Evening star. [volume], March 20, 1937, Page B-1, Image 15

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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FEATURES
mz Wtoznim
J _ V s WITH »UWDAY MOEMOT EPITIOH
WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1937. PAGE B—1
SCHOOLS TRAIN U. S. EMPLOYES
Uncle Sam, in Cap and Gown, Offers Variety of Courses to Pre
pare Federal Workers for Duties—Popularity of Government
"Universities” Shown by Increasing Enrollments.
By Eugene Guild.
HE Federal Government Is going
into the business of training
its employes. Developing slow
ly at first, but with increasing
momentum, there have grown up a
group of schools and training courses
within the Government departments,
designed to familiarize a new employe
with the requirements of his job or
to give men and women already in the
•ervice additional equipment with
which to meet new problems of their
work or to increase their chances of
promotion.
More than a dozen Government
agencies are conducting "in-service”
training programs, with thousands
of enrolled students and instruction !
In everything from advanced optics
to the expert use of a sub-machine
gun and from scientific German to
glass-blowing. Among the organiza
tions conducting such courses are: .
The Department of Agriculture, with
its graduate school, and training
courses in the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics and the Forest Service; i
the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and Soil
Conservation Service in the Interior
Department; the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and Bureau of
Labor Statistics in the Department of
Labor; the F. B I. in the Department
of Justice; the Bureau of the Census,
the Farm Credit Administration and
the Social Security Board.
The development of vocational
training, after employment rather
than before, is comparatively new both
in the Government service and in
private industry. The old system of
apprenticeship, inedequate to meet
the complexities of the present, has
disappeared and left a gap which has
only begun to be filled within recent
years. The Federal Government has
been slower, on the whole, to tackle the
problem than has private industry,
but within the last decade there has
developed a realization of the need for
training the Government worker for
his job, instead of leaving the matter
to luck or to the employe’s own initia
tive.
It is often not enough to select
then and women with the right sort
of background and education, thrust
them into positions requiring all sorts
of peculiar technical skill, and leave
them to flounder around in the un
familiar work until they have mastered
It. It is too wasteful of the Govern
ment’s time and the employe’s energy.
Furthermore, employes with years of
experience sometimes find themselves
confronted with new work which re
quires training they do not have and
cannot get unassisted. So various
departments and bureaus have de
veloped programs and schools for
training their workers. It has been
a spontaneous, unco-ordinated move
ment, but the results have been so
satisfactory that it is growing and will
continne to do so, the more perhaps
if the plan to extend the Civil Service
and make It a truly career proposition
takes definite form.
rJ'RAINING schools within the Gov
ernment departments may be
classified into three main types, de
pending on the relation of the schools
to the department and to the work of
the employes. First is a group sup
ported by the tuition fees of the
•tuden:s. with classes conducted after
office hours, and attendance on a
purely voluntary basis. Next is a
group whose work is concurrent with
the employment of its students—that
is. students attend classes partly on
their own time and partly on the Gov
ernment’s, attendance being either
voluntary or compulsory. A third
group gives concentrated, full-time
training, usually as a preliminary to
appointments within the department,
with students attending classes
throughout each day for a definite
training period. To these major types
may be added some interesting de
velopments in training by correspond
ence. and in the university training
of Government employes.
The outstanding example of the vol
untary. tuition-supported school, and
a pioneer in the field of in-service
training is the Graduate School of the
Department of Agriculture, which has
grown from modest beginnings until
It Is almost a university within a Gov
ernment department. It was started
In 1921 because Henry Wallace, then
Secretary of Agriculture, father of the
present Secretary, realized the need for
"adequate training of those who enter
the sendee in the lower positions.” The
first courses were strictly laboratory
affairs, in the physical and biological
•ciencos. Later, other types of instruc
tion were added as the need arose. In
vestigators found they needed a work
ing knowledge of Russian in order to
digest Soviet agricultural bulletins.
Statisticians came into the depart
ment with doctors’ degrees, but a shaky
knowledge of algebra, and no concept
whatever of the technique of getting
out a crop report. So the school grew.
Since 1926 it has been headed by Dr.
A. F. Woods, with the title of director.
Originally a specialist in plant dis
eases, he was drafted to take charge
of the school just as it was beginning
to expand, and as he says, he has been
“holding the baby" ever since.
