Another in our series of Minneapolis Tribune stories that include the word “newspaporial”:

That Clock.

The Stillwater department has a clock. Its frame is a compound affair, containing, as it does, a thermometer and barometer, as well as a time-piece, which surmounts the whole. Altogether it has a sea-going face. Gazing upon it, visions of Capt. Cuttle, the Wooden Midshipman, Jack Bunsby, Paul Jones, Midshipman Easy, and a hundred other nautical heroes flit through the imagination. Then it has, withal, a staid sort of an air. Its every tick seems to say: “You may depend upon me forever. The sun and moon may vary, but I never will. Its appearance, its declarations and its associations had gained for it the reportorial bosom confidence, which had been further heightened by the test of experience. It had never been known to fail at 4:15 p.m. of each day. It was always on time.

But the devil got into that clock on Friday, and by its agency played a scurvy trick on the Faberian Knight. In fancied security, he closed his package for Saturday’s Tribune as the hands of that fickle – yet trusted – monitor pointed to 4:01. It was earlier by some 14 minutes than that daily operation is generally performed, so he did it leisurely, and with equal unconcern stepped quietly over to the depot and found the train skimming the curve by the State Prison on its outward passage to Minneapolis.

That reporter did not roar. He was too sad for that. But he solemnly reflected upon the many times he had been made the victim of misplaced confidence during his chequered career. He went to bed, thinking of the absence, next day in The Tribune, of the Stillwater news. He dreamed of newspaper scoops. He caught a night mare, in which a barometrical thermometrical horologue played such hellish tricks that the cold perspiration exuded from every pore, and finally plunged him into a sea of inky newspaporial oblivion. Then calmness succeeded. Gentle angels whispered peace and fanned that throbbing brow with snow-white wings. He awoke refreshed, and pushed the minute-hand of that clock forward 20 minutes.

Stillwater, 1874: Looking southeast from the corner of Third and Myrtle. (Photo courtesy )

The Minneapolis Tribune’s Trygve Ager traveled to Madison, Wis., to interview Lillian Gilbreth, the matriarch of the “Cheaper by the Dozen” family popularized in books and movies. A renowned efficiency expert and ergonomics pioneer, Gilbreth is credited with inventing an early version of the electric mixer, shelves inside refrigerator doors and the foot-pedal trash can.

SAYS (WOMAN) EFFICIENCY EXPERT

Pipe Smoking May Waste Time,
But It Pays Off in Serenity

By TRYGVE AGER
Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer

MADISON, WIS. – Pipe smokers may well be the world’s greatest wasters of time (filling the pipe) and motion (keeping it lit), but this is to let them know they have a distinguished efficiency expert sticking up for them.

What’s more, the expert is a woman: Mrs. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, 76, heroine of the popular book and movie called “Cheaper by the Dozen,” president of a firm of consulting engineers, holder of many honors and awards for her pioneering in the complicated field of time and motion studies.

	Lillian Gilbreth

As Knapp visiting professor in mechanical engineering, she is conducting two seminar courses at the University of Wisconsin this semester, and – in her own quiet way – she’s living it up.

“I’M ENJOYING this immensely,” she said the other day as she sat in the simply furnished office assigned to her in the engineering building. She is tall, gray-haired, plain faced and a lively conversationalist.

“Besides my contacts with faculty and students, my work here gives me an opportunity to get out and speak to groups here and there and to see how the university, business and industry can help each other.”

A few minutes earlier she had been talking about labor-management problems with a visitor from India. There had been a question about Cyrus Ching, she said , and she had ventured the opinion that Ching’s success as a conciliator was at least in part due to his practice of lighting his pipe, settling back in his chair and exuding friendliness.

“PIPE SMOKING seems to have a calming effect, both on the smoker and others. It’s an outward sign of inner serenity, and I think it’s important to keep serene in this day of terrific upheaval.

“My husband smoked a pipe, as do some of my sons, but pipe smoking would never be my source of serenity. I prefer playing the piano or reading.”

Mrs. Gilbreth also put in plugs for thinking and new leadership.

“In my seminars here,” she said, “the main objective is to get the students to think. One group is composed entirely of senior engineers. I have them read stimulating books and submit reports to start off free-for-all discussions. The one thing we’re concerned about is getting them to think while they read and while they talk.”

Another seminar course has nine graduate engineers and nine commerce college graduates. It tackles a wide range of problems, foreign and domestic, and Mrs. Gilbreth, who has traveled extensively about the world for the past five years, contributes generously to this discussion.

“IN A SENSE, we’re trend watchers,” she said, “but of course the important thing is to get people to think, even though they’re only watching chickens.

“Right now the university is being invaded by the scouts of industry who are looking for young blood for their companies.

“I think we all – and this goes even for newspaper reporters out traveling about the country – should always be on the lookout for new leaders, for young people with a new slant on things.

“WE DON’T WANT these young people to think the past was perfect. We don’t want them to sit here and let the world go to pieces.”

