Evening star., 1919-03-01
Staggered Hours. -

To the Editor Of The Star:
Hasn't the government clerk al
ready paid sufficiently high price
for poor car service in Washington
without now having to combat the
suggestion to have her hours stag
gered, simply because the Public Util-
tiles Commission has decreed that
there is not going to be any improve
ment in the service? The clerks have
been consulted as to their hours, and
they have chosen the present sched-
uIe because it is the most healthful
and convenient one. Surely their
judgment is worth something, at least
on point that concerns them SO
directly.
Staggering the present schedule
would mean that hundreds must re-
port at their Offices by $3.50 am. This
half hour may not mean, to those liv-
ing within walking distance Of the
departments, special hardship, but
there are hundreds to whom it would
be an irksome, ill-oonceived scheme.
| All winter long many women who are
compelled to live in the outskirts of
| the city have been obliged to leave
their rooms before o'clock, and then
endure the nerve-racking uncertainty
of seeing six or more cars pass theEl
before they could gain footing in
one. OF course the consumer pays the
price of being mere consumer al
ways, but the price has been paid in
full" and certainly the government
clerk should have some measure of
| consideration in choosing her hours
| of service.
! There is more than one suggestion to
be made in regard to improving trans
| portation facilities in Washington. If
| the Public Utilities Commission would
permit jitney line, that would help
materially. There might be special
automobile routes along less fre-
| quented streets and those not trav-
ersed by car lines. Even though the
| driver of a car had to make a de-
| tour of several blocks to reach his
| destination, the few moments thus
| consumed. would mean practically
who has to hike 1t to business and to
use the transportation lines, when
| that one is multiplied by thousands,
should have the advantage of the
most direct route and be protected
! from the speed fiend, who now claims
| all privileges and yields to the rights
| of none.
Horse drawn vehicles also should
| have their special channels of traffic,
| as much for the safety and comfort of
the horses as for the people. Franti-
cally driven autos are as hard on the
nerves of horses as on those of hu-
man beings.
Special routes and a jitney service
would not only keep the hiker safe
and improve TRANSPORTATION facilities,
but they would free the city streets
from exciting and horrifying spec
tacles and entanglemerts, and result
in cleaner and more orderly streets
and homes. Constant. intensified driv-
ing over the same route keeps the
air dust-1aden and the germs afoat.
Washington streets are spacious. 1t
would be the part of wisdom and art
to distribute the traffic over its con-
veniently planned avenues so that
certain passages will be just as free
from unnecessary vehicles as are
parts of Commonwealth avenue. Bos-
ton. The matter of getting to and
from the daily job in a neat, orderly
manner has much to do with personal
efficiency. Washington can never be
| "the greatest city" that it aspires to
be unless these unbeautiful. nerve-
destroying forces are laid low, for,
as it's Inhabitants are. SO is city.
j. C. GRAY. :