Evening Star Newspaper, September 12, 1926, Page 83

Queries for “Franklin 7112” Continue Despite Ban on Time Service N Western Union Operators Kept Busy + | Telling Washington . Public Their Office Is No Longcr Able to Regu]ate Clocks and Watches—How the Staff Knew Wh en There Were Bargain Days in Town—One Cabinet Officer Was a Regular Patron of | Service—Meeting De- ‘ mands of Procession of Family Men Home- ward Bound Late at Night—Chief Oper- ator Has Sun&ay School Record of Na- tional Importance. BY REX COLLIER. HEN officials_of the West- ern Unlon Telegraph Co. | decided recently to discon. | tinue the custom of giving | the time over the tele. | phone to any who might ask they congratulated themselves upon the solving of a large problem. Their troubles, they mused, were ended As a matter of fact, their troubl n this respect were only heginning. And in an aggravated, triple-distilled form, so to speak. Telling the curfous public what time it is, they now are inclined to opine, is a “cinch” compared to the onerous task of trying to tell the same curious public just why the company cannot now answer the once familiar que “Correct time, please?” Despite the wide publicity given the company's announcement of its change in policy, the phone girls on the eighth floor of the Western Union offices, at Fourteenth and G streets, are besieged still with requests—nay, demands—for the time. Washington just doesn’t seem con- vinced that the Western Unlon reall meant what it said when it ralsed | the barrier against time questions. Every one seems to think that a| little carefully conceived argumenta- | tion will win the girls over. either| by bringing them to the point of tears | or by scaring them with threats of | what might happen if they don't respond. The turned vored have | fia- | | | | | former requests now into pleas or demands. with amusing cajolery, but the face of it all the adamant op erators hold _steadfastly to their ground and refuse to divulge the cov- eted information. Advised of the new rule agalnst glving the time, the inquirer will launch into a long explanation of why he or she. of all persons, should be specially favored “just th@ once.” Trains #nd medicine are at the root of a majority of the reasons cited in MISS ETHEL THE WASHINGTON OFFI THE ST'NDAY WAKEFIELD, CHIEF TELEPHONE OPERATOR OF S OF THE WESTERN UNION. SHE __HANDLES THE MAJOR SHARE OF CALLS AND “TIME INQUIRIES” as entitling these persistent persons to abrogation of the ban. “Judged by the number of calls we got the day after we abolished the time service, two-thirds of the citizens of the National Capital must have been catching trains,” Miss Ethel Wakefield, chief “P. B. X.” op- erator of the Western Union offices here, declares. “Nearly all of them sald they were leaving town on the next train, and wouldn't we give them the correct time in view of that, " Miss Wake- field said. “A Iot of them must have missed their trains by arguing so long with us, when they could just ag well have consulted a reliable clock somewhere. Not one of them got the information wanted. either. ‘A number of women called in and explained that !t was absolutely nec essary to have the correct time in order to give a very sick patient his medicine. That's an old one to us. however, and it didn't work once. All they got in reply were regrets.” ] ISS WAKEFIELD proved that she is just as quick-witted as a certain gentleman who employed a novel method of cajolery the other day in an unsuccessful effort to catch her off her guard and-thys learn the time in spite of the rules. Ts this Western Wnion?”” the man inquired naively “Yes.” came the reply. Well, can vou tell me the difference in time between Washington and Lin- coln, Nebr.?” the voice pursued. “One hour difference,” Miss Wake- field said. “One hour, eh? What time would that make it now in Lincoln?” “Exactly one hour earlier than it is here,” she responded without hesi- tation. The man broke into a laugh. “It wouldn’t work, after all” concluded, hanging up. Miss Wakefield, who had charge of “he time calls, said that these inquiries | at times flooded the switchboards at | the rate of 20 a minute. At the peak of the rush as many as five operators wer® required to handle these calls |alone. Sometimes the nine trunk lines assigned to this service were un- able to care for the load, and the cen- | tral telephone operators then would iplug the overflowing time inquiries to the regular business lines of the mpany, to the detriment of bona fide telegram traffic. It was this oftrecurring ‘“spill- over” problem that led company offi- cials to aholish the time information | service altogether, according to C. H. | Dexter, traffic manager for Wash- | ington. The