The Colorado statesman., 1923-02-03

from 2D6,O0O to 426,OOO, and tho
growth continues steadily onward.
Seemingly Washington ut present can.
not house with entire comfort all the
people thut are within its limits.
However arrangements are being
made to entertain for one week next
June visitors 10 number equallng
three-fourths of the population of the
town. The salient question today Is:
Can Washington do it?'
1t Is some task that this town is go
Ing to undertake, The occasion will
be the annual session of the organi-
zution known as the "Imperlal Coun-
ell of the Ancient Arabic Order, Mobiles
of the Mystic Shrine"
AT San Francisco last June when
the Shriners held their convention, "a
temples were registered with an aver
age daily attendance Of 100000. Up
to the present time the Washington
committee has 11S temples on Its list
OF applicants for hotel accommoda-
tions.
Something Is to be seen In this
town next June that perhaps never
was seen before. 1t Is understood that
fifty thousand people will live In
parked Pullman cars for one week in
the yards of the Southern railway Just
outside Of the limits of the city. The
yards are to be organized like town
with police and fire protection, sani-
tary arrangements, restaurants In the
shape of dining cars. Fairgrounds for
the children, and with arrangements
%, L..
get-together meetings for the adults.
Committee Is Confident.
If fifty thousand people thus can
be accommodated it is expected that
about 275,O00 more people will find
temporary homes within the limits Of
the city proper. What are the hotels
and the boarding houses going to do
about 1t? The answer of the local
committees to this query 1s "Wait
and see," and then it adds: every
body will be snug, comfortable and
satisfied" Washington probably can
meet the test.
AT the danger of being charged with
having taken on duties as a press
agent for the Mystic Shriners, let 1t
be said that Washington is preparing
to make its ear-drums receptive
enough to withstand and enjoy the
music of n band, of six thousand in
struments, to say nothing of the vocal
efforts of chorus of five thousand
trained voices. How many unframed
voices will join in the general vocal
izatiop jubilee no one has ventured
TO say. There will be noise enough.
l..
chance, aud 1t may be that the cares
that infcst the day will fold their tents
like these Arabs of the Mystic Shrine
at the close of their stay and silently
steal away.
Many Hotels Being Butt.
Now all this leads up in n way to
the hotel situation in Washington.
Nearly everybody here seems to think
that too many hotels are under con-
struction, tina before long half-empty
hostelries will stand on every other
corner, and that the promoters of the
caravansaries will wish they hadn't
promoted. Nothing but time will tell
whether this building is being over
done or not, but 1t is certain that at
the present moment one has great diff
tculty In finding place to live In the
city of Washington unless he wants
to pay prices that have broken the
records of all the aviators of this soar
+, ing age.
The hotels, high-priced ones and all,
are full today, or at any rate most OF
them are. Some few are so new that
they barely have started the filling-up
| 10 n hnnnpn
when the new ones now under con-
struction are rooted in, furnished and
given over to the uses of the travelling
public?
There Is one hotel in the city of
Washington now partly constructed
which will be one of the largest of
the worlds houses of entertainment.
There is one hotel in full operation
in this city which it is said holds five
thousand guests. Still another is to
be erected upon Capitol hill. and 1t
is to be of a first order of magnitude.
Another one probably will be built
soon ON one of the busiest of the
downtown thoroughfares. OF the max
ing of many hotels there Ia no end,
at least no end is in sight What will
the harvest be?
The fact that the former war work
ers stayed here in large numbers ac-
counts for the housing problem, but
the fact that SO many thousands of
people came here on business during
the war accounts for the splurge in
hotel building. There seems to be
feeling that visitors will continue to
come during future years just as they
came during the war, and have been
coming since to wind up the CONNER
cial matters growing out of the war.
Deadly sporting" Gun.