Evening Star Newspaper, April 28, 1929, Page 89

THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON. D. (. APRIL 2. 1 | | BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. VEN with its political drawback, the District of Columbia is forg- | ing ahead rapidly: indeed, too | speedily for the local historians, who have difficulty in keeping on the old buildings which are fast appearing, not only in the downtown | saction but in the outlying parts of the | District as well. _Recently some once notable business houses and residences have given way and passed into the discard in connection with the Govern- ment's _extensive building _operations, now well under way, and private enter- prise is well keeping pace with Uncle Sam's best efforts in removing old landmarks. | Just a month or two ago the east half of block 224, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth and F and G streets, was clearad of its old houses to make way for nother skyscraper. Of course, not ihe kind erected in New York and Chi- cazn and other large citles, where there i tion as to height, but the ures which are permitted ngton, where Congress mmissioners feel that the v for higher structures has vet been reached. ¥ building is completed the s of Fourteenth and F streets 1t up with modern buildings, stone of the large Press Club t the southeast corner of this tion having been laid April nd the structure practically the latter part of the fol- | in the congested section of the being near the historic Willard located on the corner occu- T SO many years by the Ebbitt whose proprietor was for a long villard, one of several broth- | b re successfully connected with the earliest person to build upon this | #ite was David Craufurd, whose daugh- | ter, Sarah C., married Richard Forrest. | ‘The Craufurd residence, erected shortly after 1800, was a large double dwelling. stood on the F street side, next to the | directly on the corner which wi t in 1836 by Bushrod Washington who conducted here a grocery This Mr. Reed came from West- and Gounty, Va., in 1833 and was d to the Reed family several of whose members were lost in the burn- ing of the Wawaset. The statement is | also made that he was related to the ington family of Westmoreland | as his name would imply. | Aftar Mr. Reed moved from this| corner in 1864, when the property was | sold to C. C. Willard, he moved to the | southeast corner of Thirteenth and F | streets, where he was succeeded by his | s, Willlam B. and R. H. W. Reed. | ntly the store was for a time . W. Burchell. . RICHARD FORREST was postmaster | f Georgetown in 1797, and moved | to Wrshington in 1800. He was one ot the eight clerks appointed by President Jefferson in the Department of State, where he is said to have held his po- sition until his death in 1828. Originally, the Craufurd-Forrest resiy dence and the corner building, occupied by Mr. Reed, were separated by a 4-foot, private alleyway. Later, after these dwellings had become hotel property, upon this narrow strip was erected a serfes of bath rooms, lighted by small oval windows on each floor, which indi- | Subs-qu Tun by N. | Ebbitt House and Oldril\'ewspaper Row, Once Points of Activity, Succeeded by Up-to-Date Press Club and Big Busi- ness Blocks—Uncle Sam Also Engaged in Removing Landmark otel business here awhile ago. | cated to the old-timer the line of de- | cause, | marcation between the two buildings. | An incident occurred during the | forty-ninth annual session of the Im- perial Council, Order of the Mystic | ‘TREETS ABOUT 186 THE OLD NEWSPAPER ROW IN WASHINGTON. TAKEN FROM VOL, 48 OF HARPERS MAGAZINE here during the recent inauguration, he | demonstrated his keen interest in our | Club, it is sald, once stood the home of | affairs by ordering The Sunday Star | Aaron Burr surrounded by a paling | sent to him each week in Providence. The corner lot, or lot 4, which com- | persons. At the east end of the Press fence, and in his garden was a fine well of water, which was sufficiently coplous Shrine, which was held in this city in | prised a part of the ground upon which | to supply several of his neighbors be- June, 1923, that impressed these ovel | the Ebbitt House stood, and upon the |sides himself with aqua pura. | windows upon the mind of the writer. | As you—and especially the visitors here | upon that occassoin—will recall, the | heat in Wzshington at that time was almost unbearable for visitors said to have been in atkndancel