Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-02
By DAN DE soUzA.

It took me hours and 81 minutes
to buy an automobile tag today-and I
was one of the lucky ones at that.
I presented myself at the end of the
proper line at exactly 9 o'clock. At
1871 o'clock proudly shouldered my
way through the mob at the end of
the line with Ellis Since the dis
tribution started with Ell at $3.50 am.
a little arithmetic will show that they
are being distributed at the rate of a
trifie more than six tags per minute.
The end Of the first line at 8 o'clock
was in the corridor at the southeast
corner Of the building. It wound itself
around by slow stages, and in so min
utes I reached the desk where the
blanks were to be filled out. I duly
filled mine out, had the car valued, and
got at the end Of the second line.
Pursued Winding Course.
This was at the northeast corner of
the building. 1t had to wind itself
down to the southeast corner around
the short corridor going west to the
Water Registrars Office, back to the
north-and-south corridor and thence
north to the elevators. Then went west
to the Fourteenth street entrance to the
District Building, south to the south
west corner of the building, east again
to the cashiers desks where the number
was stamped on my blank, and then
east to the end of the long desk where
my tag was given to me-
BY the time got to the Fourteenth
street entrance I realized how lucky 1
rrsna IAA - A. a.
at 10 O'Clock, I would have been COM
PEELED to go out into Fourteenth street
to get to the end of my second line
after a wait in Thirteen and-a-ha
street to get into the first.
The two main causes of the intoler-
able slowness seemed to be that only
two cashiers were on duty during the
first hour. A third was then placed
N line, but this helped very little. 1t
seemed that there should have been at
least six or seven. The snappiest part
of the whole business was getting the
tag after the number had been stamped.
The clerks on that duty could have
handled the work had it come their way
three or four times as fast.
Many in Wrong Line.
With the lines doubled and redoubled
as they were, many unfortunates stood
in the wrong line for hours, only to be
thrown out at the psychological mo-
ment and sent hunting for the end of
the right line. A dozen policemen were
on hand to augment the full force Of
the guards Of the building to guide the
tag seekers to the right places. They
did their perspiring best, but the mob
and the slow work of stamping the
tags made their task tough one.
Second Of cir
that many hundreds of persons had
filled out their blanks and secured val
uatiops on their cars previous to today
These formed long line in front of the
cashiers windows and when those who
arrived today succeeded in having their
cars valued, they had to get TO the end
Of that line. That made 1t very nice
for those in the first line, out didn't
help the second line at all.
There was more confusion because
only pleasure car tags were issued en-
the ground floor, and those seeking tags
Tor taxts,' BUSES, trucks and motor
cycles were sent up to the first floor.
Immediately in front Of me for so
minutes stood taxi driver, waiting to
get his taxi valued. When he arrived
at the valuation desk, he found a sign
telling him he should be upstairs. His
language was forceful and extremely
picturesque, but nobody seemed to
mind.
Few Women In Line.
About nine tenths of those in the
lines were men. The women, many of
them gray-haired, stood the long wait
patiently. One had little 3-year-old
girl with her, who stood still and oc-
casionally shuffied forward a few
inches with her mother with angelic
patience.
The buildings enthusiastic stokers
had the radiators which line the hall
up to apput $50 degrees. 1t was neces-
sary for every one to make long waits