It is a healthy, growing “baby," with
an enrollment, of about 2,300. Around ,
1,000 of these come from the Depart- !
ment of Agriculture itself; the others!
are from almost every other branch
of the Federal establishment, from
semi-official bodies like the Pan-Amer
ican Union, from foreign embassies
and from private employment. Over
50 courses are offered. Most of the
instructors are drawn from the various
bureaus of the department, but there
are some from other Government
agencies and from local universities,
with special lecturers from the leading
colleges of the country.
'T'HERE are a series of courses in
botany and agricultural chem
istry: others, with hundreds of stu
dents, in statistics. Courses in eco
nomics and accounting, many of them
specialized studies adapted to depart
mental needs, are very popular, as are
the language courses. A very unusual
course is being given at present on
climatology, with instructors from the
staff of the Weather Bureau, and spe
cial attention to the problems of long
range weather forecasting. There
are courses in landscape design, in
Federal jurisdiction and procedure, in
blue-print reading, and in the mor
phology and classification of soils.
The expenses of the school are paid
entirely from tuition fees, the func
| tion of the department going no fur
ther than detailing a staff for super
vision and instruction, and permitting
the use of its rooms and laboratories.
Tuition fees are $12 a semester for
two-hour a week studies. Classes are
held from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. Students
are given credit for their work, and
j these credits have been accepted by
j the graduate schools of universities
j throughout the country. In some
oases, promising students who are in
I agriculture itself are given furloughs
i so that they can finish their work and
I receive a degree at some university.
Attendance at the school is entirely
voluntary for employes of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, and none of the
courses are pre-requisites for any po
sition, but it undoubtedly helps em
ployes in doing better work and getting
promotions.
The exact opposite of all this is the
“concentrated” training program con
ducted by various agencies as part of
their official set-up. There is no ques
tion with them of tuition, voluntary
attendance, or the acceptance of stu
dents from outside the organization.
Employes are required to take the
courses as part of their work, usually
at the beginning of their employment
as preparation for their jobs.
A good example of this type of
instruction is the Foreign Service
Officers' Training School of the State
Department. Newly appointed foreign
service officers come to the school,
usually in batches of about 35 a year,
after six months’ probationary work
in a consular office, for three months
of intensive study. During their field
experience the men have become suffi
ciently familiar with the problems of
the foreign service to be looking for
some very practical instruction, and
that is what the school tries to give
them. Some of the subjects, which
are presented to the class are: Offi
cial accounts and returns, State De
partment codes and international
communications, United States immi
gration laws, passport and registration
work, international law and treaty
procedure.
men teaching in the school
are experts in their field, drawn
from the State Department in Wash
ington. They do not devote all their
time to the occupation, but leave their
regular positions only long enough to
present the material to the class. On
the other hand, the school work is a
full-time affair for the students.
Throughout the period of instruction
they are on their regular salary and
are expected to give their undivided
attention to the school.
As each instructor finishes his part
of the course he submits an evaluation
of the student along with that stu
(1) There’s college atmosphere in the ancient spires
of the Smithsonian Institute. (2) Special schooling an
swers the urge for higher education in the Internal Reve
nue Bureau, where this class is taking notes on an expert’s
lecture. (3) Instruction in the art of glass blowing being
given at the Smithsonian. Dr. Leland is the “prof.” (4)
Students plying “comparative nematology,” the study of
insect pests, at the Department of Agriculture. (5) The
Administration Building of the Department of Agricul
ture, where classes are held regularly.
dent's grade. These evaluations are
grades count heavily toward the ap
pointment which the student will re
ceive when he finishes the course. The
State Department has developed the
school as a final testing-ground for its
foreign service officers, and has been
careful to have a school in keeping
with the importance of the task.
A NOTHER school of the same type
is the Federal Bureau of Investi
gation School in the Department of
Justice, where fledgling special agents
are put through a course of sprouts
from which they emerge as well
qualified G-men. This school has been
operating since 1924 and has left a
deep impression on the whole per
sonnel of the bureau, for it puts its
stamp on every one of its alumni. In
a survey of the in-service training
problem prepared by John E Devine
for the National Institute of Public
Affairs it is referred to as "the most
compact, the most effective and best
equipped training school in Washing
ton.”
Housed in three large class rooms in
the new Department of Justice Build
ing, the school also has the use of the
department's library, its fingerprint
collection and its laboratories. There
are five instructors, who have all had
previous experience in academic pur
suits and in the field of criminology,
and who are at all times on call to go
back to the active investigative
service.
After his appointment as special
agent a new man comes to Washing
ton and enters the training school.
He is there 10 hours a day and six
days a week for three-month period.
