Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-20
FREE FARE URGED
BYPIJP|LS FATHER
Boon for ST, 500-a-Year U. S.
EmpIoye With Wife and
Four Children.

The plight Of o Government employe
after II years service, trying to support
q wife and four children on a salary
Of $500 when the Department of La
Dor says $4,000 is the minimum on
which a family Of five can decently
live is told In a letter received today
by Acting Chairman Mcleod of the
House District committee, in which the
writer, who wishes to withhold his
identity, tells what free carfare Tor
school children would mean in his fam
lily.
With 40 cents day for carfare, and
IS cents q week for milk in school for
the younger children and text books to
buy for the Oldest, who Is in high school,
the pennies have to be counted closely
by this father who is often compelled
20 walk ~ blocks to and from his work
In good weather so that his children
may ride in stormy weather.
Free Transportation Plea.
Calling attention to the plea made
by John j. Noonan for free transporta-
ton of school children in connec-
ton with the pending legislation for
o merger of the street car and
bus companies, the writer of the
letter said it is IAN appeal which
Is not unreasonable and would GER
tainly not involve very great financial
loss to the street railway companies o.
merged concern, yet which would prove
Of very material saving to the hundreds
Of parents of limited means, whose
children must travel to and from school
on the cars.
Using his own situation as an Illus
tration of what boon free transporta-
ton for school children would be, this
Government employe writes as follows:
Children Must Ride.
Take my own case as an illustra-'
ton of hundreds in similar circum-
stances. / am a settled permanent res
ident Of the Capital City and have been
employed as first grade clerk in the
q. S. Treasury Department, Bureau Of
Customs for the past IL years. have a
wife and four children, aged /, Z, 10
and Is, respectively, and despite the
fact that have met every qualification,
legal. mental, moral and physical. of the
o. s. civil service as clerk, yet today
receive less salary than many mes
sengers and laborers, namely 81 500 a
year. Three of my children each in diff
9erent schools, and two must ride the
cars daily to and from school; that is an
item of 80 cents besides my own fare
and the two younger ones must have
IS cents week for milk while the old
est one In high school must be fur
nished with text books also.
I'VE live about AZ blocks from my
work in the suburbs and / must FREE
quently valk this distance of over three
miles IN good weather In order that
my children may ride In bad weather,
owing to lack of sufficient carfare. Just
try to visualize my situation with six
people trying to exist upon salary
which is utterly inadequate for the sup
port In decent responsibility Of q
single individual in this city. This con-
dition prevails despite the fact that
by q Nationwide survey of the United
States Department of Labor statistics
Of living conditions in industry they re-
ported that the very minimum possible
FOR the average American family of i've
to live on in decency was $500 q
year, yet thousands Of US now receive
30 per cent to so per cent less than
that today"