June 2, the day they began to arrive, | it was 95 degrees in the shade, according | to our _ever-conservative Weather Bureau; June 3, '92; June 4, 94, and | June 5, 93, with 480 heat prostrations | recorded. What makes the writer recall so clear- | 1y this hot spell is that about 10:30 ociock in the evening the caravan began arriving, his phone bell rang, and he was asked if he could take care of two members of the Rhode Island Legis- | lature and their wives who were suffo- | cating on the top floor of the New | Ebbitt—which was the Shrine head- | quarters—with no air except such as | might “percolate" through one of these | sam> oval windows built in the bath | rooms years ago. Of course he said | “yes,” because distinguished visitors to | and, in doing so, the writer made two good friends of State Senator Harry A, | 29 1807, the south 24 feet and 6 inches | dent McKinley stopped here during his | Sanderson of Providence, R. L, and | State Treasurer George Clark, aiso of Little Rhody. Incidentally, it afforded an opportunity to tell these important outsiders some of the handicaps under which we people of the District of Co- lumbia labor, and enlist them in our eastern part of which stood the Crau-| furd, or Crawford, residence, was bought | by David Craufurd from the United | States commissioners in 1798. He lived | what at that time was a very nice| home, for his will was probated on May | 27, 1801. By this will lot 14 went w[ his grandson, Julius Forrest, together with one Negro woman named Bet and | her two children, Charles and Maria, be born unto her, “ * ok % IN the division of lots in this parcel by the commissioners in 1792 lots 12| and 13 went to David Burnes. These | lots, which are both on the Fourteenth | street side, adjoin on the south the | corner lot. David Burnes died intes-| tate and his daughter, Marcia Bumn later Mrs. Van Ness, being his only heir, the property was inherited by her. In 1802 Marcia Burnes trans-| ferred lot 13 to David Dorsey, who on | {our city must be treated with courtesy, | AUSust 2, 1807, deeded the north 25 feet, to Richard Forrest, and September | to John Murdock. In 1824 Richard | | Forrest _deeded his 25 feet of lot 13 to| | Julius Forrest, and in 1857, through the heirs of Julius Forrest and by default | { under a trust by one of the grante | lots 13 and 14 were transferred to Wil- | lam Ebbitt. Lot 12 went from Marcia Burnes to John Quincy Adams lived on the opposite side of the street, where is now the | Adams Biulding, and others less not- | Mr. Reed, the gro- | the 200,000 | here only a few years after erecting |cer, then lived in the first house south able lived close by. of the Ebbitt on the Fourteenth street side, next to which were two 1-story houses, also owned by him. ; Next came the Farnham House, and a pled for some years by the Bureau of Public Roads of the Department of | Agriculture, * o ox * TH! Ebbitt House, as it was called for 50 many years, or until it became the style to add the word “new” to every hotel that made the slightest im- provement, was a historic old hostelry. | For ycars it was known as the Army and Navy headquarters, and here | stopped sich men as Rogers, Farragut, Worden, Canby, Thomas, Porter,Wins- | low, Boggs, Cass and Drayton. Presi- entire service in Congress, and Speaker Keifer and J. Proctor Knott kept him company here. Mark Twain, Bill Nye and James Whitcomb Riley were other guests who made it their stopping place when they came to Washington The old, oblong, crystal room, which rther down the street was the Occi- | dental, which is likely the site of the | | and such other female issue as might | Willard Building, and has been occu- ‘When Senator Sanderson was\’as neighbors some very distinguished | Transcript, W. B. Shaw, and the Lon- | don (England) Telegraph. At this date (1871) the Star was lo- cated at the southwest corner of Penn- ‘syl\'anln avenue and Eleventh street, | where the Postoice Department Build- | ing now stands, and was represented in the press gallery at the Capitol by its editor, Crosby S. Noyes, and by 8. H. Kauffmann and James F. Doole: In a few years the correspondents had greatly increased and Newspaper Row was quite probably at its height along about 1880 or 1895. After this the newspaper representatives began to | move elesewhere and today a memory | of the place is all that is left. * K X TO the writer, the most interesting graph office at the corner of Pennsyl- vania avenue. - Carrying