Evening star., 1936-05-02
Bv Dorothea J. Lepis.

" women and children use street
car passes each week in Wash
ington. Do you ever look at
the art" on those passes? You should.
We did and began wondering about
the neat little colored pictures of Gov
ernment buildings. of cherry blossoms,
of golf players, of Glen Echo. Who
thought them up? Who designed
them? Did other people notice them?
So, we discovered Mr., Robert Dougan
in the Capital Transit Co.'S headquar-
ters way over at Thirty-sixth and NJ
streets. Mr.. Dougan is executive as
sistant to the president of the company
and the Idea man" for the weekly
passes.
He is a handsome Irishman with
crisp white hair and pleasant smile
He thinks that an ancestor, way back
probably got tired Of spelling the family
name, oDugan, and switched the
letters about to the present unusual
Douean. He has been with the transit
company for IA years and before that
he was a newspaper man himself.
He is not an artist; he's a suggester.
He hasn't drawn even one of the l26
designs for the l26 passes issued to
date, but he has suggested most OF
them.
The passes have quite journey OF
their own before they begin carrying
washingtonians on personal Journeys
in the Capital city. They come all the
way from Wisconsin. Dougan writes
out his ideas and mails them to the
Milwaukee Electric Railway g. Light
Co.. which has used passes for many
wears and which has its own printing
and art department. The artists dra"
the little designs to carry out the
Douean ideas. If organization insignia
are to be used. a letter-head Is often
sent and photographs accompany
number of the suggestions.
The Wisconsin company is owned by
the North American Co., great holdlng
company which also controls most OF
| the stock of the Washington street
railway service.
THE ideas for passes are "thougnt-
up" at least a month, but usually
six or seven weeks ahead. The June
passes have been ordered and Mr.
Dougan is thinking away about July
Some of the designs are perfectly
obvious. he says. such as turkeys al
THANKSGIVING, George and cherry
tree for the week including February
%. the traditional holiday art at
Christmas and Easter, Community
Chest appeal during that drive, etc
Others. which depend on dates such
as the acquisition of Alaska by the
limited States. come out of the Worlo
Almanac. and still others come from
volunteer suggesters, via mail and the
telenhone. Even conductors and motor
men have suggested some, but most Of
the volunteer idea men and womer
these days are selfshly interested
nroperly so. That is. they want passe;
illustrative of their organizations oi
activities.
The company has issued d. A. r
passes and Shrine passes, during ma
tional conventions here. and 1t VII
have a Kiwanis International pass Il
June. when that organization meets II
the District. But since there are thou
sards of organizations and only 81
weeks in a year, it has found that i
must conflne its art to national Affairs
and big national affairs at that.
At S am. on December 3. 1888, thu
first street car pass was offered for SAX
to Washingtonians by conductors
Clifford Bergman of The Star drew
the design for the first pass, the onl,
actual design to be supplied from here
| 1t showed MS famous, gdlldnt L. ~
white figure bowling low on lavende
background. edged about with green.
That first week $4,000 passes wer
sold.
Whether or not the passes max
much money or lose little for tn
company, Dougan won't say-but tina
$4,000 has increased to pretty stead
so, 900 plus per week now and has Ger
tainly brought lot of people back t
riding the cars. 1t pays in good will,
Dougan says. Counts made by con
ductors and motormen, however, in
dicate that the weekly use of a pas
may run around 80 times, making tn
holder ride for about ga cents. Shuttl
rides, lunch time rides and one an