
too much time at the snack
bar. SO they tried-futilely-
to bar snacks.
At the White House. they
also clamped down on public
smoking by stenographers. At
the Justice Department, they
ordered all the lawyers to be
at their desks by Q am.
The White House, however,
found that the stenographers
went to the ladies' room to
smoke instead Of staying at
their desks and pounding their
typewriter amid the smog. The
Justice Department found that
lawyers are an independent lot.
They have drifted back into
their old habits of working
when they thought there was
work to be done.
This must have been frus-
trating to the bosses. There
is evidence that they calmed
down by drinking coffee them
selves-not at the snack bar
where everyone could see, but
in their own Offices.
Hot Plates Multiply
In the last two years, many
new hot plates and percolators
have been installed in execu-
tive Offices. A few top men at
the Pentagon also serve minia-
ture free lunches from side
boards. Most Office perco-
lators, however, are hooked up
behind screens which conceal
the true nature of the diabol-
ical apparatus.
At the Pentagon a coffee
craving careerist can visit the
worlds largest cafeteria lay
out or any of the nine snack
bars which are installed-like
corner drugstores-Where cor
ridors intersect.
Albert c. Boehm, manager
of this enterprise. figures he
sells 10000 cups per day.
"On per capita basis,' he
says, coffee consumption
doesn't vary. They are drink
ing as much now as they were
last year and last year they
drank as much as they did the
year before"
Mr.. Boehm is q peaceful
man who doesn't want to get
into political arguments. But
he insists that coffee con-
sumption hasn't gone down
because it wasn't excessive in
the first place.
I'm private industry they all
get coffee breaks" he says.
1.-THE record of the Federal
worker Is not unfavorable to
what you find among white
collar workers In private
industry"
Emotional Problem
The steel-nerved warriors at
the Pentagon do not allow
their coffee drinking to be
Influenced by war or peace or
politicians. Some other Fed
eral workers, however, seem
to have become emotional.
That Is the report of Gov
ernment Services. Inc, which
operates AZ cafeterias and 81
snack bars in Federal build
ings here. Herbert Willet,
secretary-treasurer of the firm.
finds his total coffee sales
have cooled. That, however.
doesn't necessarily mean the
average worker spends less
time with cup in hand.
Mr.. Willet attributes part
of the decline to the drop In
the number Of Federal EN-
ployes. He estimates that per
capita consumption was about
the same in 1851, 1852 and
1858.
In 1858, he sold 27.1 million
cups Of Java. Last year, sales
dropped to 21.7 million.
D.:-n Lee EfEne%