telegraph mes. sages, before the automobile and bike, was a real man's job, and a boy was | expected to fill it. It was not an un- common occurrence to be awakened at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, if you happened to be on that night, and to receive a message to be carried to Sol- dier's Home, or perhaps Anacostia, or some other out-of-the-way place. You | can imagine that it took a very nervy little chap to do this. Many of our messenger boys of today would quit cold if asked to walk to Anacostia to deliver a message at about could hardly blame a boy, for it would | be asking a whole lot of him, especially | if he were in any way timid. Many will | recall Elijah J. Bugbee, manager for | some time of the Atlantic & Pacific | Telegraph Co.. and later with the West- | ern_Union. place along the Row was the tele- | 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning and we | not the first press club in the city. The Washington Press Club, as before stat- | ed. had its initial meeting on Septem- ber 18, 1867, while the Washington Cor- respondents’ Club held the first meeting at least six months earlier, for The Star of March 7, 1867, carries an item re- | garding its formation, which evidently took place around that date. The first charter includes as active members of this club George W. Adams of the New York World, Edwin L. Andrews, New Orleans Crescent; Martin W. Barr, Southern Assoclated Press; David W. Bartlett, New York Evening Post; Henry | V. N. Boynton, Cincinnati Gazette; Ed- ward P. Brooks, New Orleans Republi- can: Ira N. Burritt, Western Re- publican Press office; Thomas M Cook, Chicago Times: Lorenzo I. Crounse, New York Times; Robert | K. Elliott, New York Express; Wal- {ton J. Fitch, Boston Post; Lawrence | A. Bobright, New York Associated Press; | James G. Holland, New York Associated | Press; Oscar K. Harris, National Intel- | ligencer; Joseph MacFarland, Washing- ton Chronicle; Joseph M. McCullagh, | Cincinnati Commercial; Crosby S. | Noyes, Washington Star; Uriah H. Painter, Philadelphia Inquirer; Ben: | Perley Poore, Boston Journal; Hiram | | J. Ramsdell, New York Tribune; Frank | | A. Richardson, Baltimore Sun; William v‘ | P. Seville, New York Herald; William | | B. Shaw. Boston Transcript: William | | W. Warden, Philadelphia Ledger, and | James S. Young, New York Tribune. * K ok ox | ments, adopted. The journed meeting of the editors and re- porters connected with the several pa- pers of this city was held yesterday aft- ernoon in the reportorial room of the National Intelligencer, for the purpose of completing the organization of a Washington Press Club. Mr. John C. Proctor of the Republican occupied the chair and Mr. R. F. Boiseau of The Star acted as secretary. “Mr. James H. Sprigman, chairman of the committee to prepare a constitution and by-laws for the government of the association, reported the same, which were read, and after several amend- reamble declares that the club is organized to secure the advantages of organization and for the cultivation of fraternal sentiments. “The title of the association is the ‘Washington Press Club.’ members of the club shall be those gen- tlemen actively engaged upon the city papers as editors or reporters. Honor- ary membership may be bestowed upon such persons as have or may be pro- fessionally connected with journalism, and also have achieved eminence in the profession. “In case any member of the club shall consider that he has been wrong- fully treated professionally Yy any other member he shall have the right to apply to the executive committee for an ar- | "J'HE Washington Press Club seems to | have been local in its character | and included only such members of the press as were employed, or connected The active | Historic Corner Is Center of Modern Growth in Washington | bitration and a committee of three shall | be chosen to whom the subject shall be referred. |~ “The constitution having been adopt- | ed. the club proceeded to elect perma- nent officers, and the following hamed gentlemen were chosen: President, John C. Proctor of the Republican: vice pres- ident. W. J. Bennett of the Express: secretary, R. F. Boiseau of the Star; | treasurer, W. R. Collins of The Star; executive committee, O. K. Harris of the Express, James Croggon of The Star, George Curtis of the Chronicle, Arthur Shepherd of the Intelligencer, James H. Sprigman of the Republican, and F. J. Nantz of the Union. After some other