Evening star., 1941-08-10

IStuIQS ana tfIe ATHIy ana NuU!
transportation growing feebler every
day because Of defense priorities This
creates a situation very different from
that in mainland defense centers.
With the boom, spectators ran up
scores of single walled houses, good
enough for this mild climate, but too
few. Home owners built cottages in
front and back yards and on the sides.
One lot owner built four two-bed-
room houses on his property, put them
on the market at s10,500 each and
when they did not sell in two days
rented them at an average of sI25
month.
The Army and Navy built blocks of
houses, not nearly enough, and took
steps to. protect their personnel from
being gouged. Nothing has been done,
however. to protect civilians from hav-
ing rents lacked up. This has been
done, but there was no place to move,
and the civilians stayed put.
Advertising Shows.
Rental advertisements are an indica-
ton of conditions. A long list of houses
wanted to rent includes, for the most
part. requests by people who want two
bedroom homes at S35 to SIS month
Some offer cash bonuses for information
Another very short list offers houses
to rent, perhaps furnished, at 500 to
$3.50 a month.
The speeded tempo has put strain on
public utilities that has made the auto
matte telephone system break down fire.
quently. necessitating an expansion pro-
gram.
1t has increased traffic to point where
fatalities in accidents have doubled. On
busy days 10000 automobiles pass over
the Pearl Harbor highway into a mar
row bottleneck through the Iwilei dis
trict into Honolulu average daily traffic
on the San Francisco Bay Bridge is only
44,189 dailyD
Conditions have grown so bad on the
Pearl Harbor road through the cane
fields that the once pleasant drive, now
termed Suicide road, is having an extra
lane added, further clogging traffic dur
ing the process.
Garbage collection has grown increas-
ingly haphazard of late because of the
readiness of workers to quit for more
Twice week householders pile cans and
boxes of garbage on front lawns and
hope they will be collected. The per-
vading aroma of tropical flowers is much
appreciated on those days.
The entertainment bottleneck has been
attacked with some success and Honolulu
society has done something toward re-
ceiving enlisted men in private homes.
An earnest move has been made to give
the white -jacketed sailors and khaki
clad soldiers a measure of social recog-
milton.
The Navy has built an elaborate rec
reation center for its enlisted men near
Pearl Harbor. Frequent athletic con-
tests and entertainments are staged by
the Army and Navy. The Navy lives
and works intensely at sea and wants to
relax ashore. The Army mixes up fun
and work ashore and has less of a prob
lem.
These are problems, chiefly, for serv-
ice personnel. The presence of the serv-
ice men and defense workers has created
some serious problems for the working
class and for what would be the middle
class anywhere else than in Hawaii.
Chief of these is the high cost of living
Then comes the problem of schools. clas-
sif1ed as English standard and non-Eng-
lish standard.
Strain on Schools.
Schools, already overtaxed. we're put
under terrific strain with the arrival
of additional defense personnel, most of
whom pay few island taxes and thus pay
little toward school upkeep. This does
not help the individual who is unable
to find a school for his child or who
finds that a school with vacancy may
conduct instruction in grade of English
he finds it difficult to understand.
They call 1t pidgin English here and
island educators hope it will disappear
There is talk of building several
schools for service personnel to ease
the burden.
Speak to any defense worker about
finances and you have listener and a
commentator in picturesque phrases that
would horrify the old-timer in the
islands These old-timers, incidentally,
are abnormally sensitive to any hint
of criticism of the islands.
1t isn't so much that watermelons
cost $3.50 or So at eight cents pound,
the defense worker will tell you; it's
the fact that staple foods cost so much
and there is apparently no system in
the increased tariff over mainland prices.
After all, watermelon=growing here is
an occupation for a specialist. Each
melon is sprayed twice day and lives
in its own home, a paper sack which is
changed as the melon grows. There is
a reason for high prices there.
But why, they ask, does fish caught
off the reef here cost IS cents . pound
while frozen hsh shipped from Alasi