Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1937, Page 54

F-2 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE 6, 1937—PART FOUR. % OLD SECTION OF CITY HOMES Fourteenth Street Southwest Has Had Place in Growth of Government Establishment, With Various Famous Buildings Included Within Its Area. By John Clagett Proctor. FOURTE:ENTH street southwest, from Independence avenue southward, has undergone quite a change in the last few years, and the Washingtonian who has been absent from the city for a decade or more would not recognize the street as he once knew it. All the houses on the east side of the street, once occupied by pioneer families of a section for many years known as the Island, have been torn down and their occupants | have moved to other parts of the city. Few of thezx dwellings were new, and the writer nsa x from M3 Viz- ginia Handy West, widow of Charles E. West, at one time a partner in the firm of Rudolph, West & Co., that she was born and later married in the three-story brick house once known as 238 Pourteenth street. Next door to this was No. 240, between Inde- pendence avenue and C street. These houses were built about 1859 by Mrs. West's father, S8amuel W. K. Handy, who employed George Dearing, con- tractor, to do the work. Mrs. West stated at the time the writer had an interview with her several years ago that she had learned from her father that at one time the first floor of both of these houses had been used as.Gen. Casey's headquarters. In 1908 No. 238 was sold to Alfred Costella. Mrs. West recalled that at one time | her father was engaged in business in a two-story store at the corner ur‘ Fourteenth and C streets, but later moved uptown to Pennsylvania ave- nue, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets, the site of Cornwell's grocery store, where the Grand Army had its headquarters for many years. Oppo- site to her old home, she said, at the northwest corner of Fourteenth and C streets, a man named Allman lived, and had cows, hogs and everything that associated itself with rural life, and, of course, she did not forget the old artillery corral that occupied the space upon which was later built the old building of the Bureau of Engrav- ing and Printing, which still stands on the west side of Fourteenth street | on a line with the south side of Inde- pendence avenue. A VERY interesting letter which the writer received sometime ago from Mrs. Mary Lloyd Willis has this | to say about this particular location and vicinity: “I was bzm in a house which stood at the southwest corner of Fourteentn and B streets, where the old Bureau of Engraving and Printing now stands. It was part of a Government reserva- tion under the jurisdiction of the War Department, devoted to the Quarter- master's Corps, and took in the area from B to the alley on the middle of the block and west to the Government greenhouses. This ‘commissary’ held all the varied activities for the needs of the Army officers and rationing of pensioners of the city. ‘“There was a storehouse, where groceries were dispensed; a bakery, supervised by a Mr. John Gately; a wheelwright and blacksmith shop and torge, and a butcher shop, under the care of- Jesse and Oliver and Rose Varnel], and the cabinet shop, in the charge of my father, afterward a resi- dent of Indian Head, Md. These buildings all were frame, and our house faced Fourteenth, and on the north we had all the Monument Lot for a front yard. We looked out upon the work of building the great shaft a5 an everyday affair, and the monthly coming of Army men for their ‘ration’ was another familiar event. Oppo- site us, still standing, were two small bricks, in one of which a family named McHugh lived. Further down the street was the Handy home and the Pettibone home, and below them the Piepenbrings. On the west side lived John Allman, a drover, and across on a knoll the Young home, a beautiful Colonial house torn down to make room for the present new bu- reau. “Just down from the Aliman’s house fo the river ran a path, which we |y, " pion how in the halr, has traversed eagerly many a Sunday, to witness the ‘baptizing’ of the colored folk, who came in omnibusses, the men in decorous black and the women in a sort of lavender calico, the preacher standing waist deep for the Immersions and those on shore join- ing in the ‘Hallelujahs!’ “Just around on C street lived Mr. Hessler, whose daughters still occupy the home their father built. This is No. 1358. Near them lived Mr. Glass and Henry Stahl and across on the corner the Corcorans and Cullinans and dear Miss Sally Shea, who kept what would now be called a ‘depart- ment store.’ Until recently the house next door was occupied by Miss Annie Cullinan of this same family. I re- member this house, No. 1353, quite well, for we lived in it for & number of years after the commissary was no more. Just beyond, in the middle of the block, lived John J. Daly and fam- ily, who conducted a grocery for many years. “Very many of the children of these families are now residents in Wash- ngton, and It is like tugging at heart- strings to see the old places go, but also the progress and beauty of the city is dear to us, and we are glad to see the wonderful improvements tak- Ing their places.” THE ‘Young house, referred to in the I foregoing letter, which the sender mid was a colonial house, and stood en a knoll, is evidently the old Cas- &nave-Young house. And ihis re- minds the writer of a letter he re- ceived recently from James Plaskett of this city, which reads: “My sister, Mrs. G. 8. Davis of Lorton, Va., while with us the past Winter, recalled she had about 1890 Mayed with an aunt living where the | the daughter of Nicholas Digges. | was HENRY L. ELLSWORTH, Commissioner of patents, 1836- 1845, who originated what is now the Department of Agri- culture. ital, as well as other large holdings | within the District of Columbia. The wife of Maj. Howle was the daughter of Ann Young, the daughter of Notley Young, and Ann Young married Peter Casanave. Notley Young, as stated, was one of the original proprietors of land when the city was laid out, one of his tracts in the District of Columbia be- ing known as Duddington Pastures, lying in the southwest section. A description of this early farm tells us that it “commenced at a point on the Potomac River at the junction of Fifteenth and C streets, thence east by north to the junction of Ninth and B streets, then east southeast to the junction of Third and C streets, thence southeast to St. James Creek, thence along the creek to Greenleads Point, thence along the Potomac River to the place of the beginning, comprising 800 acres.” VNOTLEY YOUNG built a mansion on this tract about 1756—shortly after he was married to his first wife, It “on the bank of the river in what is now known as G street, be- tween Ninth and Tenth streets south- west.” He was born about 1737 and died in 1802, and was first buried in the family lot, neaf the southeast cor- ner of square No. 390, between Ninth and Tenth and G and H streets. Later his son-in-law, Robert Brent, first mayor of Washington, who had mar- ried his daughter Eleanor, had the remains transferred to Carroll Chapel Cemetery, near Forest Glen, Md., where they repose today in an un- identified grave. By his first wife Notley Young had six children who grew to maturity. His second wife was the daughter of Daniel Carroll of Marlboro and the sister of Arch- bishop John Carroll. Notley Young died wealthy, and among items mentioned in his will he left his daughter Ann, Square No. 232, upon which she bullt a r.ansion. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Casa- nave gave over the mansion to her son-in-law, Maj. Parke G. Howle, and she took up her residence in a frame dwelling in the block to the south. This, no doubt, is the dwelling indi- cated on the map referred to. An idea of Mr. Young's fortune may be gained by the fact that the census for 1790 shows that he owned 245 slaves. The Howles had ‘at least one son, named Parke. 4 The Casanave-Howle mansion was a stately, picturesque residence of the Colonial type, bullt of light brick, the porches and porticos being covered with wistaria and Harrison's yellow roses. Ome of its last occupants was John M. Young, a carriage maker of this city, during the horse and buggy days, In referring to this old mansion, an early writer says: “There was nothing shoddy about these people. The girls were nature’s noble women. The boy, Parke Howle, named after his fathe?, I used to play with.” ON THE southeast corner of Four- teenth street and Independence avenue once lived the late John Joy Edson, one of Washington’s best known and most beloved citizens, and here also resided his brother, Joseph R. Edson, both being engaged in the business of patent solicitors as far back as 1878, their office then being at 711 G street northwest. John Joy Edson was a veteran of the Civil War, and was.appointed a clerk in the United States Treasury Department in 1863. In 1866, he was engaged in the office of the controller of the cur- rency, his associates in that office then being: Controller, Freeman Clarke; deputy controller, H. R. Hul- bard; chief accountant, H. Baldwin; cashier, Linus M. Price; organization WOMEN BECOMING High Offices Held by Many. Number Is Impressive in Present Regime. By Lucy Salamanca. Y YHEN Senator James B. Pope VJ of Idaho declared before the Soroptimist Club of New York City a short time ago that he was not only in | favor of women holding public office on an equal footing with men, but would vote for a woman for President of the United States “if I felt such s candidate was better qualified