business the club adjourned unt# the first Saturday in October. Sub- sequently the executive committee met and elected Mr. O. K. Harris chairman. “The Washington Press Club has made a very favorable beginning and already has 21 active members. The gentlemen all seem to take an interest in the welfare of the club and no doubt it will be a permanent as well as an excellent organization." % o« ACCORDING to the Intelligencer, Mr. Crosby S. Noyes of The Star, and Mr. Dunn of the Republican, at- tended the first or preliminary meeting and an amusing incident “was the fact that there were three gentlemen present who had commenced their reportorial life on the National Republican and a good deal of amusement was created by their looking through the files of the Republican to find out the first items that they ever wrote. One of the parties discovered an “item” that he had writ- ten, which, he said.“had never hap- pened” and proved to be a little speech | which was reported to have been spoken by an officer at the fire at Willard's Hotel, shortly after the commencement of the war. This announcement, and | the fact that the article had gone the | rounds of the newspapers throughout the country, caused a hearty laugh all around. Though the writer's father was serv- ing with the National Republican at the time he became first re;lgim of the press club. vet. for a time prior to January 20, 1865, he was employed on The Star and when he decided to trans- fer his activities elsewhere, he went | with the best wishes for a successful future from that sterling editor and citizen, Crosby S. Noyes, as evidenced | by the following note, discolored and ! grown old with age, but still highly priz- ed by its owner: | “Star office, Washington. D. C.. January 20, 1865, “Mr. J. C. Proctor, the bearer of this, has been engaged at The Star office as { reporter for some time past and I can | very cheerfully recommend him as & valuable man about a newspaper office. | He is industrious, reliable and inde- | fatigable in the interests of his employ- ers. and his deportment and habits while under my notice have been every- thing that could be desired. I shall be heartily glad to know of the success of i one so estimable and industrious. (Signed) “CROSBY 8. NOYES, “Ed. Star.” | ran lengthwise along Fourteenth street, | is known the world over, and many a He was an unusually fine | | man and the boys under him always | with, Washington newspapers. Two David Dorsey, then to John Murdock, REPORTERS’ GA RY. HOUSE E| TAKEN FROM HARPERS MA | OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN 1874, | AZINE. | the Ebbitt was composed of four dwell- |name would imply. who transferred title to William Blanch- ard, whcse daughter, Jane PFranha inherited it in 1850, and who sold her interest to Caleb Willard, August 4,| 1366. Title to lot 15, which adjoins the | corner lot on the F street side, was transferred by the commissioners in 1802 to the heirs of Walter Stewart. In 1817 John Hoge transferred this lot for the heirs to Thomas T. Stephenson. The latter held it two years and deeded it to Thomas Triplet, who in turn sold | the lot on April 19, 1826, to Gideon | Beall, who on the same date deeded 1t | to Richard Wallach, Mayor of Wash- ington from 1861 to 1867. Wll]flch‘ sold to Johnson Hellen, and Caleb Wil- lard was vested with title through va- rious deeds dated March 30, 1868. These four lots, 12, 13, 14 and 15, comprise the ground upon which the Ebbitt House stood. The Press Club Building includes other lots or parts of lots in addition to these. In describing | an old photograph before the Columbia | Historical Society some 25 years ago, | John B. Larner told his audience that | ings and that prior to 1856 here was conducted what was known as the Frenchman's Hotel, which was quite likely kept by a Frenchman as the After this date, Willlam E. Ebbitt kept a boarding house here and in this way it came to be known as the Ebbitt House. Mr. Larner also adds history to its title by | telling us that, in 1863, Mr. Ebbitt | transferred his ownership to his son-in- | | law, Albert H. Craney, who, the follow- | Charlcs ing vear, conveyed the property to C. C. | ard. The early residents of this corner had | BY MARTIN CODEL. | TORNADO strikes in Omaha, & hurricane sweeps over the Florida coast, the Mississippi River breaks through its levees. Life and property are at stake te relief is needed. The Gov- steps in to take a hand in the N Official radio