The course is broken down into five
main topics—administrative work, and
! technical, legal, scientific and inves
I tigative training. Instruction is sup
| plemented by discussions of the sub
i ject in hand by some of the bureau’s
' experts. Among the subjects handled
are criminal procedure in the Federal
courts, national bankruptcy act inves
tigations, perjury and kidnaping in
vestigations, war risk insurance suits,
fingerprint identifications, crime sta
tistics and the law of arrests.
Along with this theoretical training
goes a lot of practical experience. After
the first month of the training period
the new agents are sent out on cases
with some of the older and already es
tablished men. After a few of these
companion trips the new man is sent
out alone on a simple case. By the
end of his three-month period he has
built up a considerable amount of self
reliance. and those in charge are able
to judge his fitness for the work. Each
"trainee" must learn to use a gun. He
is given instruction in shooting all
through his training period, spending
one week on the shooting range of the
Marine Barracks at Quantico.
The men are subject to examinations
at the completion of each of the five
main units of training, and then stand
a very difficult final examination. If
successful in all this they are appoint
ed to a field office at the end of their
training period. They remain on pro
bation for an additional three months
in the field and then receive their per
manent appointments.
The school performs other functions
besides training new appointees. Each
man in the service must come to the
school every 18 months and receive, for
one month, instruction in the latest
developments of the profession. There
are few organizations where the train
ing program has been tied in so well
: with the work of the service as in this
case. The results have been spread
over the front pages of every news
paper in the country.
JN BETWEEN these intensive, full
time training programs and the
I voluntary, tuition-supported schools
SPEED AND DARING DEMANDED DAILY WITH NEWS CAMERA
- •!«-•!• - -
By William A. Bell, Jr.
take along a photog
pher.”
It's routine instruction
vo the newspaper reporter
nowadays. The picture is a necessary
complement to the story. Often, in
deed, the story is of secondary im
portance, and there may come a day
when a photgrapher will be told to
take along a reporter, instead of vice
versa.
The current popularity of news
picture magazines, newsreels, picture
supplements and newspapers which
give their "write-ups” a liberal ac
companiment of illustrations suggests
the demand for photographic record
ings of the activities of this planet is
still elastic.
In the pursuit of material to satiate
this public appetite photographers
have experiences which seldom get a
recital outside newspaper offices, un
less it is to wide-eyed children or
grandchildren. The boys with the
black boxes, familiar wherever there
are events of enough importance to
merit newspaper mention, are among
the most anonymous of workmen in
an anonymous work. Seldom the re
cipients of "by-lines,” their assign
ments often require longer hours,
Boom! went the cuspidor.
harder work than those of the re
porters whose accounts they illustrate.
The endowment of the good photog
rapher must include physical speed
and physical daring, mental speed
and mental daring.
Books could be filled with the ad
ventures of newspaper photographers
—books as absorbing as the small li
brary of volumes currently being
turned out by autobiographically in
clined reporters and foreign corre
spondents. Since the principal me
dium of the news photographer is the
newspaper, and since the newspaper
is a limited medium, this article will
content itself with a report of some
reminiscences from our "own back
yard."
gOME of the yarns go back to years
when photography was a slower
and more hazardous process than It is
today, a circumstance which caused
episodes more amusing and occasion
ally more dangerous than those of the
new era of safer camera equipment.
There are any number of stories about
accidents with flash powder, forerun
ner of the flash bulb. Irwin Pridgeon,
veteran photographer of The Star
staff, recalled several.
Among the best is his account of an
assignment to photograph a new Con
gressman, the picture to be used in
connection with a feature story about
the neophyte legislator.
The incident occurred about six
years ago—in the pre-flash bulb era.
"Pridge" went to the Congressman’s
office in the old House Office Building,
posed his subject and poised his pow
der-loaded flint lamp. When he was
ready to make an exposure he pulled
a trigger which should have spun a
flint wheel, struck a spark and caused
the powder to explode. The device
failed to operate. "Pridge,” hurrying to
make his picture, dumped the powder
in a brass cuspidor, cleaned the lamp,
reloaded, took his picture and departed.
He had been back in The Star of
fice only a few minutes when his
phone rang. The caller, wroth, excited
and a little frightened, demanded to
know what the h- "Pridge” had
done.
Some one had tossed a cigar into the
cuspidor and touched off the flash
powder. The result: A roar, a burst ol
flames and smoke and a geyser of to
bacco Juice, cigar and cigarette butts
and assorted debris. Woodwork, walls
and furniture were bombarded with
the mess. Greasy brown stains were
everywhere. The room had to be re
finished completely.