rush perigds occurred most fre- quently during school terms and on “bargain days,” Mr. Dexter said. School children seldom seemed to depend on the family clock for time advice, he declares, always depending on “Western Union” to get them to | classes on time. The operators were he MONUMENT was erected at Andersonviile, Ga., in memory ‘apt. Henry Wirz by yrgia_division, United ers of the Confedaracy, and was unveiled May 12, 1903, by Gledys Perrin, a little girl, grandchild of Henry Wirz and child of Mrs. J. B. Perrin of Natchez, Miss., a daugh- ter of Hen 1 have taken | facts concern monument from | a pamphlet on the titie page of which | is this: “Facts an gures Versus | Myths and Misrep ations. Henry Wirz and the Andersonville Prison. Mildred_Lewis Lutherford, Atianta, | Ga.” The pamphiet was loaned me | by Miss Lizzie Worsley of Ieesburg. The monument is inscribed an four sides and the Inscriptions follow: First—“In memory of Cupt. lenr W C. 8. A., Born Zurich, Switz land, 1822. Senienced to_death and executed at Washington, D. C., Nov. 10, 1865. To rescue his name from the stigma attached to it by embit- tered prejudice, this shaft i3 erected by the Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy. Second—"Discharging his duty with | such humanity as the harsh circum: | stances of the times and the policy of | the foe permitted, Capt. Wirz became | at last the victim of a misdirected | popular He was arrested in | time of while < & ;| tection of - demned to | tary commiss he ‘did not belon n charges of 1 priso on_condition_that he would rinate President Davis, and thus | b from charges of | h were nocent.” It is hard on our men held | ern prisons not to exchange | it is h ty 1o those left | s to fight our battles. At ‘ticular time to release all| prisoners North would insure | n's defeat and would | safety here. ULY Aug. 18, 1864, " " *When time shall have| S ion and preiudice, when | reason shall have stripped the mask of srepresentation, then Justice, bolding even her scales, will require much censure and_praise to "ERSON DAVIS. | | w who thought first of monument in memory of but my record shows| g of Savan-| ng resolutions the United Confederacy at | that Mrs nah offer at th Daugt Macon “Wh mandant stockade Andersonville, Ga. was murdered under false chargee to prisoners; and an interval of 40 vears gl se charges are reit- erated on signboards in public place. from the pulpit and on monuments: Therefore, be it “Resolved, That the United Daugh-, ters of the Confederacy in Georgia use thelr influence to obtain the necessary | funds to place a suitable memorial to Capt. Wirz in Andersonvtlle, Ga.. upon | which a statement of facts shall be en- graved In enduring brass or marble, thowing that the Federal Government | was solely responsible for the condi- tion of affairs at Andersonville. “Be it further resolved, That as tour Federal prisoners were permitted to go from Andersonville to Washing- | ton to plead for an exchange of prison ers, thus keeping their parole, a trib- ! Henry Wirz, com- prison at judicially of {vindi | Wirz should be placed | whet ot = STAR. WASHINGTON. N...C.. SEPTEMRER 19 109A_PART _5. ks of City Must Show Self-Reliance AT THE LEFT, SOME OF THE WESTERN UNION OPERATORS WHO ONCE GAVE YOU “THE CORRECT TIME.” IN FOREGROUND, ASSIST- ANT CHIEF OPERATOR KEISTER, IN CHARGE OF THE TELEPHONE SECTION. in a position to play a mean trick on these unsuspecting youngsters, had the girls been of such a disposition, for by sending the students to school w minutes late a city-wide wave staying in after school” no doubt would have been precipitated. “We always knew when it was bar- gain day, too,” Miss Wakefield pointed out. “Whenever one of the large de- partment stores held a big sale hun- dreds of women called us between 830 and 9 a.m. to-find the correct time. They wanted to get to the store before it opened, all ready for the big rush to the counters at 9:15. In this Wi we helped thri housewives ve money, I guess. We could pic- ture the melee that was to énsue—per- haps with somewhat envious eyes.” Another class of “regular customers’ was composed of Government em- ployes and other office-goers. They wanted to know when it was time to g0 to work and when it was time to quit. None of them depended on thelr watches or clocks for this important information. * k X % THE White House, cabinet offices, embassies gnd legations and other distinguished places depended often on Western Union’s “Franklin 7112 for oo * - WIPre o s, il ¢ - Lty - . -:-:(--. ‘vo mE ,’?