Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-10-27
PLANNING TO MEET
HOUSING PROBLEM
Officials Considering the Posi-
biIity Of 500, 900 Population
in Washington.
MANY NOW SEEKING HOMES


OF the District council Of defense. re-
turns to Washington Monday one Of
the first questions no will take up Will
be tho housing problem in the District
Commissioner Louis Brownlow. be-
fore going away on a vacation yester-
day. left q memorandum for Mr.. Baldwin
requesting that he take steps imms-
diately to meet the fast growing hous-
ing needs.
The action of Commissioner Brown
low followed tho suggestion of walteS
8. Clifford. director OF tho Council OF
National Defense. who told the Com
missioner that .'the housing problem
In washington is becoming a most seri-
GUS one"
This governmental recognition of
the needs here resulted partly from
reports from various departments and
bureaus that trouble Is being expert
enced in getting needed employees be-
cause OF the difficulty OF finding homes
for them. There also have been a num-
Der of Individual complaints fled with
the council regarding higher rents. diff
hculty in finding abodes at any price
and the retardation Of the construction
OF apartments and houses because OF
the shortage OF labor and material.
Subcommittee to Report.
Next week is promised the recommen-
dation Of the subcommittee OF tho ooun-
ell on the housing OF workers in indus
tries throughout the United States. This
report Is awaited with great interest
because conditions In industrial CEN
tiers arc such that a distinct handicap
to government work has resulted.
This report Is not expected to touch
on conditions In Washington. It will
not deal with the capital. because It
was desired not to befog the question
Of housing industrial workers with tho
problem here, which Is considered a
distinct one. But 1t also is realized
that tho Washington housing situation
Is acute. and its solution Is Just as i'm
portant to the further conduct of the
war as is that of the great manufactur-
ing centers.
Need Is for Apartments.
What Is needed here IS not the low
priced, six or seven room family
houses suitable to families OF me
chanics and skilled or unskilled labor.
Many of the workers coming here are
unmarried and need only apartments
board. The other class of incoming
government workers comprises the
scientific and business men coming
here to work for Uncle Sam during the
Mar' bringing their IamilleS. These
men receive from $4,000 to $4,000 per
year. In many cases less than their
regular incomes. Many of them are
recrdited from colleges. where they
have been professors. and even when
their salary here is commensurate
with that they have received from uni
versitIes it does not permit of a COM
parable standard of living in view Of
the rents in Washington, according to
Investigators.
Acts as Deterrent.
Newspaper correspondents in Wash
ington are sending highly interesting
about the local housing situation, for
there Is no corner of the United states
which is not. sending government work
ers here nowadays. Thus the condf-
lions here are becoming widely known.
and are acting as a deterrent, it is
stated. to persons the government
needs The difficulty in getting stenog-
raphers has been widely exploited
"A 100000 population in Washington
in the near future is predicted by the
Washington correspondent Of the Boso
ton Transcript. and he states that the
apex OF the governments growing pay
rol! Will not be reached until next June.
Suggestion of Barracks.
In his Washington letter to his paper
he states:
II the United States government is
not compelled soon to build barracks
to accommodate the army Of clerks II
has called here. Washingtonians will
miss their guess.
1T has been the prophecy all summer
that the government would need to sun
ply tents for some OF its workers in the
fall. and although these have not yet
mateTialized they ought to be set up
on all the government lawns, for hun
dreds of clerks. men and women, know
not where to lay their heads from day
to day. Quiet residential neighborhoods
where owners never have dreamed OF
taking outsiders into their homes have
been invaded by the newcomers, whose
pleas for housing and board are SO pa
thetic that almost every private family
In town now entertains its paying
guest" Nor Is the apex Of population
anywhere near reached. The normal
clerical population OF Washington and
its rfeager suburbs is about $4,000
These men and women are In the clas-
sified service. and there are hundreds,
II not thousands Of others. like the en-
ployes at the Capitol. appointive Of
fcers and the like, who form part of
the vast machinery of the government.
ut is estimated by the Civil Service
that within the last year
the clerical population has doubled,
which means that nearly $4,000 persons
are on the pay roll. albeit some. like
Frank A. Vanderbilt and Daniel Willard,