A similar, but even more damaging,
flash powder incident is recalled by Cy
Perkins, another Star photographer of
long and varied experience. Andrew
Crawford, Cy recalls, was assigned to
photograph an election night crowd
watching bulletins being flashed on a
Anonymous Workers Pick Up Material Which Would
Produce Thrills in Any Occupation, But Usually
Are Reserved for Their Closest Friends
<>ONORy
—'—r
9«8
The judges arrived by laundry truck.
screen in front of The Star Building
some 19 or 20 years ago.
rJ'HE ingenious Andrew mounted to
the roof of an adjoining build
ing. no longer standing, although it’s
not Crawford’s fault that it isn't—and
heaped flash powder into a rain gut
ter running horizontally along the
roof edge. The more flash powder, the
more widely distributed, the better the
picture, Crawford reasoned, rigging up
a fuse.
When the charge was touched oft
you can imagine what happened. There
was a terrific flash, with “boom!" to
match, and the roof coping flew into
pieces, leaving piles of twisted tin, per
forated tin, splinters, etc. The collec
tive feet of the crowd below left the
pavement and there was a mighty
gasp, followed by some movement of
hurried exit, until it was discovered
that the spectacular explosion above
had far more bark than bite.
Crawford’s employers had to pay for
the damage to the roof next door, but
Crawford was unhurt—and he had his
picture, an excellent one!
Prldgeon gets a laugh now from the
flash powder-cuspidor incident, but in
tervening years have done little to
soften his memory of another case of
accidentally discharge powder.
RE HAD been asked by one of his
employers to photograph an of
fice interior in The Star Building ad
dition on Eleventh street, just com
pleted at the time. While he was pre
paring flash powder to make an ex
posure, his lamp “kicked back,” ignit
ing a 2-ounce bottle of powder which
he held in one hand. Virtually every
window pane on the sixth floor was
shattered by the explosion. Deafened
by tha noise, blinded by the brief
blaze of white light, “Pridge”
stood stunned and blinking, uncertain
as to whether he had been blown to
kingdom come or was still in the com
paratively mortal precincts of The
Star Building. A sharp pain in the
hand that had been holding the pow
der bottle soon convinced him. Em
ployes of the Washington Herald, then
located across the street, thought a
competing newspaper had been erased
from the face of the earth. People
came running. Pridgeon, much to
every one's surprise, including his own,
was relatively intact Injuries to his
hand laid him up for three weeks,
however.
Also among Irwin Pridgeon's ex
periences is this episode in connection
with picture coverage of the Knicker
bocker Theater disaster:
Wishing to get a “shot” looking
down into the ruins of the theater’s
interior, “Pridge" negotiated with the
owner of an adjoining four-story
building, an apartment house with
delicatessen on the ground floor, to
allow him on the roof. The building
owner said the privilege would cost $5.
Without pausing to take inventory of
his wallet, Pridgeon said that would
be all right, and ascended to the roof
through a trapdoor.
When he had taken the desired pic
tures, "Pridge” sought to descend.
The building owner demanded his
“pound of flesh.” The photographer
discovered to his dismay that he had
only 50 cents.
“Then you’ll not get down,” said
the owner, pulling shut the trapdoor
from below and locking it.
In vain did Pridgeon call down that
his office would repay the man imme
diately if he would please just listen
to reason. The temperature was con
siderably below freezing, and, as every
one familiar with the circumstance*
I
of the catastrophe knows, there was
22 inches of snow on the ground.
Shivering and blue with cold, Prid
geon remained on that roof for three
hours until he attracted a colleague
to whom he dropped his negatives for
delivery to The Star, along with an
S. O. S. for the cash that would obtain
his release. Soon the necessary “bond”
arrived and the roof prisoner was re
leased.
'J'WENTY-SIX years ago. while
working for Clinedinst's, a com
mercial photographic agency at Four
teenth and H streets, under contract
to The Star, Pridgeon had a profes
sional encounter with Dr. Mary
Walker, famous but eccentric Civil
War nurse in whose behalf Congress
passed a law permitting her to wear
male garb in order to facilitate her
work among the troops. The war
over. Dr. Walker continued to affect
masculine attire—trousers, silk hat,
cane. etc. Her favorite costume was
full evening dress, stiff-bosomed shirt
and all, and one fine day in she
marched to Clinedinst's studio, a tiny
but arresting figure in men's formal
party clothes. When she stated her
business, the studio personnel was
astonished, if not aghast. It was that
she wanted to be photographed lying
in a coffin so that she might see her
self as she would lot* when dead.
