Evening star., 1933-01-01

IN washington.
Living for the most part in privat,
rooming houses, but also at the Y. w
G. A. and at the Salvation Army
Emergency Home, are the large number
OF women and girls who come to thu
Nations Capital to seek work.
think it would be hard to know just
how many of these lone. unemployed
women there are. They do not claim
attention. No one ever sees groups oi
them on the streets. their clothes and
manner pointing out, as sometimes in
the case OF men, an assemblage Of the
unemployed.
Men and boys. wanderers from place
70 place, exchanging their experiences
In front of religious agencies while they
await admission for meals and othe1
aid, do not have their counterpart in
a sdsterhood of wanderers.
Granting the ubiquitous exceptions
girls and women seeking employment In
Washington are not of the number who
would wander from city to city in
quest OF work, food and shelter They
are not hitch-hikers and it would be
hard to imagine any Of them hopping
trains
Travel in Day Coaches.
JoblesS women who seek work in
Washington come for the raost part in
the day coaches of passenger trains,
availing themselves, whenever possible,
OF excursion rates. Those who come
choose the Capital City of their country
as their specific destination. Their
home communities comprise even the
most far-fung places CT the Nation.
These workers do not want to move
on. They want to stay and to become
absorbed in the busy life of the city
They arrive generally with enough
money, or with what they think will
be enough money to tide them over
until they get jobs They arrive as
suredly with firm conviction that
when all else has failed-"the Nation s
Capital cannot fail"
Their belief in their Representatives
job getting prowess is amazing. Many
have never been in Washington before
and have invested the city with a GER
tain benignity. Their imaginations are
fired by the various possibilities that
one OF the worlds capitals must afford
Requirements Vague.
They know there must be Office Jobs
should not be hard to get work in the
family Of a diplomat as governess
The girl who knows foreign Language
thinks that such knowledge should
prove an ever-present help in time OF
financial tutoring. you know"
Their concept Of Washington as a
year-round Santa Claus with a pack
full of jobs does not permit of the DOS
sibility that any wistful seeker should
be passed by.
Civil service requirements and op-
portunities for examinations are vague
in the minds o. far too many girls
Then there is the occasional girl, too
whose name Is on the civil service
register. She has sat at home wonder
ing why she is not called and finally
has concluded that If she were right
on the ground" in some way she
might get a job.
Mistaken notions Of women employ
ment seekers in Washington often in
dicate the depths of despair sounded
unmistakable education and evidences
of good stock. They are willing to
grab at anything with semblance of
hope.
The woman who comes to Washing
ton seeking work is Of the type who is
more likely to want to return home in
case Of defeat than, with persistent
hope. to desire going to another city
of which she knows nothing. Wash
ington, being the Nations Capital, is,
in sense, her home city. In case of
defeat she has the consoling thought
that at least she has tried in the city
of her specific desire and knows now
by experience that the evils left at
H. L. -
may hy to. not knowing Of them.
Many Become Domestics.
OF the girls who stay in Washington,
either because they see some remote
possibility Of employment in their
lire. generally some form of office work,
or because "one place is as bad as
another" and they feel that they might
as well stay where they are, many are
reduced to the necessity Of working as
domestics or as mothers helpers for
their room and board.
Many of these girls are pitiably ex-
plotted. One girls bitter experience
was to 60 to home where she was
promised maintenance for the Winter
but where, instead, she was dismissed
after three weeks. The girl was in no
position to dictate terms, and so, when
confronted with the accumulated laun-
dry work of many weeks, she did it all
Then she cleaned the entire house from
cellar to garret and polished all the
woodwork and washed the windows
When these labors were accomplished
she was told that with Christmas SO
near and all the expense" her services
we're no longer needed.
Exemplified in this crisis is the great
pride of women, their tight-lippec
silence.
More men than women apply to the
Y. w. c. A. for aid and meals" said
Miss uattie P. Anderson, executive
secretary Of this organization in Wash
ington. 1T is hard to know just how
badly of a girl is
Girls living in light housekeeping
rooms, having their own gas plate, are
likely to have a fairly good breakfast
and dinner, so well have they mastered
the fine art Of marketing, but lunch
when it means using car tokens to gel
TO the gas plate and to return to the
center of job-seeking activities, gen,
orally goes uneaten. When provided
with q slender store for lunch money
too often that goes for telephone calls
Call up in the morning" says some.
body in an Office. Plump goes nickel
the half Of q dime, which is the price
of a lunch.
Few girls hard hit by unemployment
can answer an advertisement by send
ing a letter They must, instead, wall
to the newspaper Office to save the
cents. To buy stamp or a newspaper
is hardship to more girls in Washing
ton than one likes to think.
After tramping the streets all da,
hunting work. a girl will wash ant
iron her clothes mend the TIMES
breaks in her stockings-"because the.
get to be runners"-or will add bravt
touches to her dress and hat. The las
string of her life to be snapped is he
darira Ia lnnk ,nine