for the place than other candidates,” he aroused Nation-wide interest in a question that is emerging from the initial facetious gtatus it once occupied to one of growing speculation. The general consensus seems to be, in response to the worthy Idaho Sen- ator's affirmation: “Well, why not?” For times and customs assuredly change, and the day when women first went to business, known as “type- writers,” in their high-necked blouses and voluminous black skirts, with a given way to an era when a woman holds a cabinet position, and in every branch of the National Government there are feminine intelligence, wits |. and shrewdness to be taken into con- sideration or consulted. Women have come to the fore to & remarkable degree under the New Deal, and whether we like the idea or approve the change is beside the point. The facts are that never be- fore in the history of this Nation have women been given s0 many oppor- tunities for expression of their talents in public life, or been permitted to stride without condescension alongside the great god man in the rushing | affairs of the day. As a historical reflection, quite apart from personal prejudice in the matter, the fact is vitally important and sig- nificant, and every public office turned over to & woman nowadays becomes another straw in the wind to point the shifting trend and the destiny of the current. It has become now a5 unintelligent to condemn woman'’s suitability for office on the grounds of sex as it would be to refuse her office on the grounds of blue eyes or titian hair. Men have learned that it is gray matter and certain physi- ological receptivity and sensitivity that can be turned to account in this com- plex world, where the human equation is becoming increasingly important. It the qualities be carried in feminine or masculine form is a secondary matter. EPPERED with questions about woman's place in the business and political world, Senator Pope stood up bravely under the feminine barrage and aligned himself with the vanguard, who ask anly that a woman Agricultural Department annex is now located. She attended the school which ha} recently been razed to make way for the engraving annex. A ahort distance west of this point was what must have been at one time B fine estate, but was then rather @ilapidated. It was spoken of as the “haunted house.’ The house could be been from the trains going South just Wfter crossing Fourteenth street, and must have been where the Burean of Engraving and Printing is now located. “My sister said if this property had An interesting history she would ap- preciate it if you would write it up some time.” This, no doubt, refers to the same picturesque old mansion which stood at the southwest cortier of Fourteenth and C streets, where is now the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, over which presides Alvin W. Hall. For many years, and as-early as 1843, it was the home of Maj. Parke G. Howle, U. 8. M. C, whose wife inherited it from the Young family, one of the earliest bnd most extensive land owners of the ground taken for the Federal Cap- i / be efficient. “There is one circumstance that should be taken into consideration when we consider the possibility of electing & woman President,” Senator Pope declared. “Our Presidents are usually middle-aged or past, and the position requires s degree of physical endurance which at that age women do not usually possess. It is & job which kills men.” At this, Senator Pope was asked by Soroptimists if he did not think Mrs. Roosevelt as well qualified physically a8 her husband, to be President. “Mrs. Roosevelt,” replied the Senator, not at all daunted, “comes a8 near a8 any woman I know to the physical endurance required of & President, but I am not convinced and I am not sure Mrs. Roosevelt is convinced, that she has sufficient strength for the job.” All this brought much discussion in the Owpitol, and a review of how other men on the Hill have felt about the matter. Senators and Repre- sentatives, as & matier of fact, are, a3 a group, well-disposed toward hav- ing women oocupy high Government ) %% < Mrs. Roosevelt is most often mentioned as the outstanding possidbility for our first lady President. offices, it appears. On more than one occasion women have been lauded for their public work by some cham- pion on the Hill, and there has been little serious protest to the various appointments of importance where the President has designated women to high office. The most recent such, of course, ‘was the appointment of Mrs. J. Borden Harriman as Minister to Norway. Mrs. Harriman, known for her alert mind and her intelligent grasp of national and international affairs, was acclaimed an excellent choice when announcement was made. There was back of Mrs. Harriman, at the time, the shining record of another public