The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-28
WASHINGTON'S BOOM
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic }. Haskin, Director.
Washington, ID. O..


having mo business" there is single
concern which has over a thousand
visitors a day.. and every one OF them
must prove the importance of his
business before he is admitted. This
firm has contracts to let which will
mount into billions, and it is backed
by a bank which has a large per-
centage of all the gold in the world
The firm referred to is the war de-
partment of the United States govern
ment. and its backing bank is the
treasury. OF course these two have
always been among the greatest bust
ness concerns in the world, but not
until the United States declared war
on Germany did their importance as
such become apparent to the nation.
Now they are the center of a business
and social boom in Washington such
as never before was seen.
Business Breaking Records.
Every room in every Washington
hotel is booked for weeks ahead, and
boarding houses do rush business in
the overflow. The wide streets of
Washington for the first time in their
history-except for special occasions
like the nauguration-are busy and
even crowded. Retail stores are
breaking all their previous records,
and real estate dealers rub their eyes
and wonder if it isn't all A. dream For
Washington, the city of empty houses,
Will soon have to hang out sign
nothing for rent
Hotel people and real estate men
have estimated that there are a hun
dred thousand more people in the
District of Columbia than there were
year ago, and there is reason to be-
lieve that this estimate is conserva-
tive. But the numbers of these
visitors is not half so important as
their wealth. The Council OF National
Defense, for example, has a thousand
members nearly all of whom are now
resident in Washington. Their ag-
gregate wealth is said to be over two
millions, while their aggregate social
| Importance is staggering, even to this
| city of the great, the near-great and
| the would-be-great.
| Crowded With NIillionaires.
The food administration, the Red
| Cross and numbers of lesser organiza-
| lions rival the Council of National De-
| Tense in the numbers of important Wis
itors and residents they have brought
| to Washington. The town is literally
| crowded with millionaires. Other
! cities, since the beginning of the great
war, have had phenomenal booms,
have seen their population grow in a
| few weeks far beyond their housing
| capacities sBut these growths have
| been purely Industrial. The hundreds
of thousands who have flocked to such
| towns as Akron and Hopewen and
1
| are the finest material in the world
out of which to build a city, but they
do not bring much money with. them.
| They make a city grow in a straining,
sweating, grimy sort of way.
| But Washington's boom, while fill
| ing the city's Golfers to trimming over
| with gold, has scarcely disturbed the
| elegant-alInost supercilious-cha
| acter of the city's life. For the thou
| sands who have come probably do not
| include more than a few hundred
| working men. The government mas
added about twenty thousand clerks to
it's force and the great new depart
ments such as the food administration
| and the council of national defense
| have probably added half as many
more The local Y. w. c. A. has been
| busy taking care of girls who have
| flocked here at the government DID OF
| SS5 to 500 a month for stenograph-
| ers. Thousands of ambitious young
men have come to seek government
| Jobs. as a stepping stone to something
| better, or a means of education.
The great influx of clerks and their
families, earning from one to three
thousand dollars a year, are to the
Washington boom what day laborers
are to most industrial booms. Tue
scale of wealth has rapidly mounted
into the millions. The total purchas-
ing power which has been brought to
washington is something tremendous
because its average per capita is so
high.
And yet this great boom has been
. without disorder, almost quiet. Tho
Washington police force under Major
Raymond w. Pullman has long beer
famous for it's success in suppressine
, vice. and this success seems to remain
almost unbroken- The drunkenness
and debauchery that usually follow IT
the wake of sudden wealth are not IT
; evidence here.
, Quite different are the manifesto
tons of Washington's prosperity
There are more great motor cars; fh5
= F street parade in the afternoon i:
dressier and more crowded than ever
hotel lobbies swarm, and millionaire
bread lines wait at the doors of The
dining rooms. Great mansions in .ht
, northwest section that have long beer
empty are taken again, at impressive
rents. This section in fact is a veri
; table millionaire colony. with Inverted
a servants limousines, thousand dolla1
dogs, and an. air of dignified seclus
ion and with a foreign war mission
full of European and Oriental no
$ bi1ity, on every corner. Washington
is looking forward to a social season
this winter which for cosmopolitan
ism, brilliance and wealth represent
D ed-and spent-will exceed anythin,
S in it's history.
-, The most promising feature of thi
boom, from the standpoint of Wash
e ington business, is the lasting, not t,
I say permanent character it is assum
@ ing. The great and wealthy who r Nv
come here at the behest of the pres
,ident to help direct the war, at IRIS
were only visitors who generally won
r back to New York at the end of tn
: week. Soon they began staying over
Then they took larger quarter
e suites are almost much in de
+ mand at Washington hotels as singl
| rooms. Finally, to the immense sat
isfaction of the real estate men, the
began renting houses. Next, the rea
estate men say. they. will begin t
o buy. For it is their experience tina
: the man who spends a year or tw
in Washington will nearly always re
main here permanently if he
:, wealthy enough to live where n
pleases. This has been proved owe
LII md in ha of