Americans At Work: Government Workers (ca. 1960)

[Music] a street walked in Spirit by every American Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC route of the highest officer in the land on inauguration day thoroughfare for conducting the business of a modern democracy Americans at work more than 2 million workers in more different kinds of jobs than there are in any other business conducting the biggest business in the United states that of your federal government workers in 500 different occupations in 80 agencies the smallest the commission of Fine Arts with three employees the largest the Department of Defense with over a million make the American citizen the largest employer in the world the popular concept is that government workers are concentrated in Washington but for every civil servant in the nation's capital 10 work elsewhere in Regional Laboratories they test projects that will remake the geography of the country at experiment stations scatter the length and breadth of the land they devise the standards that will protect the purity of our food in cities in towns in rural areas and lonely outposts they gather information for making predictions on our favorite subject the weather at testing bureaus in key spots an infinite variety of objects must pass rigid examinations for the protection of the public government workers are everywhere that there is a need for information and service to the American citizen many of them have never even been to Washington employees of your civil service work for you next door and all over the world and soon will be in outer space from the treasury bill go forth the forms that make us most conscious of Government Federal Income Tax Returns as in all government agencies an extensive information service is maintained to Aid the citizen employees of the Internal Revenue Service have the Dage most intact and diplomacy to make palatable one of the most unpleasant Facts of Life taxes although theirs is a thank business they take great pains to see that you pay no more than your share they work however in the knowledge that for your taxes you are getting value received Public Works Justice progress education and Freedom the biggest bargain in history American [Music] citizenship but collecting taxes is just one of a thousand tasks performed by government workers the same Department the treasury that must raise the money to provide us with public services beyond the ability of private individuals to supply also prints our paper [Music] money every transaction involving currency is an example of the way in which the work of civil service employees touches Our Lives Many Times every day each dollar bill has a brief but busy life expectancy of approximately 13 months which is why new bills are constantly being put into circulation treasury workers are also charged with the responsibility of protecting us against counterfeits forgers and tampers at mints distributed over the United States our coin makers handle more hard cash in a day than most of us do in a lifetime only the most scrupulously honest could stand the strain of creating fortunes without becoming a penny richer their fellow workers are the famous t-men and Coast Guardsmen of peacetime who help guard our borders as well as our treasury study carefully a bill or stamp of any denomination to see the results of one of the smallest but most valuable professions in the country cerography or steel Engraving this knowledge could be dangerous if applied outside the Bureau of Engraving these are the Bits of Paper that will take a letter or a parcel anywhere for a few cents the same care goes into the engraving of the picture on a postage stamp as goes into the design of paper currency flaws and defects may make certain stamps more valuable to the fatalist but the Bureau of Engraving doesn't want them to circulate through the post offices the inspector detects imperfections with the naked eye as the large sheets quiz [Music] by the weatherman has always been a Spaceman even though it's inner rather than outer space the success of his job depends on how fast he can collect information on the atmosphere and translate it into weather forecasts for the rest of us no one knows how he got to be called the weatherman when it takes the combined knowledge and experience of thousands of scientist and Technical workers to produce a single weather report air may all look alike to the uninitiated but a vast array of Highly specialized instruments is needed to record atmospheric conditions in a science called meteorology there is even a special weather that occurs in a layer around the earth just a few inches off the ground this concerned only the insects until recently now it has been found of great importance to Farmers in understanding the behavior of growing crops inside the weather station radar tracks the course of the balloon which is equipped with a radio transmitter to send back its collected data for most of us nothing is more out of date than yesterday's weather report to weathermen every fact that was ever gathered is useful in foretelling the future so they carefully file each tidbit for its value in interpreting the next movement of air mass the path of the next TN the extent of tomorrow's sunshine or storm the duration of whatever is to come out of the sky this is truly a wedding of Art and [Music] Science in a nation of inventors and Originators there must be special protection for its creative people the patent office is set up to provide this protection through patents copyrights and registration of trademarks the founding fathers laid the basis for this service in the Constitution to promote the Arts and Sciences and they have not been let down the American is a Restless tinkerer hardly ever satisfied with the way things have been done before his time a patent does not guarantee success for the inventer nor even bestow the right to manufacture an article it does protect him from competition and it does give him exclusive rights to the product of his imagination if hundreds or even thousands of these brain children find their way no further than the patent office dozens of them become the contributions that carry civilization [Music] forward a little known but extremely important duty of government workers is the regulation of weight and measures everyday living would be in a state of chaos if we did not have reliable units of weight and measurement a standard kilogram which can be translated into pounds and ounces is kept in a vault at the Bureau of Standards it is this that makes it possible for the scales in your neighborhood stores to Bear the legend honest weight replicas are calibrated with this original under the most carefully controlled conditions so sensitive is this true weight that it must be handled with tongs and kept at a constant temperature to prevent fluctuations and resulting inaccuracies we owe this achievement in standardization to John quinsey Adams sixth president of the United States who felt that his effort in this field was a greater accomplishment than being president he said weights and measures may be ranked among the necessities of life they enter into the daily concerns of every family they are necessary to every occupation of human industry to the security of property to every transaction of trade and commerce to the labors of the husbandman and the artificer to the studies of the philosopher to the Mariner and the soldier to all the exchanges of peace and all the operations of War we would probably not know our own strength in numbers if it were not for the work of the Census Bureau the Department of Commerce has set up a dramatic scoreboard of how our population stands up to this minute the calculations of scores of statisticians are behind the lights that flash to indicate that someone is born dies enters or leaves the country to stay Around the Clock The Voice of America broadcasts America's message of democracy to the world the master control is the technical heart and brains of The Voice this control board is the largest and most flexible in the world it is designed to make possible the selection of programs from a 100 different sources and to handle 26 separate Transmissions at one time there are direct lines to the White House the state State Department the capital the national Press Club national airport and Constitution Hall in Washington it is connected with United Nations Headquarters in New York City and broadcasting centers in Munich Germany Paris France and United States commercial radio and television networks highly specialized workers speak for all of us to the people of other nations throughout this one arm of the United States information agency we send the message in over 40 languages using natives of the country to which they broadcast most of these are now American citizens many of the programs are live some are recorded on tape or discs these are shipped as package programs for placement in local stations or networks in foreign [Music] countries the Pentagon symbol of big government made necessary in a complex world half of all Civil Service employees work in National Defense work here and in thousands of field offices is typical of government office jobs but in the routine of typing and filing may start the ripples that Eddy out to become world shaking events the big names the Statesmen and politicians must be backed up by numberless typists tgraph clerks and Messengers who document unfolding history in the minutest detail from moment to moment paperwork reflects the demands of our citizens for service from their government a small but specially trained group of workers is responsible for the vital records that affect the lives of every American the National Archives may contain documents of the life of the humblest citizen as well as momentos of our greatest figures actions and accounts are on file here that would stretch miles into the past a past that at any moment is likely to turn into the future in these files may be the proof that will identify a missing person or that will establish a fact of American history that may be under [Music] dispute a street walked in Spirit by every American a street symbolizing the Public Service of 2 million workers members of the American Federation of government employees of the AFL C conduct the Affairs of your government so that you may enjoy the benefits of peace prosperity and freedom America am an at work for you Americans at work presented as a public service by the AF ofl [Music] CIO next week another interesting story of Americans at work Americans whose skill and effort help keep our country great and strong [Music]