Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-21
Girls Donmitories Erected
for War Workers, Soon
Will Be Closed, Officials
Declare
BY MARJORIE TAYLOR
(Leased Wire Service to The JournaI.)
(C0Ov phf 1922

NOOpyElBuIS AoEG.J
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19.-Uncle
Sam, disheartened and disappointed
soon is going out Of the hotel bust
ness. Under extreme difficulties he
has stuck to the task ever since the
closing days Of the war, but the job
Of keeping house for a thousand
women all of whom have distinct
housekeeping ideas Of their own, is
proving at last much too much.
Two young ladies', leaders in a
movement to GUST the management
Of the government hotels on the
Union station plaza, have themselves
been ousted and now they are
threatening to sue somebody or any
body they can lay hands upon. 1t
is extremely difficult to sue Uncle
Sam himself-as a matter Of fact
congress has to give assent to that
but the irate ladies are going to
sue his agents If they can find
just who is actually responsible for
the government.
Ever since the temporary dorni-
tories, or hotels, were built for the
feminine war workers who f1ocked to
the capital in 1917 and 1918 there
has been friction. The hotels were
not finished until after the armi-
stice and there was a movement on
foot then by the wiser heads of gov
eminent to abandon the project, but
the number Of war workers who
had to remain here to clear up the
aftermath made it necessary to fur
nish and open the buildings. Each
war workers had a nice little room
to herself. Meals were served in
central dining halls for the several
groups of buildings-gray up and
down structures that some one said
suggested examples Of the very best
New England style of Jail architec-
ture.
Several times within the last
eighteen months congress has
threatened to close the hotels. 1t
was said they were not paying run
ming expenses. The Inmates" re-
futed this statement and raised the
cry that Washington landlords were
at the bottom Of the movement to
abandon the dormitories. They pic
tured the real estate agents as n
pack Of wolves waiting for the girls
to be turned out in the night SO
that they could charge them prof.
teering rates for rooms and boarde
It is fact that during the war
the girl government clerks who came
to Washington were forced at times
to live five and six in a room, partly
because of lack Of accommodations
and largely because Of the exorbi-
tant prices charged.
The government hotels come I'M
der the general jurisdiction Of the
house and senate committees on
public buildings and grounds. Both
committees are today considering
early closing of the hotels, osten-
sibly because the buildings are need
ed for temporary Offices but really
because the congressman think the
government has no business in the
hotel business.
"The present squabble is neither
here nor there" said Chairman
Langley, of the house committee,
today, "but there is no reason fro
the United States acting as land
lord four years after the close OF
the war"
Miss Bertha Henderson and Miss
Henrietta Gliding, who tried to re-
move the manageress Of the hotels,
today characterized the action of
the hotel management in barring
them from the hotels as "a great act
of injustice" The manageress said
the ladies We're "a disturbing ele-
ment" and could not get back. The
girls in the hotels have formed a
Council" and many Of them are
ctiJl on. tho warnath