woman, Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, whose diplomacy as Minister to Den- mark is a brilliant example of skill, tact, understanding, wits and charm. WHAT extent, actually, are women holding office under the New Deal? A look into the picture is interesting. Senator Joseph P. Guffey of Pennsylvania—an avowed champion of women in public life— has something to say of value on the subject. “Women are doing a magnificent work in the great task of restoration and rebuilding now going forward under the wise supervision of Presi- dent Roosevelt,” declares Senator Guffey, “and the position of women in public affairs now is accepted. The fierce controversy over equal suffrage, which waxed intense and bitter less than 30 years ago, is all but forgotten today. Exaggeration add hysteria played a prominent part in the suffrage discussion, and, as we look back, it seems amusing to recall the predictions of disaster made by the opponents, who recolled with horror from the very ides of giving American women the right to cast a ballot in & free election. “All that nonsense about destroying the fundamentals of American Gov- ernment was relegated to the past, Just as soon as the nineteenth amend- ment became operative. The feminine part of our constituency took its new duties in deadly earnestness, and from the start it became apparent that the granting of vote to women was going to have a wholesome influence upon public life and upon the course of public events.” Although, as Senator Guffey points out, women were accorded the privilege of the franchise many years ago, he believes that they played only an in- A The Casanave-Young mansion, site of the Bureau of En- graving and Printing, Fourteenth and C streets. of banks, Albon Man; statistical divi- sion, Charles Callender;” bond clerk, O. W. Comstock; clerks, George W. Lord, James T. Howenstein, John Burroughs, George A. Atwood, David Lewis, Henry W. Jennings, J. Frankiin Bates, Charles E. Weaver, Charles Van Dusen, James L. Hatch, E. A. McKay, M. D. O'Connell, F. C. Cate, Edward Wolcott, John W. Griffin, George W. Martin, John D. Patten, jr.; H. H. 8mith, Edward S. Peck, J. W. Adams, Charles J. Kendall, Charles H. Cherry, Henry W. Berthrong, D. F. Hamlink, George Wood, C. D. Smith and Winslow Joyce; messengers, Michael Weaver, J. B. A. Schureman, J. H. Kaufman and H. Nater. Mr. Berthrong, here mentioned, played with the famous National Base Ball Club which made real history for Washington in 1867. The team then " consisted of George Wright, shortstop and team captain; W. F. Williams, pitcher; Frank P. Norton, catcher; G. A. E. Fletcher, first base; E. A. Parker, second base and left fleld; George H. Fox, third base; S. L. Studley, left fleld; Mr. Berthrong, center fleld; Harvey C. McLean, right field; A. W. Robinson and G. E. Smith, substitutes. John Joy Edson married Mr. Berthrong’s sister, Elizabeth. Residents of this corner prior to the Edsons included the Robertsons | | have long since passed into the great and the Shipmans. A few doors to the south of the Edson home lived the family of John Pettibone, a dealer in fertilizer, whose daughter, Laura, said to have been a handsome girl, married Col. Thorn- burg, of Tennessee in 1875. Of course this quaint-looking house is no longer OF AGE POLITICALLY IN UNITE < Miss Josephine Roche, As- sistant Secretary of the Treasury, on the stand be- fore a Senate Committee. direct part in national affairs before the advent of the present administra- tion. “President Woodrow Wilson,” he explains, “‘during the brief period be- tween the adoption of the nineteenth amendment and the end of his ad- ministration, began to set the custom for recognition of women in public affairs and in important official posts. But it was under President Roosevelt that women became of age politically in the United States. The President has appointed women to the highest offices because he has found them capable, efficient, loyal and competent. Women are no longer regarded as a class or group to be pampered in election year and thereafter forgotten. ‘Their recognition is permanent. Wom- en are vitally interested in such ques- tions as sweat-shop labor, child labor, decent living wages, adequate hous- ing facilities and other humanitarian legislation, and today they are given an opportunity, through office, of exercising their talents to bring about better living conditions.” THERE is hardly a department of the Government, as now set up, that has not some women in important positions. Beginning with the first appointment of a woman to the cabinet, we have Miss Frances Per- kins heading the list as Secretary of Labor. Likewise we have a first woman director of the mint, Mrs. Nellie Tay- loe Ross. Elected to the governorship of Wyoming upon the death of her husband, Mrs. Ross was also the first woman ever to serve as State executive. In the Bocial Security Board, in which all women are vitally interested, Miss Jane Hoey is director of the Boerd of Public Assistance, and under her many able woman assistants oper- ate throughout the country. In the Senate we have, of course, quiet, asteadfast little Mrs. Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, who took up her husband’s portfolio upon his death, and has gone along in & way very satisfactory to her constituents back home, it is apparent. In the House, six women are holding what was considered a man's job in the days when it was unheard of to elect a woman to Congress. President Wilson set a precedent by naming & woman as & member of the United States Civil Service Com- mission, when he appointed Mrs. Helen H. Gardner. Today Lucille McMillin oocuples the position of one ocommissioners of the three civil service | in existence, buc when it was standing the writer noted that it was two and one-half stories high with an upper and lower porch on the south side, which, apparently at one time afforded | an unobstructed view of the river, for there could not have been many houses in this vicinity at the time the dwelling was built. ANOTHER early landmark in this | neighborhood which gave way for a more modern structure in 1930, was the old building of the Department of Agriculture, first occupied in August, 1868, when Gen. Horace Capron was Commissioner of Agriculture. At this time the records and other property of the department, with the exception of the museum, were moved from the Patent Office Building at Ninth and F streets northwest. A month later the museum also was moved. On August 1, 1871, Gen. Capron resigned, “that he might accept a position as chief of a commission of American gentlemen organized by the Japanese government for the purpose of intro- ducing into Japan American methods of agriculture and other features of our industrial progress.” However, the old building has re- mained standing all these years, and probably all, or nearly all, who had anything to do with its construction beyond. But many of us of & younger generation will for years to come, no doubt, recall with pleasure this old red brick building that never said an unkind word about any one, although the architects at times took pleasure in saying unkind things about it. Soon we will have to refer to the Old building of the Department of Agriculture, erected on the Mall in 1868 and demolished in 1930. records for accurate information we may desire, of this valuable old land- mark, and when we do we will find recorded in the report of the Com- missioner of Agriculture for 1868 the following minute description, which reads: “The new building of the Depart- ment of Agriculture is 170 feet long by 61 feet deep and consists of a finished basement, three full stories, and Mansard roof. Designed in the Renaissance style of architecture, the front presents a center building with main entrance, flanked by two pro- jecting wings. The material fis pressed brick, with brownstone base, belts, trimmings and cornices. Walk- ing over a flight of swelled granite steps, the visitor passes through the main door, of oak and ash wood, into an octagonal vestibule, the floor of which is laid with rosettes and borders of encaustic tiles. The ceil- ing is decorated with fresco work, around a center representing an arbor of vine foliage and held by American eagles with spread wings; arabesque ornaments are sprung with four medal- lions illustrating in turn, by land- scape, light effect and human figures, 8pring, mornings and childhood; Summer, noon and youth; Autumn, evening and mature age; Winter, night and old age. “The reception room is chastely decorated, while the chief clerk’s room is finithed with an apparently solid molded and peaneled wainscot in curly walnut, mahogany and maple, covering the height of the side walls, surmounted by frescoed stucco cornice and a ceiling in complementary colors. “The adjoining office of the Com- missioner is done in the same mater- ial but in a higher style of the art, the panels of rich bird's-eye maple being bordered by friezes of mahogany and blistered walnut, alternating with fancy paneled pilasters in mahogany and satinwood, all parted by curly maple and set off with gilt edges. This series of rooms is completed by the private office of the Commissioner, finished in plain library style, with friezes of birch, borders of black walnut and panels of mountain ash.” N FEBRUARY 11, 1889, the De- partment of Agriculture became one of the executive departments, with a seat in the cabnet, and Presi- | dent Grover Cleveland elevated to the new post provided for by Congress, Norman J. Colman, who thus became the first Secretary of Agriculture, though of course, it was for a very short duration, for President Harri- son, s