The Washington times., 1935-05-03
NOW
Capital Needs
dPied Piper
JOB FOR PWA?

w - WV -
JOB FOR PWA?
BY HELEN ESSARY
Things Are Getting Better
All the Time Department:
When Mrs. Coolidge was late
Tor luncheon out in the Dakota
Black Hills, her husband, the
President, made a public eX-
ample of her tardineSS. He de-
tached Jim Haley, the Secret
Service man who had been her
guide, from First Family serv-
ice and sent him back to Wash
angton by the first train.
The wife of the present PreSi-
dent of the United States dashes
about the country by land, sea,
and air, frequently at odd hours.
She supports social welfare and
political causes. And sets a pub
lie example of independence. IN
telligence, and enthusiasm.
There has never been a rumor
that her husband scoldS her II
she is late for lunch.
Wanted-a Pied Piper Tor
Washington!
People have been writing me
letters and saying:
The town is full of rats. The
four-footed kind.
In Massachusetts, Avenue PARK
when the tops of trash cans
rattle in the dark of the moon,
rats are out exploring.
On Sixteenth Street when
strange noises jump inside the
walls-rats are at play.
In Bethesda, where the Com
munity Market is flouriShlng'
some people are afraid to walk
in their gardens at night Tor
fear of stepping on rats.
In the older sections Of the
city, in Georgetown for instance
the rats are practically as big
as dogs-with long, waving tails
and shiny, beady eyes.
Some definite, organized rat
determination should be under
taken by the city, said my letter
writer's. Rats are loathsome.
disease spreaders. Old Center
Market and many old public
buildings and houses having
been torn down, the rats are now
moving up town.
We asked the Public Health
Service if there was a District
fund for fighting rats.
The P. H. S. said there was
no fund. But even if there
were a fund, it wouldn't help.
We were told:
"The best way to get rid of
rats is by good housekeeping.
Rat determination is a matter
of education and perfect clean
linesS."
Housekeeping? Education?
Nonsense, said the people to
whom we reported this answer.
Good housekeeping may drive
the rats out of one community.
But they will go to another,
sometimes by the hundreds.
Most everybody in his town
has had a rat siege. so the
indignant householders declare.
But people are too refined to
admit it. And that's how it is
hard to fight the pests.
A Harvard professor, so I
was reminded, has just written
an article saying that in every
city there's rat for every per-
son.
Since there is a fund for prac-
tically everything you can think
of in this country, said my
complainants, why not have a
rat determination fund? Why
not spend some of this new
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS allotment for
getting rid of what the Harvard
professor calls mans greatest
enemy?
N.B.-Representative Hamil-
ton Fish in New York has a flair
for the determination Of COM
munists. Perhaps he might be
encouraged to attack the rat
problem.
Completely changing the sub
ject-add to Washington spring
time walkers, George VasS and
Avon Nevius, slightly austere
vice presidents of the Riggs
Bank, when they aren't stepping
along debonairly in the SUM-
shine.
Another Riggs vice president,
Sidney Taliaferro, who lives in
Georgetown, talks sociably with
unknown neighbors night and
morning on the F Street car on
which he rides, about-gardenS
=. Senator and Mrs. Bennett
Clark, former Senator and Mrs.
Harry B. Hawes, and Senator
and Mrs. Key Pittman have re-
turned from jefferson Island
in the middle of the Chesapeake
Bay, to which they escaped over
last weekend. Rumor that Mir
dam Clark spends the time writ
ing her Christmas Thank You
Letters" likely true.
"Hello. Is this the railway
company? Will you please tell
me how long it takes to get to
Mexico? What cities I'd go by
nnann,knO Al aaanankA IL