Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-07
By Miriam Gutenberg.


than futile job-hunting or q meager
relief check.
Victims Of hard times, some Of them
saw their jobs slip away. Others were
farmers whose fields went under the
auctioneer's hammer. Homeless, the
farmers came to the city looking for
work. Like the unfortunate city-bred
folk. they went from ONCE to ONCE
trying to get job.
Perhaps they got two days employ
ment week II they were lucky. Their
families were crowded into one or two
rooms. Their children couldn't go to
school because their clothes were 50
ragged and frequently they had no
shoes.
Then they sought relief and an &C.
casional handout from the Surplus
Commodities Corp. Gradually the
job-hunting ceased. What good to
look for work when their clothes were
shabby? Who would hire a down.
and-outer?
A year ago this month they heard
rumors that in q building out on
Pennsylvania avenue jobs were to be
had for the asking. More out Of Gu
riosity than hope, because they had
had 50 many disappointments, they
paid visit to the place.
The sign on the door they couldn't
understand. The place was called the
Washington Self-Help Exchange. They
wanted to help themselves. They had
tried to and jobs What more could
any one do, they asked themselves.
WEARIED from the procession Of
Nv relief Investigators to their homes,
sick Of filling out questionnaires, they
found on their first visit hat no ques-
lions were asked.
If you want to work, here's your
chance" they were told. For every
hour Of work you do you will be given
q work certificate. scrip, with which
you can buy here the things you need"
The women were given jobs in the
sewing department or the laundry
or the little beauty parlor. If they
were clumsy with the needle, they
were quickly taught the mechanics
Of making shirt, patching a ragged
pair Of trousers or fashioning quilt.
The training in the beginners sewing
room was swift. Materials were pre-
eious and couldn't be wasted. Soon
the women were transferred to the
more advanced sewing department
and were able to teach others.
One woman, whose husband earned
Just enough to pay the rent and buy
q part of the food, was able to keep
her children clothed for school
through the whole winter by earning
scrip and buying coats and suits,
dresses and shoes for her youngsters.
With eight work certificates, rep
fesenting eight hours OF work. she
bought a cord Of wood. The children,
as we'll as her husband, needed hair
cuts, 50 she paid for that, too, with
one piece OF scrip for each one.
Keeping house, she couldn't be at the
exchange all day, but she found that
the schedule was 50 arranged that
she could work just two hours day
Il that was all she could spare.
COME women who had been futilely
- trying to ind jobs on the outside
to support themselves If not their
families came to the exchange with
failure written all over them. To
them the scrip meant new or more
attractive clothes and, most important
to women, q shampoo and finger wave.
Although the permanent wave is fairly
expensive, costing 20 scrip hours, the
results are worth 1t to q woman who
hasn't had one in five years.
A few women went to work in the
beauty parlor learning the business.
They hope to take their examination
as beauty operators in the fall and,
with a trade, return to private In
dustry.
For the men opportunities for work
at the exchange were limitless. They
were set to cutting the wood that was
to 20 to warm the homes of their
fellow workers. Some of them went
to work in the carpentry depart
ment making sturdy, disable furniture
out Of battered wrecks of chairs, ia
bles and beds.
The feel of the lathe under the
hand, the steady song of the hammer,
the brisk swish Of the paintbrush
were blessed tonics for the men who
had felt not long before that their
working days were over. Again they
were producing something. No crafts
man could feel more pride in his
work than they did when the last
nail was driven into place and the
furniture was sent to the storeroom.
Some men returned to their old
tasks. The shoemaker, the baker, the
barber, the printer were put to work
again at the trades they had served
for many years before the depression.
THAT'S how the exchange has been
- going and growing in the single
year OF its existence. With only 30
participants, as the workers are called,
to start with, and only few depart
ments, the little community has ex-
banded steadily until at the end OF
the year 839 men and women had
passed through its doors and 100000
work hours had been done.
with the increase in the number OF
workers, new departments were added.
Late last fall the exchange acquired
another building in nearby Shows
court, the famed alley that started
the investigation into slum conditions
In Washington. Once Herbert Hoo
ver's garage, the annex was reprinted
from top to bottom. Grass and sod
were brought in to make little front
yard for the refurbished building. The
participants, of course, did all the
work Of redecorating, as they had done
ct the other building
When they were finished they set
up . carpentry shop, diminutive
printing plant. vast attic storeroom
for the finished products, a shower
goom where the men could clean them