communiques flash through the ether. The War De- pariment messege center springs into y. Operators at_radio net con- tion “WAR,” in Washington, step 1 sending of official Government | es for the Veterans' Bureau, the | ment of Justice, the Department Agriculture, the Bureau of In-| Revenue and other governmental | s, as well as emergency duty in | nd local disasters—these are| ime duties of the War De-! message center and the War 1t radio network which 1w ctically all important key citles , the Philippines, Hawail, Pan- | e continental United States | exican border to the Cana- d from occan to ocean. ystem, with approximate- | cd men posted at the va-| 15, including radio operators, 1 and supply and tech- permanent land radio ations—all of Tiou: maint nic tat this Bage e ago, in two small 20-foot Building, origin, The Room 3435, Munitions main e receipt and 1l War Department dis- 1e Signal Corps i charged by law we development and operation of | v communication systems. It has oped officers and men who are inlists in this line. Up to this time War Department, except for fleld oses, had not seen fit to make use Signal Corps in its telegraph, ) and cable facilities. A War De telegraph office had been d many years ago under W. Arpost MAJ. GEN. GEORC S. GIBBS, CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER OF THE ARMY. = Navy have materially altered condi- | tions | * ok % URING the year 1921 the Signal| Corps. at the direction of the War | Department, provided radio facilities at | all corps area headquarters except the ist Corps Area, at Boston, Mass. In addition to these principal stations a net was set up in each corps area.| All are subject to control by the master | station set up at Washington, D. C.| Although the radio net thus established | was primarily to meet emergency and | war requirements as a secondary mis- | {slon, when practicable it has been | ! given the transmission of urgent tele- | { graphic business of the War Depart- | ment. Seventy-two military _posts, camps and stations were included in | the War Department radio net at the | end of 1922. | The Signal Corps in general hns: avoided the erection of radio stations at banquet took place there which no doubt the reader will fondly recall, as {wel las the stairway which led to the basement where other things beside soda water were served. One could not write a story about the Ebbitt House or the site upon which it stood without referring to Newspaper Row, where in the days during and fol- lowing the Civil War s0 many news- paper correspondents had their offices. These begen with the Western Union Buflding, then at the corner of Four- teenth street and Pennsylvania avenue | and extended north on the block to the Ebbitt House. In 1871 there were 19 outside newspapers whose correspond- ents had offices in Newspaper Row. These included the New York Tribune, represented by W. L. White, E. V. Smal. ley and H. J. Ramsdell and Mrs. Lip: pincott; New York World. G. W. Adam; New York Independent, D. W. Bartlett and Mrs. M. C. Ames; New York Times, L. L. Crounse and Justin E. Colburn; New York Herald, Pinley Anderson, J. MacFarland and Mrs. McCaine; New York Assoclated Press, L. A. Gobright, J. J. Gilbert, James G. Holland and D. R. McKee; New York Journal of Com- merce, W. P. Copeland; New York Standard, James R. Young and John P. | Foley; Cincinnati Gazette, H. V. Boyn- ton; American Press Assoclated, W. H. Clarke and R. K. Evans; Philadel- phia Ledger, D. D. Cone and J. C. Proc- tor, the writer's father: Chicago Trib- une, J. W. Knowlton; Philadelphia In- quirer, U, H. Painter; Savannah News, . Pillsbury; Boston Journal, Ben: Perley Poore; Cincinnati Commer- cial, H. J. Ramsdell; Baltimore Asso- ciated Press, F. A. Richardson; Boston held him in high esteem. It was indeed logical to locate the | Press Ciub_Bulilding at the head of | Newspaper Row, if for none other than | historic reasons, as a memorial, per- | haps, to the newspaper men of by-gone | days who have long since gone to their | last reward. Glad are we, however, that | there are still with us a few of the old- | 'me knights of the quill. Just the other | day the writer saw John Boyle, who | has probably in his time written enough matter to extend from Washington to | San Francisco, and a year ago he was | visited by George Curtis, formerly of | the ‘Washington Chronicle, and one of | the charter members of the Washington | Press Club, which held its first and