Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-08-06

registrations for the metropolitan
area as whole from at least equal
ing its previous high point, recorded
in 1887 Not only that, total regis
trations, new and used passenger
cars and commercial vehicles, prom
Use, by the end of the year, to scale
all earlier records. both in the Dis
trict and in the metropolitan area.
This is already happening as re-
Spects gasoline sales.
If then, as we have seen, from an
earlier article, construction, and
more especially residential building,
is the balance wheel of local eco
nomic activity, the automobile
trade, taken as whole, is its hand
maiden. Without the automobile
the building development of recent
years on its present high scale would
have been well-nigh impossible.
Building activity and automobile
sales together play a vital role on
the local stage, even as is true for
the Nation as whole. May we then
not we'll pause to examine the va
lidity of this premise?
Telephone Growth Striking.
Perhaps no better way exists of
portraying the interdependence Of
the two than resort to the figures on
telephone stations, and especially by
major sections of the metropolitan
area. On April l of this year the
total number of telephones in use
here was larger than ever before.
But this overall picture Shrouds
many significant details.
Not alone does Washington proper
lead the world in number of tele-
phones per 100 of population but,
more than that, this instrument of
communications bears striking tes-
t1monv to the rapid and divergent
groWths within the area as a whole,
made possible only by the automo-
bile and the personal and public
transportation it affords.
For the District of Columbia alone
the growth in the number of tele-
phones in use only since 1885 ap-
proXimates q per cent. In the
area now served by the Emerson
Woodley exchanges the number of
telephones over the same period
have increased by about 81 per cent,
and If residential phones only be
considered the increase is closer to
80 per cent. Here is a picture of
the sensational rise of new resi-
dental dwelling units In that area.
made largely possible only by the
automobile.
Looking toward the east, the in
crease in the number of residential
telephones served by the Lincoln
Atlantic exchanges has in the four
years. amounted to about IS per
cent. Residential telephone stations
in the Columbia Adams Georgia
Randolph exchanges have increased
in the same period by about 81 per
cent and much more in the outlying
areas of the Randolph Georgia ex-
changes considered separately. For
the largely built-up area served by
the North = Potomac Decatur-Du-
pont Michigan Hobart exchanges
the growth in residential telephones
has been only IS per cent.
Gains in Downtown Area.
And there is an diverse side to
this, sort of reflection of home
coming movement. For what might
be classed as the downtown area,
even with all of the congestion, a
rise is shown in the number of resi-
Dental telephones since 1885 of al
most 20 per cent. incidentally, the
increase in business telephones in
this area served by the District-Na-
tional Metropolitan Sterling Re-
public exchanges has amounted to
% per cent in the four years in
question
We may now we'll look at nearly
Virginia and Maryland, where the
incidence of the automobile on
growth is even more apparent, If
not more spectacular. Total tele-
phones in use now in Arlington
County and Alexandria, amounting
to almost 10000, are double those OF
only four years ago. And If only
residential phones be considered fol-
the area served by the Oxford
Chestnut exchanges, the increase in
this brief period exceeds 120 per
cent. Is there any wonder that
this area has been called the fastest
growing community in the United
States?
For Prince Georges County in
Maryland the overall growth in
telephones has been just under 7(
per cent, while in Montgomery
County the present total of about
10000 telephones represents an in
crease since 1885 of a like per-
centage.
Much the same story is concealed
in the figures covering the number
Of residential consumers of electric
power and gas by sections Of thu
metropolitan area. Even the figures
on public transit, bus and street
car, urban and interurban, have 8
revealing story to tell about the
economic and even social fiber o.
the area. For here is body of fact.
! that closely parallels, by major Sec
lions Of metropolitan Warrington