month later, appointed as Secretary Gen, Jeremiah M. Rusk, who aserved throughout Harrison's administration. It might be interesting to note that the Department of Agriculture obtained its real first start during the time that Henry L. Ellsworth was commissioner of patents, back in 1836, and undoubtedly to him, more than to any one else, is due the credit for its later formation into a separate branch of the Government and for its ultimately becoming a department with & cabinet officer at its head. Commissioner Eilsworth was from Connecticut, his term of office as commissioner of patents extending from 1836 to 1845, under Presidents Jackson, Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and James K. Polk. He had distinguished ancesiry. When he took office the Patent Office had just been reorganized, hav- Feminists always point with pride to Francis Perkins, Sec- retary of Labor, and first woman cabinet member. of the United States. Also, for the first time in the history of civil service, a woman has been appointed district manager. A recent statement of the Civil Service Commission shows 719 women on the rolls of the commission, compared with 441 men. ‘Two of the assistants in the Treasury Department are women. One of these is Marion Glass Banister, a sister of Senator Glass. The other is Miss Josephine Roche. One of the most successful supervisors in the Bureau of Narcotics is Mrs. Elizabeth Bass, whose territory includes Chicago. Isabel O'Neill of Rhode Island serves as legislative contact official of this same bureau. FOUR States in the United States have given to women the job of collector of customs. They are Min- nesota, Ohio, Iowa and Utah. As the first of her sex to hold the position, Mrs. Palmer Jerman of North Carolina was named assistant collector of in- ternal revenue. There are women in high office in the Attorney General's department, too. Stella Akin is special as- sistant, with a fine record of achieve- ment. President Wilson set a prece~ dent here when he appointed the first woman ever to serve in the capacity of Assistant Attorney General—Mrs. Annette Abbott Adams. Over in the Government Printing Office, which is the world's largest printing establishment, the personnel division is in the charge of a woman. Miss Jo Coffin holds this responsible job. Another personnel officer of the Government that has been given into the care of & woman is that of as- sistant director of the United States Employment Service. Also the chief of the Children’s Bureau is & woman. ‘Wherever you turn in the Govern- ment today, you see the same con- dition with respect to recognition of woman's ability to serve as well as man, and—in those niches where her peculiar powers can be turned to special account—better. Senator Guf- fey believes, in this respect, that women have a “humanizing influence” ‘upon government, and there has been definite indication of intent on the part of our Chief Executive to place them in positions of trust where such qualities can best be exercised. Perhaps, then, because nobody can ask 30 many pertinent questions as & woman—or answer them—one of this sex was given the post of chief of the United States Information Service. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, United States Minister to Norway, is shown at her Javorite pastime. Mrs. Harriet Root, assisted by a staff of women, answers thousands of ques- tions annually in her official capacity, regarding phases of Government activity, coming from all quarters of the country. Under the Works Progress Admin- istration women were considered on an absolutely equal footing with men. Half a million women workers through- out the country were given equal pay with men for equal work on W. P. A. projects, while such projects as goods, educational, clerical and research are being directed by the gentler sex. Under Mrs. Ellen S. Woodward, of Mississippi, work in every one of the eight W. P. A. regions and every one of the 48 States is ably directed, and her subordinates are all women. NOW let us take a look at Mr. Farley's special domain. Over in the Post Officc Department more women have been appointed to im- portant postmasterships than in any other administration. Even such im- portant post offices as those of Port- land, Me, and Oakland, Calif.,, are headed by women. And up to Sep- tember, 1935, there were 1,895 women holding postmasterships in presidential post offices, with 3,950 appointed to postmasterships in offices of fourth class. In the Department of the Interior women are holding jobs, in some in- stances, that were previously the ex- clusive property of the male. Mrs. Antoinette Funk, for example, ably conducts business as assistant com- missioner of the General Land Office; Mrs. Jessie M. Gardner is register of the land office in Denver; Miss Inez Yturri is