pre- | liminary meeting on September 18, 1867, | in the office of the National Republican, | northeast corner of Tenth and D streets | northwest. He was looking for the | writer's father on the strength of the disappointed to learn that his old friend had been dead since 1876. Though a veteran newspaper man, yet Mr. Curtis was remarkably well preserved and be- lied the fact that he must be getting along in years. Charles A. Hamilton, a former presi- dent of the National Press Club, and the Washington correspondent of the Buffalo Times and the Troy Times, is another veteran who still carries on with the pep of a youngster and there is no doubt quite a number, including Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan, who could still earn a good living with their pens if they found it necessary. Speaking of the Washington Press Club brings up the point as to whether this organization was or was similarity of names and seemed quite | | items regarding the formation of this club appear in The Star of September | | 19 and 26, 1867. The one at the earlier hington Press Club.—A meet- | ing of the editors and reporters of the several papers in this city was held | yesterday afternoon at the Republican office, for the purpose of organizing a | local press club. | . “The meeting was éalled to order by | Mr. Arthur Shepherd, and on his mo- | tion, Mr. John C. Proctor was chosen temporary chairman, and R, F. Boisseau of The Star, temporary secretary. | “Mr. Sprigman stated that the object of the meeting was to form a press club for the purpose of cultivating good feeling and friendship among the mem- bers of the press and moved that a committee of seven be appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws for the government of this association, | which mot‘on was adopted, and the fol- lowing gentlemen were appointed as such ~committee: Messrs. Sprigman, Shepherd, Nantz, Croggon, Harris, Cur- tis and Proctor. “Mr. Preston moved that a committee ;nr five_be appointed to select perma- nent officers for the association, which motion was adopted and the chair ap- | Ezlnuzd Messrs. Proctor, Sardo, Collins, | Nantz and 8. V. Noyes, and the meeting | adjourned to meet again at the call of | the committee. “The association has made a favor- 2ble beginning and there is no doubt | that we will soon have a well organized | | press club in this city.” | The second item reads: | ‘The Washington Press Club.—An ad- | GROUP OF WASHINGTON 1873. LEFT TO RIGHT, SITTI JOHN C. PROCTOR. IST. STAN CORRESPONDENT:! , TAKEN ABOUT T. PETERS, D. D. CONE AND DING: MR. PORTER, MR. PECK, NEXT UNIDENTIFIED, AND ROBERT TRELLER. Army Shares Its Wide Radio Servic e With Government Offices Operators at Message Center of War Department Also Prepared for Emergency Duty in Crises Arising From Disasters—Peace-Time Achievements Take in Far-Off Island Possessions and and was operated by civilian posts along the coast line which could and Alaska and within such forces of reporting to the assistant and [ clerk of the War Department up 023. As long as the electrical trans- fon of messages was limited to wire aph it mattered little where or the War nent traffic was However, the growth unication an‘i the neces- re'ations which had to be between the Army and be served by existing al radio sta- tions. In return for trafic handled by the Navy Department for such stations the Signal Corps handles Navy radio traffic for naval and Marine recruiting offices and naval inspectors in the in terior which can be reached by Signal | Corps stations. The Army's radio in- | terests were between military units in the entire interior of the United States the Army as may be operating on shore outside the continental limi's of the United States. Therefore, on March 1, was established in the 1023, there comprisin: (the Signa and the telegraph partment message center, the message center office Corps radio station WVA) former War Department MASTER SERGT. R. E. WILLIAMSON, S| office of the | chief signal officer the master War De- | AL CORP office, which had been moved from 1L'~I old location to the office of the chief signal officer. All War Department dis- patches were collected at and dis- tributed from this new master message center. ‘The responsibility for the rout- ing of dispatches over radio, telegraph or other means became under this arrangement strictly the function of the message center, The Signal Corps Mad gradually es- IEF OPERATOR AT STATION WAR. >anama. tablished