The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-07
APKIL Z, 1y34--
WASHINGTON
TEEMING WITH
new ACTIVITY
City Is Industrial, Financial
and Political Capital
of Nation.

OF NdtI0n.
. BIZ ScriDps- HouGrd NeUspGper AUianc,
WASHINGTON, April T. The
night flier from the west rumbleS
into Washington and deposits It's
cargo Of passengers.
Watch them as they get off-the
banker seeking a loan, the manufac-
turer seeking a code, the social well
fare worker seeking relief money, the
politician seeking jobs, the movie
star seeking publicity
From the corners of the country
they converge on Washington, now
the industrial and financial as vel
as the political capital of the ma
ton.
Gone are the lazy days of the
Hoover administration Instead
Washington has been transformed
into city of teeming activity, the
Mecca of sightseers, host to 1900
to 5000 persons who arrive daily to
transact business with the various
agencies Of the new deal.
Mail Bulk Increases
The trains which bear the visitors
in and out Of the city also carry
great masses of mail to and from
the busy departments and bureaus
in a volume which serves as indi-
Gator to the immensely Of the gov
ernment's business.
Postoffice officials estimate that
the volume of outgoing bulk mail
reports and literature to field agen-
cies, bulletins to farmers, speeches
of congreSSmen-has increased fifty
tons a day over the load of year
ago It now averages about IT'S tons
a day in addition to the $4,000 out
going official letters Which pass
through the office on the average
day.
Along with the visitors here on
official business come hordes Of
sightseers willing to forego the GUS
tomary trips to Mount Vernon and
the art galleries for the chance of
one f1eeting glimpse of Mrs. Roose-
welt as she SKINS through traffic in
her blue roadster.
The new deal has revoIutionized
the business for the "rubberneck'
buses.
Eager to See Johnson
SHOW us General Johnson" the
customers often suggest to guides in
tent on displaying the Washington
monument. Lincoln Memorial and
the National Museum.
If the business visitor or the
sightseer gets a view of the gen.
eral it probably will be as he charges
through a corridor of the Commerce
building If he does get into the
inner sanctum, he may find the
surroundings disappointing. The Of
flee is far from picturesque. Like
the hundreds of others in the build
ing it is incased in frosted glass
with green metal doors and window
castings. The generals office has a
rug on the floor and a picture or
two on the wall. The others have
bare floors and walls.
Visitors to the office of CWA Ad-
miniStrator Harry L. Hopkins are
in for an even greater diSappoint-
ment. On the ninth floor of a drab
brick building the man who handed
out jobs to 100000 unemployed per-
sons works in a cramped corner
room. The office is reached by an
elevator so overworked that Mr.
Hopkins staff has been ordered not
to use 1t when going less than three
floors. The administrator desk
and chair are tidy enough, but if
he is visited by a delegation of any
size the callers are seated on rickety
kitchen chairs.
Government Pay Roll Up
The visitor to the agricultural
adjustment administration may
find scores of clerks toiling in the
basement of a temporary" building
Temporary" since war days
sending checks to farmers who have
agreed to reduce crops.
These agencies and the other
emergency organizations-the Home
Owners Loan Corporation, the Ten
nessee valley authority, the public
works administration, the farm
credit administration, the Recon-
struction Finance Corporation
typify the action, and action now
doctrine enunciated by the Presi-
dent last March f. Never-ending
queues of persons on official bust.
ness waiting for their turn. Over
time hours for employees. Crowds
on street cars, BUSES, trains and
planes. Jobs for clerks, Stenog-
rapherS. messengers.
The thirteenth month of the
Roosevelt administration finds up
wards of 10000 more persons en-
ployed by the government in Wash
ington than were employed a year
ago. The increase is reflected ir
better business for the merchants
and hotels and a per cent decline
in the vacancy Of apartment build
ingS.
The total of government employees
throughout the nation has grown
correspondence The figure or
Jan. was SOL. 675 as compared with
$685. S7 in February a year ago.
The increase is entirely within the
emergency organizations; the per.
sonnet of the regular departments
has shown a slight decline.
HhCuP0Y- HuhCINH N0H