private secretary to the first sssistant secretary; and Miss Julie Andre is chief of the Division of Distribution of the Geological Survey. The United States Indian agency in New Mexico—an area where such agencies were formerly supervised by men—is under the supervision of Dr. Sophie D. Aberle. “Men’s jobs” have also been taken over in the Public Works Administration by feminine brains and hands. That is to say that three important positions in this adminiztration which would ordinarily be filled by men are held, variously, by Mrs. Leona Graham, as executive sssistant to the administrator; Miss Elizabeth Rountree, counsel for the legal division of North Oarolina; and Miss Louise McCarthy, chief counsel of the legal division of Pennsylvanis. - |Statesmen Pay Tribute to STATES Their Great Qualities, Even for President. The same situation is prevalent in | other Government departments. In Commerce, Agriculture, Health—every- where one turns he sees a woman in important office. Chief clerk of the Bureau of Fisheries; assistant ex- {aminer of trade marks and designs in the Patent Office; assistant to the |director of the Census Bureau; as- sistant economic analyst in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce— all are women. Even in Hawail and Puerto Rico, our country is ably represented by this sex that men feared for so long a period to see represented. Car- rick Buck sits in Hawaill as judge of the Circuit Court; in Puerto Rico & woman serves as commissioner of immigration, and there are two other feminine immigration commissioners in this country. Mrs. Mary Comnor Myers serves Agriculture as attorney on the staff of the solicitor; Dr. Day Monroe is chief of the Economics Division of the Bureau of Home Economics, and Miss Helen Holbrook also holds high office in Agriculture's Bureau of Home Economics. In the Agricultural Ad- justment Administration, 20 women hold responsible and well-paid posi- tions. O THE list grows and woman's role is extended. It is too late now for those of another era to gry out against the suffrage of woman. She has taken her place in national affairs and become a natural part of the fabric of Government. If we happen to like to think of women as that gentler sex who “sat on a cushion and sewed a fine seam,” that's just too bad for us. The world goes for- ward and we go with it, and the little Victorian lady who swooned when her lover kissed her hand is as dead as door nails. Now she is helping to figure out the war debt or down in & coal mine finding out what makes labor hazardous. And all the dire predictions about losing our charms seem, after all, to have come to naught. Men, on the contrary, find slluring all these precise and beauti- ful ponderings that go on nowadays back of a lovely countenance. And— more surprising than all—men have shown no reluctance to admit it. If women are being recognized in this age on the same straightforward basis as men, it is not a grudging recognition, but a completely gracious one. The men themselves are out front acclaiming us. “It will be a better day for America when women have as large a part in shaping the policies between nations as they now are beginning to have in shaping the domestic policies of the Nation,” de- clares Senator Guffey, “when this comes about, the result will be bene- ficial to the whole world in the struggle for justice and equality for all” Then, as if this tribute were not snough, the Pennsylvania Senator closes on s note as gallant as any of that earlier day when women did sit on fine cushions and tie up their bonny brown locks in amoods. He closes, in short, with this bit of verse: “When grester perils men environ, ‘Then women show a front of iron; And gentle in their manner, they Do bold things in a quiet way.” Can there be any question that woman is coming into her own? Government is opening wide its doors to her, and if not the world—surely the United States is “her oyster,” which she “at will may open.” It may even come to pass that Senator Pope will some day be called upon to make good that assertion and vote for an American woman for President, provided he “felt her better qualified for the piace than other candidates.” We are not advocating this, mind you | »« wo but racoed it. | ing been made a separate bureau of the Government on July 4, 1836, and by the same law the office of com- missioner of patents was created. At this time the Patent Office was housed in the old Blodgett Hotel Building, on E street between Seventh and Eighth streets, where later was erected the Post Office Department Building, subsequently used as the General Land Office. On December 15 of this year (1836) the Blodgett Building was destroyed by fire and nearly all the patent modeis were lost in the flames. The Patent Office sought quarters in the City Hall, now the Court House, on