a comprehensive net work of | radio stations in the United States and its insular possessions and, on Aprl 18, 1923, there were In the United States proper 112 radio stations, covering | practically all Army posts and connect- | ing these posts to their respective corps | area headquarters, which, in turn, were | connected with War Dspartment head- | quarters at Washington. ' During the early part of 1923 the | | | ‘War Department radio net became, for the first time, self-supporting, and dur- ing February a net saving of approxi- mately $4,000 was made. Five years later—to {llustrate the growth and value of this “Little Government Beaver'— the message center effected & monthly net saving of over $30,000. For the fiscal year 1928 the total net saving to the Government was $263,312.76. This figure is computed on what it would | have actually cost the Government to | transmit this amount of business over | commercial facilities at Government ! rate. This amount. is the actual bal- ance after all maintenance and oper- ! ation costs have been deducted. The total value of business handled during the fiscal year, 1928, was $306,653.69. It is estimated that the War Depart- | ment radio net will show a saving to ' Government funds- of approximately | $400,000 for the fiscal year 1929, which ends June 30, 1929. * ok ox DURXNG the month of March, 1923, upon the recommendation of the chief signal officer, other bureaus, branches | and departments of the Government | were invited to use the War Depart- | ment radio net for transmitting official Government dispatches. The Veterans' ! Bureau, the Department of Agriculture, | the Department of Justice and lhe‘ |Bureau of Internal Revenue took ad- War Department message center for transmission by radio. This service has grown tremendously, and at the present time practically all, or exactly 55 sepa- for the transmission of a larger part of ; From 1923 the War Department radio net grew steadily in size year bv vear. The officer in charge of the messag men of the Signal Corps, getti them wherever practicable. Some of these men are sent to him from the Signa! Corps School, at Fort Monmouth, and others come from the recruiting offices throughout the country. y en- listed men and 10 civilians are em- ployed in the War Department message | center at Washington. PRVT. WESLEY BAKER, “THE MASTER BEAVER” OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT. vantage of this offer and considerable'in radio operators runs about 40 per official trafic was turned over to the ' cent per year. The services of radio operators who have worked in the net are always desired by leading com- munication companies, and operators who receive their training in the net rate bureaus, branches, departments and | can “fall into” good paying civilian jobs establishments of the Government are|at the expiration of their term of ‘en- using the War Department radio net ! listment. ‘The transcontinental radio channels their originally official telegraph traffic. ! operated by the Army and Navy are said to be the fastest manually operated channels in the world. In a recent e . check of over 6,000,000 words, it was center, Capt. Frank E. Stoner, Signall found that the percentage of errors ran Corps, has to rely solely upon enlisted less than one-tenth of one per cent. This, indeed, is a splendid record rtain commercial companies admit o-tenths of one per cent. A stranger dropping into the mes- sage center during a night shift in the Summer would be confronted by a sight which would remind him of the stoker room on a great ship. The opera- The turnover ! tors strip to the waist after the regular offices are closed and proceed to com- bat “old man static” in an effort to get weak signals through, and in this small 20 by 25 foot room they work all | night like a troop of beavers, grinding | out savings for the Government. * K ¥ ok AJ. GEN. GEORGE S. GIBBS, the present chief signal officer, is | fostering the development of a strong ‘War Department net, which is capable of meeting the strenuous requirements of national defense and national emer- gencies. He has enunciated a policy Iwhlch includes rigid economy coupled with the highest efficiency obtainable, and has encouraged the use of the net to its full capacity by other depart- m:ll:‘l:.! of the flvernment. le Army has been able to handle its growth in traffic due to the replac- ing of arc and tube transmitters with (Continued on Fourth Pags.)