Mrs. Gilbreth is a graduate of the University of California and has Ph.D. degrees from Brown and Rutgers universities.

She married Dr. Frank Gilbreth, an engineer, in 1904. When he died in 1924, she continued his work as industrial management engineer. She also finished the job of rearing a large family.

Eleven of the 12 Gilbreth children still are living; all of these are married and all are prospering, says Mrs. Gilbreth, now grandmother of 27. The youngest child died at the age of five of diphtheria.

“THE CHILDREN didn’t tell of her death in the book, ‘Cheaper by the Dozen.’ “ said Mrs. Gilbreth. “They had described my husband’s death, and they felt one tragedy was enough.”

For about 10 years, up to 1948 when she supposedly “retired,” Mrs. Gilbreth taught industrial management at Purdue university. Since then she has traveled widely.

“This freedom and independence that comes when one’s children are on their own, and doing all right, is something for a parent to look forward to,” she remarked.

Local architecture critics Linda Mack and Larry Millett probably wouldn’t think much of this monstrous idea, as reported by the Minneapolis Daily Star.

5-Story Addition to Courthouse Proposed
to Save Cost of Building New Structure

Voegeli Opposes Leasing
of Office Space — $3,000,-
000 Savings Seen

The city hall and court house building would be converted into a 10-story sky-scraper under a plan advanced by County Treasurer Henry Voegeli, which will be submitted for approval to the Hennepin county building commission.

Mr. Voegeli believes that the addition of five stories to the present structure will solve the problem of the urgent need for additional space by city and county departments in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

In his opinion, it would spell the death knell of a movement likely to develop for a new city hall and court house by providing sufficient office room for all municipal needs for at least the next 30 years and probably for all time.

Plan Called Feasible

	Here’s what the city hall/courthouse is supposed to look like: An aerial shot by the Star Tribune’s David Brewster in 2000 shows the building’s Romanesque roofline and open interior. At the bottom of this entry you’ll find a drawing of what the building would look like with five more floors stacked on top of a flattened roof. Brace yourself.

Engineers, who have investigate the matter, Mr. Voegeli says, report to him that the plan is perfectly feasible, inasmuch as the foundation is sufficiently strong to carry the five additional floors.

The cost of the addition probably would be in the neighborhood of $1,500,000, compared to the expenditure of from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 that would be involved in the construction of a new court house and city hall on another site, the county treasurer points out.

“My suggestion is purely in the interest of economy for the taxpayer,” said Mr. Voegeli today. “The best way to forestall any clamor for a new building, I believe, is to remodel the present structure in such a way that all the departments may be kept under one roof.”

Flat Roof Proposed

The Voegeli plan would necessitate the tearing off of the present roof, which is of Romanesque architecture, because buildings of 10 stories or more usually have flat roofs. There might be objection raised to the plan because of this fact, Mr. Voegeli admits.

The city engineering department is now in the midst of a survey to determine additional space needs of the various city and county departments and what methods can be adopted to meet these demands. Mr. Voegeli already has submitted his suggestion to the department.

Among the departments whose quarters are particularly cramped are those of the county treasurer, the county auditor, the city treasurer, the register of deeds, the park board and the health department. There also is need of additional court rooms. The school board has under consideration a plan to move its offices from the city-county building to the old Central High school building on Fourth avenue S. and Eleventh street, because it is in immediate need of more room.

Juvenile Room Asked

Judge P.W. Guliford this week appealed to the building commission to provide space on the fourth floor under the city jail in quarters no occupied by the school board for a detention room for juvenile offenders, if the board moves to the old Central high building. He says that present facilities for juvenile offenders are entirely inadequate and may result to the moral detriment of the youths being held for appearances in juvenile court.

One proposed solution for the present space shortage is the rental of space in a proposed office building a block from the present city hall and court house ant Fifth avenue S. and Fourth street. An offer has been made to erect this building if the city and county will rent two or three floors for offices.

Voegeli Opposes Leasing

Mr. Voegeli opposes the leasing of such space because he believes it eventually would lead to the demand for a new city hall and court house.

Utilization of the present unused space in the building also is being considered. The building commission this week indicated that it would oppose a proposal to take out the broad stairway on the Fourth street side. This stairway, at the foot of which is the statue of the Father of Waters, adds considerably to the appearance of this section of the building and the building commissioners believe it should not be tampered with.

New Plan Proposed

Another proposal advanced is to build up two stories on an inside wall. These two stories would not show from the street.

Engineers oppose the suggestion that the center square air and light space be utilized for building purposes. By doing this, much light and air would be shut off. Also, the engineers point out, it would be difficult to get anybody to work in such undesirable quarters, like an inside room of a hotel that even does not face on a court.

Under the Voegeli plan, one of the new floors would be used for modern city and county jails.

Original caption: This is the way the city hall and court house would look if raised to 10 stories and the Romanesque roof were replaced with the flat roof usually placed on structures of that height.