The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-02-26

EdsOn many dollar
 year boys there are in Washington right now. Civil Service says there aren't more than half dozen outside the new defense setup which has nearly 150, about equally divided between the pro- duction, purchases and priorities sections. But Treasury Department has been hiring experts for a long time, getting some of them for nothing, others for $15, $22 or $25 day and on up to $10,000 8 year. And other government departments have high-powered advisers and consul tants on call at little or nothing a year, all the time.
 The strangest thing about the So- called wartime dollar a year men, however, is that they don't ged a dollar a year at all. They get $5 a day, the standard government sub sistance rate for years, plus travel expenses. All except Knudsen, Hill man and Stettinius, who get abso- luty nothing, their jobs being the hardest.
 GOOD
 WORKERS
 That $5 day doesn't begin to cover the average dollar a year mans living expenses in Washing ton. Most of them have not brought their families to the capital, and they therefore batch it in swell hotels where the two rooms and bath suites run $15 a day and up, without meals. Then there are extras like pants pressing, charged water and ice and long distance good nights to the kiddies.
 For the most part these dollar year men work alarmed hard. They don't care about hours, and they're all for getting the job done. Some of them, on loan from corporations, are trying to run their own jobs at the same time, giving these regular jobs one day week or month, or one week out of four, or half of each week. They do like to sneak home for weekendS, and the best place to catch them in large num- bers is Washington airport. They fly out late Friday and back Sun- day night or Monday.
 Government travel allowance doesn't cover these visits home, but it does pay for the trips made to speak as business mems banquets, like A & P stores Donald Mac Keachie made to New England rec ently, to tell food retailers what de- 1 fense is all about.
 HARD
 TO GET
 Washington hostesses have about given up on these glamor boys of big business. Society hostesses had hoped to be able to ring up their set and say, William Bait, president of s. K. F., and MT. Deupree, pres ident of Proctor & Gamble, are coming to dinner. Can I count on you? But dollar year men have no appetite for small dinners over which Washington politico talk shop. Most of the business men de- clare politica1 holiday when they come to town, and no wonder. Some one has counted 14O Republicans in the list of 150.
 Even the cocktail hour doesn't lure these sleek and Suave commu- ters. Sometimes you can spot one at the bar of downtown hotel, but more often they bend elbows in the office of some division head who has a private bar. Army and navy quar- | termaster and supply officers are their most frequent companions, for l lunch in the private dining rooms of the new social security building, which is OPM headquarters, or in the railroad retirement building which faces it. Occasionally Jesse Jones entertains them for an eve- ming by taking their worked-a-year- 1 for dollars at poker.
 A few of the defense commission CTS were allowed to bring their own secretaries with them. But the ave- rage man who is giving his brains to his country has to get along with what the civil service supplies, which can be anything from age 20 to 60
 There are a few luxurious suites for the top men, but others are pretty well pigeon-holed. One of OAASAAAs IioSA " AdA4A44AA6 4A4o OWAA RA6AA4V and having things the way he wan ted them, was showed into cubicle without much more than turn-a- round space Having difficulty in getting a buzzer installed, whenever he wants Stenographer he reaches over and pounds on the wallboard partition.
 Nearly all the dollar a year men have made good on the job. They were hand picked, of course, for specific tasks. Not all are rich Many are just expert buyers or technical men in the middle salary brackets of big corporations. Some of them have been accused of not putting into their defense jobs more effort than they were paid for. Their golf games and their pocketbooks have suffered, but they're taking it on the chin, and if a few of them are sent back to private industry, they probably won't care.