The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-28
High Cost of Living Discour-
ages Many Govt Clerks.
Mrs. Friedburg Tells of Difficul<
ties in National Capital.
ice CREAM SODAS COST Is CTS
Departments Demand Time
Promise From Applicants.
Y. w. C. A. Relieves Lodging
Worries of Girl Employees.

The rush of women to Washington,
D. c., to do government work, ac-
cording to Topeka girl, Miss Faye
Friedburg, can scarcely keep in ad-
vance of the numbers that have left
the city before an agreement to re-
main a certain length of time was re-
quired by the government.
Encounter Difficulties.
Mrs Friedburg. who accompanied
her daughter to Washington to assist
her in establishing herself in living
quarters, says of the situation at the
capitals: 1.-THE difficulties of finding
a suitable place to live have been tre-
mendous for these girls who have
gone to Washington to take govern
1nent positions. My daughter and I
arrived there on a dreadfully hot day
when the Thermometer went to lis,
and in that heat we hunted a lodging
place. We went directly to the adj
dress given on a card sent from the
government office. where one was
rooming places. In the list that was
given US were three street numbers
that did not exist at all. Among the
other places we visited to find a room,
the accommodations were wretched,
and the prices out OF sight. I finally
got my daughter settled in a room
which is not so good as my attic at
home, and to room and board costs
every cent of the $1,000 year salary
that she receives.
- Many Went Home.
'In the first days OF the rush to
Washing ton by girls who answered the
government request to take clerkships
in that city, almost as many girls went
back home on the outgoing trains as
had entered the city on the incoming
lines. At last the government found
it necessary to require an agreement
for q certain length of service before
the clerks could be accepted.
1.-THE situation became SO acute that
the government turned to the work of
putting up barracks for the workers.
Near the Union station in Washing
ton now may be seen long rows Of
buildings that are being put UP to
shelter these young women who have
from Washington for office service.
II. C. L. in Washington.
'Tn addition to the cost of lodging
every article of food is very expen-
sive. An ice cream soda costs Is
cents; fruit is exceptionally High, and
the girls nearly all have to buy extra
food besides that which is served at
the meals in the lodging houses and
restaurants"
We - III SOlfCS " LtCSCu0.
+ A means of assisting the govern
ment clerks has been devised by the
Y. w. c. A., which was called in to
help the government in it's difficulty.
The association has taken over a coun-
try place as club house for the girls,
across in Maryland, and now it has
just opened large hotel in the city
OF Washington, where good accommo-
dations are offered the girls at reason
able rates. This hotel will serve to
help in relieving congestion in housing
conditions. tho it can care for Nonly a
comparatively small number of per-
sons. The building is situated in a
good part of the city, is attractive in
appearance and comfortably fur
nished.
Opens Blue Triangle.
The Blue Triangle hotel. as It is
called. furnishes a girl with lodging
in large room with private bath, if
she rooms with another girl, and gives
her board, the entire charge being $40
a month. If she takes a small room
and uses the common bath, she can
get lodging d meals for S3O
The association first took a group of
three buildings which had been a
boarding school for girls, and opened
rooming house for the government
employees. On September 1, a hotel at
Silver Springs, Md. with access to the
city by trolley, took care of $50 girls.
and then a club house was opened for
transients. And now the latest effort
to help in the housing Of the girls ia
the Blue Triangle hotel, which has Just
been opened =