Louisiana avenue, and there it remained until 1840, when it was moved to the building at Ninth and F streets northwest. And recently to the Interior Department Building. SPEAKING of Mr. Ellsworth's ace tivities in encouraging and fur- thering agricultural pursuits, James M. Swank, chief clerk of the Depart- ment of Agriculture for some years, in 1872, said: “Mr. Ellsworth was commissioner of patents from 1836 to 1845, and one of the first subjects which engaged his attention after assuming the duties of the office was the impulse which had been given at that day to improvements in the implements of agriculture, and the aid which agri- culture might derive from the es- tablishment of a regular system for the selection and distribution of grain and seeds of the choicest varieties for agricultural purposes. “During the administration of John Quincy Adams, the consuls of the United States were instructed to for- ward to the State Department rare plants and seeds for distribution, and & botanical garden was established in Washington. Little was done in the ocollection and distribution of seeds thus authorized, but to the association of this enterprise with the Patent Office in the State Department Mr. Ellsworth was doubtless indebted for the hint of a more comprehensive system of seed distribution. “In 1836 and 1837, the first two years of his incumbency, the com- missioner, without legal authorization, received and distributed many seeds and plants which had been gratuitously transmitted to him. In his first annual report, dated January 1, 1838, he called the attention of Congress to the subject, and strongly recommended that provision be made for the estab- lishment at the National Capital of a depository of new and valuable va- rieties of seeds and plants for dis- tribution to every part of the United States. He further recommended that this depository be made a part of the Patent Office. “No immediate action was taken by Congress upon the recommenda- tions, but this neglect did not dis- courage the commissioner from con- tinuing his self-imposed task of dis- tributing, under the frank of friend- ly members of Congress, improved Vi rieties of wheat, corn, etc., the bene- ficial effects of which distribution were fully shown in testimonials from all parts of the country. “O)N THE 21st of January, 1839, Isaac Fletcher of Vermont, chairman of the Committee on Pat- ents of the House of Representatives, addressed a letter to Comussioner Ellsworth requesting the communi- cation of information relative to the collection and distribution of seeds and plants, also relative to the prac- ticability of obtaining agricultural statistics. To this letter of inquiry the commissioner responded on the following day, reciting the action already taken by him to further the cause of agriculture and assigning many reasons why his previous rec- ommendations should be adopted. In this communication the commissioner suggested that arrangements could be made for the exhibition of differ~ ent kinds of grain, exotic and ine digenous, in the new Patent Office.’ “In the closing hours of the Twen- ty-fifth Congress (act of 3d March, 1839) the commissioner was gratified by the passage of an appropriation of $1,000, to be taken from the Patent Office funds for this purpose.” Racketeeress (Continued From First Page.) all these conventions were actually held the organization would neces- sarily have to be sextuplets because a solicitor told us that he is aware o at least six advertisers in different cities who took space because they thought the convention was to take place in their particular city. Another aggregation of solicitors is raising funds in the name of the “Union Labor Foundation,” and their appeal on the telephone is the “same old line,” other than the fact they are not seeking advertisements, for & mighty good reason. Cash contribu- tions for poor, undernourished kiddies (if they would please only leave these poor kiddies alone!) of the unemployed are requested. Whole-hearted publio support is being received, although there positively is no such organiza- tion, the funds being diverted to lare cenomm mith seemingly no fear whatsoever ot ey ewppressed. The manner in which the pight of poor children is being uss. by the “charity chiseler” to further thievery in the District was brought forcibly to our attention by contrast this week when we witnessed the delightful spec- tacle of 5,000 excited, joyful kids, the guests of Clark Griffith at a base ball game between the White Sox and the Nats. It brought to mind the splendid gesture made by this grand old man of base ball, when, as a sports writer on a big city daily, we wrote the story of his effort to reduce the price of sdmission for kids to 25 cents throughe out the circuit, but was voted down by the other American League moguls ¢ L