/[// | time advice. The wheels of govern- | ment, it appeared, started turning or came to a standstill at the direction of the pretty operators in the tele- graph office. Former Secretary of Labor William | B. Wilson was a daily patron of tele- | phoned time, Traffic Manager Dexter | asserts. He called so frequently o inquire the time t he got quite miliar with Dexter, preceding his query with the remark, “This is vour {old friend, Wilson.” It is presumed | the Labor Secretary was checking up | on the clocks of his department. Mr. Wilson invariably asked for the man: ager in making these calls. Clocks at many of the embassies | were regulated by Western Union | phone service, and the operators have | experienced much difficulty in making | it clear to diplomats and attaches that { the time system no longer is in vogue. | | Here is substantially the conversa- | tion that took place a day or so ago between one of the girls and a forelgn attache: “Geev me the time, pleez.” “Sorry, but we have discontinued giving the time.” “Yes, pleeze, the cor-rect time.” “I say, I'm sorry, but we have dis- | continued giving the time.” “Eet ees the time I weesh, Ms “Yes, I know, but I can't give it to vou any more.” “You have not got the time, no?"" “Oh, ves, but I'm not allowed to glve it to you. It's a new rule. I'm “All right. 1 eall later, thank you." If he called later, he made no fur- ther efforts to understand, for his call was not noted among the others. ol L HE flow of requests for correct time usually let up appreciably after midnight, but along toward 2 o'clogk in the morning the operators learned to expect a few sporadic calls from husbands desirous of getting the Jatest time data before heading for home. It is supposed that this information was used as ammunition in the event the indignant spouse pulled any funny business with the clock, such as set- ting it up an hour to make matters look worse t they really were. “It was enough to tell a drunk,” Miss Wakefield said. “If we couldn’t tell by the thick voice, we could distinguish them by the way their voices alternately faded and grew strong. That variation was eaused by swayving away from the telephone mouthpiece.” Sometimes these intoxicated gentry forgot they were talking to ladies and embellished their questions with re- marks not generally passed in Sun- day school. Some of them were will- ing to outline all their troubles to the Western Union girls, but these were quickly cut off. Men are not the only ones capable of indulging in strong language, ei- ther. One woman (Miss Wakefield studiously avoided calling her a lady), when advised that the time could not be given: hung up temporarily. and then, her ire thoroughly aroused. called back to inform the operator what she thought of her, in no uncer- tain words. Miss Wakefield is a Sunday school girl and she would not repeat the words this woman used, but it is un- derstood one of the adjectives began | with the letter “d.” This quip about M ing a Sun | taken lightly, by the way. her dress is a ross and Crown" Sun- day school badge. from which are su pended 17 additional decorations, evi- dencing the fact tnat she has not missed attending her Sabbath classes during the past 17 consecutive years. Only two other persons in the United States have done as well, one of them s Wakefleld be. hool lass is not to be Pinned to | ' H. DEXTER, TRAFFIC MANA. ;ER OF THE WASHINGTON 5 WESTERN WHO FOUND THAT HMENT OF THE “TIME SERVICE” DID NOT ENTIRELY RELIEVE ~HIM OF HIs TROUBLE! restding in New York and the other in the West She is assistant superintendent of the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church Sunday school, leader of singing. teacher of a boys' class and organist. During the past 30 vears she has missed but five Sund all due to iliness. The Western Union officials have take cognizance of Miss Wakefield's remarkable record and she is afforded special immunity from day work on Sunday, so that she won't miss church dutles. She works Sunday nights to make up for it. She has been answer- ing calls for the local Western Union office for the past nine vears. “It takes this type of operator to deal with the many varieties of human nature with which we come into contact over the telephone,” Manager Dexter explained. “It requires un- usual patience and tact to turn away these people who can't understand why we won't give them the time any. more. When you consider the fact that Washington is_exceeded only by New York. Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City in number of messages handled yearly, you will hetter be able to ap- preciate how busy we are, without answering time questions.’ The telephone company discontinued a similar, time information service several years ago. Now that the Western Union Co. has followed suit, persons desiring accurate time data must call efther the Weather Bureau or the Naval Observatory itself. Fears are felt that the great juhp in telephone queries which will flood these hureaus as a result of the Western Unjon action may force Uncle Sam to give very thought- ful consideration to this problem, als The first thing we know we may have to depend on our clocks alto- gether. Which is as it should le, the |clock dealers assert. “Anyway, vou can't beg, steal or borrow the time o' day from the Western Union, and that's final, Mr. Dexter avers. “That applies the White House, too?" manager was asked. “Er—er—well, that remains to be seen,” he replied with a smile. City with equal force to that traffic e pe Moy, - ar,’ - N /A b OLD PICTURE OF THE CEMETERY AT ANDERSONVILLE. ay HrVe o- s - i e z el . Sketch from a photograph by Handy. ute to their honor, be inscribed on sald monument.” The resolutions were adopted. e HE convention of the next ¥y met at Americus, Ga., and vis Andersonville. T 1 ar ited extract from a report of that conven-| tic “The visit to pressed more and minds of the delegates the fact that the monument should be raised. not in a spirit of bitterness, but simply to ate the man who had’been so vilely slandered. and to show to the world the truth of Southern history onville was the logical monument to Capt Many pictures and placards placed in the national cemetery gave a very false idea of the truth concerning the matter.” There arose the question as to er the monument should be buil at Andersonville, Atlanta, Macon or Americus. Americus, I think, is the nearest large town to Andersonville, being 10 miles southwest of the old stockade. Oglethorpe is about the same distance northwest of Anderson- villk, but I haven't time to look in a gazetteer to tell you whether Ameri- cus or Oglethorpe is the larger, and if I did.’some fellow from one of those cities would come to the office to call me down. There tween ville, Andersonville im- more upon the was such competition be- representatives .of Anderson- Atlanta, Macon and Americus that for compromise it was nearly de- cided to build the monument at Rich-| mond, capital of. the Confederacy ’ | Then, there was held a_special con. vention of the Georgia Daughters of the Confederacy, and it was voted to build the monument at Andersonville. erine Latham, contains this | ch delegate went up with a firm | purpose of carrying her point with-| out any unkindness or unpleasantness | or without any hard feelings to the| | other places which would be offered as | |a site for the Wirz monument, and |this spirit of friendliness was mani fest throughout the session. Each {woman who spoke for the site in {which she or her chapter was in-| | terested did so with calmness and de- | liberation, dealing in no personalities or criticisms, and at last, when Ander sonville was selected by the largest | vote ever cast for this site, it wa | moved by an ardent adherent for Macon that the action of the session | giving the monument to Andersonville | | be made unanimous.” | Kath: The Federal authorities would not ex- change Confederate prisoners for Union prisoners, because such ex- change would strengthen the South- ern armies. The record s clear on that. There was little medicine in the prison hospital. The United States had e the following A report on that action, written by | made medicine contraband of war and there was little of the usual kinds in | the South. Confederate troops and ians lacked medicine. Quinine was very scarce. Recourse was had to barks, roots, berries and leaves. It s alleged that Northern civilians were not allowed to pass the Union lines | with medicines for relatives in South- ern_ prisons, because the medicine might fall into “rebel hands.” It has' heen testified that food-and medicine smuggled across the Unfon lines for Union prisoners was given to and used by the prisoners. There is also the food question. There was not enough to eat at An- dersonville. There was not enough to eat in many parts of the South. There was_hunger in the Confederate Army |in the last vear of the war, though, E * ok % % | ‘HE Rambler has seen no account | of Andersonville that does not tell | a state of horror there during the last | | year of the Civil War, particularly the | | Winter of 186: It is on the ques- | | tion of responsibility for those condi- tions that men have differed. Con- federate authorities repeatedly sought exchange of prisoners and the Fed- eral authorities knew the situation of Federal prisoners at Andersonville. soldiers foraged. I have read stories of Confederate troops parching corn, because they had nothing else to eat. I have read stories that just before Lee's surrender at Appomattox, artil- lery horses died on the road for want of feed. In the matter of fuel it is said that there was enough timber near Ander- sonville to supply wood to the prison- ers. The answer is that no horses and wagons to haul it and no axes to . cut it were in that part of the coun- try. The horses and wagons were 4in the army, and an ax was hard to find outside of the army. With all men and nearly all the boys in the army, such crops as appeared were raised | by women, old men and devoted negroes who stood by ‘“missus” and “de ol plantation.”" RBarns, stock, crops and farm tools were destroyed | or carried off when Union troops came |on them. Great areas were devas- | tated under the policy of cutting oft | food supplies. 