By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

"Good morning, Government department workers!" That's how the first Federal Diary column began, on Nov. 29, 1932.

"Here we'll meet daily and read the news off the beaten path pertaining to Federal employees," George D. Riley wrote. "And here we'll learn what our neighbors in the other Government departmental buildings are doing."

It's been that way ever since. The Diary appeared on Page 4 of The Washington Post that day. Over the years, the column has appeared throughout the newspaper, from A14 to D21 to F13. Tomorrow, the Diary moves again.

After nearly six years anchoring Page 2 of Metro news, the column will take up residence on Page 4 of the Business section, where it will appear Monday through Friday. The move is part of an effort by Post editors to find space for new features and make it easier for readers to find their way through the newspaper. The Diary is, first and foremost, a workplace column and will make a good fit in Business, which also covers the world of work.

Although the Diary is moving, its focus and content won't change. Federal employees and retirees have been among The Post's most loyal readers through the decades, providing constant support and feedback for the column.

From its start, the Diary sought to be required reading for people interested in the federal community. In the early years, Diary columnists moved easily through government hallways, picking up news and gossip.

"People make news," Riley said in the inaugural column. "The more people the more news. That is The Washington Post's reasoning."

Almost a year after The Post launched the column, it was in court, fighting to keep "The Federal Diary" from being used as the title of a column in another Washington newspaper. Riley had jumped to the competitor, apparently for a pay raise, and had tried to take the column title with him.

Morgan Baker took over the Diary and, in 1933, sponsored the "Federal Diary Popularity Contest." Readers turned in 48,890 ballots, voting "Miss Beulah Myles and Francis O. Panneton the most popular woman and man in Federal service." Their photos ran on Page 1. Myles worked for the Veterans Administration and Panneton in the General Accounting Office. As the most popular feds, they won an all-expenses-paid trip to Chicago to see the Century of Progress Exposition.

In the 1930s, Riley wrote about the Dynamite Bowling League in the Prohibition Bureau, and Baker covered the Leatherneck League of golfers and the Federal Bridge Club, a group of cardplayers who met at a place called the Federal Clubhouse.

But the Diary also has been a serious endeavor, reflecting the tensions between career civil servants and political appointees, reorganizations and the fallout of scandals and blunders.

In the fall of 1939, The Post hired Alfred Friendly to write the column and cover the burgeoning defense mobilization story. (Later, Friendly served as a senior editor in the newsroom and won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage in 1967 of the Six-Day War.)

The column's staying power, however, was provided by two writers: Jerry Kluttz and Mike Causey . Kluttz wrote the Diary for 29 years, and Causey held down the federal beat for 31 years.

Kluttz began writing the column Jan. 1, 1941. In his history, "The Washington Post: The First 100 Years," Chalmers M. Roberts called Kluttz "the bureaucrats' friend." As the Diarist, Roberts wrote, Kluttz was "fabulously successful . . . through peace and war, in pointing out job opportunities, disclosing raids against the civil service, uncovering scandals, and predicting changes in wages, pay, hours and working conditions."

When Kluttz gave up the column, Willard Clopton Jr. was named his successor. But he often shared the byline with Causey, his assistant, and soon turned the writing over to him.

As presidents Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton undertook various initiatives to crack down on what they perceived as lazy bureaucrats or pare back the size of government, Causey wrote with grace and skepticism as he stood up for the rank and file. Causey chronicled the government's transformation from an army of clerks to a high-tech, high-powered workforce with its own inside-the-Beltway sensibilities.

He retired from The Post in 2000 with a salute to federal employees and military personnel. "If there are more dedicated people in this country, I have yet to meet them," Causey wrote.

The Diary settled into Metro under Mike, who handed the column off to me. Now, the column moves to a new section, but the mandate remains much the same.

In this post-9/11 era, it's difficult to wander the hallways of government and meet federal employees in person. But we have e-mail and the Internet, and we'll get by with that. In a fast-paced and increasingly complex world, I need your feedback and your viewpoints. So send those e-mails to barrs@washpost.com or ring me at 202-334-7442.

We don't take this move lightly, knowing it will disrupt some morning coffee routines. But I hope you'll make the move, too, and help us write another chapter or two of Federal Diary history.

Staff researchers Bobbye Pratt and Bob Lyford contributed to this column.