The Cordova daily times., 1918-02-12
GOVERNMENT TAKES UP
HOUSING PROBLEMS

| 'Si'0A "Sht up lIOh every hOuSehOld IN
the country from which a young wo.
man war worker" had gone TO Wash.
ington, when it was announced that
the national government had taken
over the housing problem" in the ma
TONS capital
President Wilson has set aside ST..
600 a month from the emergency war
! appropriation which he spends at his
! discretion in carrying on the war, to
assist Uncle Same's new employees to
| find lodgings. This money is being
used by the District of Columbia
branch of the National Council of De-
! Tense to form an organization which
/ will make a survey of the rooming
and housing situation in Washington.
This centralized bureau will be under
supervision of the National Council
of Defense. The action of the Presi-
, dent was due to the urgent solicita-
ton of the civil service commission
which has been finding it difficult to
1 get employees, owing to the idea gen
orally accepted throughout the coun-
try that rooms in Washington we're
impossible to obtain and that prices
were practically prohibitive for gov
eminent employees. Bureau chiefs
who found their ablest EMPLOYEES re-
signing because of inability to get com.
Portable lodgings added their pleas
to those of the civil service that
something" be done and the District
Officials, realizing to the full that
Washington's great opportunity might
be jeopardized did she not succeed
in making the strangers comfortable.
have done yeoman service in attempt
ing to do away with a situation with
which they had no funds to cone.
Government officials thought the
city of Washington should cope with
the emergency which had increased
her population of 385, 1000 by 100 900 in
a few months.
Had the chamber of commerce of
the District of Columbia possessed
the funds available to the commercial
organizations of large Industrial cities
they could have managed without fed
eral aid, but Washington has never
been a manufacturing or commercial
center and her chamber of commerce
is comparatively poor
centralized rooming agency IN
der federal control will, it is expected,
succeed in guiding the new corners to
a comfortable lodging and relieve the
anxiety of parents who wonder how
their young folks, especially young
women, are faTing in Washington. A
booth in charge of trained welfare
worker has been placed in the Union
station and is available both day and
night to direct Uncle Sans prospec-
tive workers to comfortable lodgings.
Business, religious, fraternal and
philanthropic organizations have tried
to solve the "rooming problem" The
Young Women's Christian Association
and the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation were the only recognized
agencies in Washington at the begin
ming of the war which attempted to
find lodgings for newcomers.
The chamber of commerce also
tried to list rooms but found itself
unable to pay persons for this import
ant service.
The great need has been for cen
tralized agency, which the Presidents
appropriation will now provide. An
organizations which have been trying
in their own way to solve the "hous-
ing problems" will be asked to CO.
operate and it is expected that their
united efforts of the first few weeks
will clear up the situation
The increase of 100000 persons In
the city's population would have taxed
Washington's resources in any event,
but the fact that the government itself
has not sufficient buildings for its
clerical force and that many large
apartments and dwellings were com
mandeered" and their inhabitants add
ed to the swelling ranks of the home
less greatly complicated the situation.
While many war workers assert
they have been *fleeced, !" residents of
the capital city Indignantly deny that
they have INDUCED in "war profiteer-
ing" at the expense of the thousands
of army and navy families and gov
eminent employees of the District
Council of Defense investigated COM
plants that apartment house owners
were asking uniustified advances, but
found that the increased cost of heat
ing the apartments had made 1t nee
essary for the owners to put up the
| prices.
Reluctance of the new government