1 * ok ok X I\' last Sunday’'s Star I told you | 4 something about the report of Dr. | Joseph Jones, Confederate service, to | the Richmond authorities on condi- tions at Andersonville. Similar re- ports had been made by other Con- federate inspectors. Dr. Jones’' re- port is part of the “Records of the | Rebellion.” I have before me this ex- | tract from that report: “I have carefully analyzed the wa- | ters; found them all remarkably pure. | | The well water upon the summit of | the hill, when the Confederate General | Hospital is situated, is of remarkable | purity and, in fact, it may be consid- ered as equal to the purest water in | the world. The waters of the Sweet- water Creek, before entering into the stockade where the Federal prisoners are confined, are equally pure. The bakery is situated near this stream, and while one of the Confederate regi- ments is camped on the hill above, this source of contamination is too far dis- tant to affect the flowing waters. The water from all sources flowing into the stockade is remarkably pure, but that flowing from the stockade is loaded with filth and emits a sicken- ing odor, disgusting and overpower- ing. “The vegetation of the highlands and hills indicates poverty of the soll. The low grounds and swamps border- ing the streams are clothed with pines and oaks of stunted growth. From this examination there is no recogniz- ‘| able source of disease in the soil and waters of Andersonville. After exam- ination I was impressed with the be- lief that this region of the country was as healthy as any region of the world situated in the same latitude and at the same elevation above the sea, and that this locality, chosen by the Confederates for the confinement of Federal prisoners, was much more salubrious than most of the region in Georgia lying to the south and south- east of it. “The heat caused the .rapld de- composition of flithy matter in the stockade area, and this may have been the cause of debility; but the aw- ful mortality must have been due to other causes—crowded condition and lack of medicine, rather than to all the elements of climate combined. No blame can be attached to the Confed- erate authorities for this great mor- tality at Andersonville. “In this collection of men from all parts of the civilized world every phase of human character was repre- sented. The stronger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick, who were unable to defend themselves, were robbed of* their scanty supplies of food and clothing. Dark storles were afloat of men murdered at night, strangled to death by their comrades for clothing or money. I heard a wounded Federal prisoner accuse his nurse, a fellow prisoner, of having in- oculated his arm with gangrene in order to destroy his life, to fall heir to his clothing. “The haggard, distressed counte- nances of these miserable, complain- ing, dejected, living skeletons, crying for med. aid and food, and cursing their Government for its refusal to exchange prisoners, and the ghastly corpses, with their glazed eyeballs staring up into vacant space, with flies swarming down open mouths, formed a picture of helpless, hopeless misery, which it would be impossible to portray by word or brush. As many men as possible were paroled and allowed to follow trades. “The police and hygiene of the hos- pital were defective in the extreme, but no blame should be attached to the Confederate government, to the commanding officer or to the guards. Scurvy was not confined to the pris- oners. I saw a well developed case of scurvy in a surgeon in care of one of the hospitals.” * * k% IT is plain that Dr. Jones was an- swering a charge that the Confed- erate authorities chose Andersonville because it would be fatal to Union prisoners. It was a healthful locality. He found policing of the hospital “de- fective in the extreme,” but found the hospital authorities blameless. Wheth- er he spared his brother physicians or knew that conditions were beyond their control is a question to which there is no answer. The policing of the stockade must have been wretch- ed. Wirz was a