Importing a rented or borrowed cas
ket, the studio posed Dr. Walker
therein. Around one of her fingers,
at her insistence, was twisted a wire
which held a stuffed canary, a pet of
her nursing days. The canary was
arranged to give the appearance of
kissing the eccentric woman on lips
"silenced by death.”
Ten or 15 pictures were taken, and
upon development seemed satisfac
tory and were sent to Dr. Walker.
"In a few days,” says Pridgeon,
“she came in raving like a maniac.
She stormed that here we had gone
and taken so many pictures of her
lying in a casket and what had we
done!
“We said: ‘What?’
“Well, it seems we had neglected
to remove her spectacles.”
JOHN MUELLER, 16 years with The
" Star photographic staff, still trem
bles, he says, when he thinks of the
wild ride that constituted his most
terrifying experience.
In company with Perkins, a col
league, Mueller was sent to accom
pany a force of "revenooers” which
was to raid a still near Marlboro, Md.
The chief of the raiding party picked
up the photographers in his car and
set out.
Frightening enough were the speed
of the car and the driving conditions.
At 65, 70 and 75 miles an hour, the
revenue officer drove over narrow
roads made glassy by a steady, cold
drizzle. The night was "black as the
pit from pole to pole.” and the rain
did nothing to improve the visibility.
But what made hair rise on the
photographer's necks and goose pim
ples prickle their skin was their com
pany in the back seat—two boxes of
dynamite!
Mueller said their safe arrival in
Marlboro was like being granted a
reprieve when just about to step into
the electric chair.
The photographer’s’ feeling of relief
was short-lived, however. With drawn
guns the revenue men started on foot
through some woods toward the spot
where the still had been located.
Mueller and Perkins stumbled along
behind. It was about 3 a.m. and still
raining. At each crackle of twig or
crunch of rotted log the photogra
phers chewed little pieces out of their
hearts, now held continually between
their teeth.
VX/HEN the still was reached none
of its operators was there, but a
few minutes later a lookout whom the
raiding party had left on the road was
(Continued on Page B-3)
are a group of training courses oper
ated on a "concurrent” basis—that is,
partly on the employe's time and partly
on that of the Government. The sub
ject matter of these courses is more in
line with the needs of most Govern
ment employes Few of them are going
to be foreign service officers or G-men,
but there are many thousands who
would find much of value in training
like that given through the courses in
statistics recently established by the
Bureau of the Census.
This bureau employs a large number
of people at the lower clerical levels,
and it was recognized that they might
be better able to perform their tasks in
a statisticad bureau if they received
1 some instruction in the subject. Then,
too. with this additional learning some
of them might be able to advance to
better paying positions So an ele
mentary course in statistics was quietly
announced, with the idea that about
100 employes might want to take ad
vantage of it. When the applications
were counted it was found that there
! were 500 persons who wanted to take
! the course.
The bureau was not prepared to
i handle this large number and was
forced to limit enrollment to 264.
These were divided into class sections
of approximately 50. The classes were
, taught by expert statisticians on the
| staff of the bureau, and no tuition fee
! was charged. Each group met three
| times a week for a six-week period.
Problems were assigned at every class
meeting and discussed in the following
class. The work began with simple
arithmetic and gradually introduced
the student to statistical methods. The
classes were held from 4 to 5 in the
afternoon, half of the time being the
Governments, and this gesture of fair
ness on the part of the bureau did
much to increase the popularity of the
courses.
They proved so popular, in fact, that
it was decided to give them in co
operation with the School of Public
Affairs of American University, so that
the students could get academic credit
for the work. The classes are still held
at the Bureau of the Census or the
Commerce Building, but extend
throughout a semester, and are now
expanded into an elementary course in
statistical and calculation, and ad
vanced courses on census data and the
principles of statistical research. The
instructors are drawn from the staff
of the bureau as before.
The spread of the in-service train
ing idea is shown by the fact that the
Social Security Board, newest of per
manent Government agencies, in
stalled work of this kind at the very
beginning of its existence. Its leading
officials believed that a training pro
gram was a necessary equipment in
building up an organization on the
basis of merit and efficiency—an or
ganization, moreover, that was in
trusted with administering a pioneer
piece of social legislation.
This proved to he no still picture.