physician, and, no doubt, knew as much of camp hy- giene as was known. Perhaps he was not able to enforce discipline neces- sary to keep the clean. Per- ambler Studies More Reports of Andersonville Conditions WIRZ MONUMENT AT ANDER- SONVILLE. Sketch from photograph. haps he did not do all that any man could do. Reference {s made to a Confederate regiment on the hill. T have read that two Confederate regiments were on duty at Andersonville. In the last vear of the war a Confederate regi- ment might have a hundred or less men. T know that éne of those regi- | ments was the 3d Georgla Reserves. | That word “reserves” is significant. Those men were disabled or too old | for active service. The Confederate government in the Summer of 1864 and the following Winter did not de- tail combat troops to guard a prison camp. There may have been man power enough at Andersonville to po- lice the camp and bring in wood and water. There may have been man power enough to move_ the stockade to unpolluted ground. When a thing has happened a thousand men will tell how it could have been prevented. 0ld people who lived in the theater of military operations remember that there was cruelty. Federal armles cared nothing for the suffering they caused the civil populace of the South —old men, women and children. They held that such measures were justifi- able in “crushing the rebellion.” The South did not look on Northern pris- oners with tenderness. They thought of Northern troops as “invaders” who were ravaging their country, killing their kin and with blockade and torch striving to starve the population, using as their argument that it was | necessary to cut off supplies for South- ern armies. Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia, reply- ing to James G. Blaine, charged that the death rate among Confederate 'uruunl s in the Union cam t El- mira, N. Y, was bigher death rate at Andersonville. I have read that one cause of that high death rate was smallpox. There were charges of ignorance or indifference on the part of the Union authorities there in not isolating smallpox patients. There were also charges that prisoners suf- fered cold and hunger, though I be- lieve it was not charged that the Fed- eral War Department did not author- ize the {ssue of enough food. clothing and shelter. Hill charged that there was a higher death rate among Con- federate prisoners in Federal camps than among Union prisoners in Con- federate camps. He said that of the 270,000 Federal prisoners in Confed- erate hands 22.000 died, or 9 per cent, and of the 220,000 Confederate pris- oners in Federal hands 26,000 died, or 12 per cent. I have not verified the figures. 'We have the painful memory of high mortality at Camp Alger in 1898. That camp was in Fairfax County, one of the healthful sections of the world. Typhoid fever was the cguse of nearly all deaths there. Military men would deal with such a condition today better than it was dealt with 2% years ago. Petrified Forest. The petrified national forest, one of the 29 national monuments estab- lished by presidential proclamation. is the only region of hundreds of places in the Southwest in which silicified wood occurs in such abun dance as to deserve the name of & petrified forest. It Is in northern Arizona, south of the town of Ala mana, on the Santa Fe road, and was designated as a natlonal monu ment in 1906. Many of the tree trunks exceed 100 feet in length and cross sections reveal the fact these these trees. which are cedars, probably grew be side an inland sea. During decomposition the cell structure of the wood was entirely replaced by materfal from sandstone in _the surrounding land. The state of mineralization in which much of the wood exists almost places it with gems or precious stones. Not only are chalcedony opals and agates found, but man: trees approach the condition of jasper and onyx. Noise Shields. 'HE terrific noise that will result from a number of commuting irplane expresses starting to take off at the same time, in the future days when commuters will ride in planes, may not be so terrific after By stus tank of water, scientists at the Br ish National Physical Laborate have been able to find out how su nolses can be dissipated and blocked off. They constructed a model tank con prising the principles of construetior of the surrounding buildings. includ ing a hangar. Wave lengths in wa ter to the same scale as the sound waves were produced by ripples. E photographing these ripples it was possible to detect the effect of thn various obstacles. In this wav shiel ing effects were worked out by whic it is possible to place accurately o the fiying 1d parallel “plates™ sound screens, thus doing away witl much Rolse diaturbance.