Evening star., 1941-12-31


being made today at the District
Building.
Commissioner Young. as civilian
defense co-ordinator, has directed
CORPORATION Counsel Richmond B.
Keech and Col. Lemuel Bolles,
civilian defense director, to start
work lat the earliest moment" to
draft regulations to implement the
Districts blackout law, it was re-
vealed.
IL New Sirens Due Friday.
At the same time the Commits
sionerS were notified II Of the Al
electrical sirens they have ordered
as warning devices had been shipped
and would arrive here Friday. They
promptly authorized contracts for
installation of the IL.
Civilian defense strategists had
not planned a complete blackout
last night-but they were agreed
that they achieved what they set out
to do, darkening Of the entire city
and almost entire absence Of lights
in certain areas and mobilization
of the army of volunteer defense
workers under conditions approXi-
mately those they would face in an
actual air raid.
Street lights were cut off in the
downtown business section and in
a northeastern residential area, and,
while traffic lights were left on and
the blackout was not absolute, these
regions, at superficial glance, gave
the appearance of utter darkness.
Volunteers Act Quickly.
The thousa sands of defense
workers-air raid wardens, auxiliary
policemen and firemen, medical
teams, emergency feeding squads
and others-speeded to their stations
and carried on their simulated
duties quickly and calmly.
High praise for the Capitals first
big blackout came from Fiorella
La Guardia, Mayor of New York and
national director of civilian defense.
He cruiSed about with the District
Commissioners.
Commissioner Young and his col
leagues, Commissioners Guy Mason
and Charles w. Kutz, pronounced
the demonstration remarkably ef-
fective. So did Chairman Randolph
of the House District Committee.
All these officials got closeup views
of the blackout, especially in the
business section, and they met after
ward at Commissioner YoungS office
to compare notes.
They gave much credit to Col.
Bolles.
Violators May Feel Penalty.
Asked whether violators of black
out rules would feel the penalty OF
the law, Col Bolles said:
Il do not anticipate it will be
necessary to take legal action against
violators, but if it is necessary, I
hope there will be very few In
stances.
The public has demonstrated 1t
wants to do what is right. Lack OF
effective cooperation in instances
noted in last nights test were due,
I believe, to misunderstanding. mis-
information or lack of necessary
facilities.
However, Co. o-ordinator Young
has directed me to confer at the
earliest moment with Mr.. Keech to
draft necessary enforcement regu-
lations. I expect legal action will
be taken where we find fagrant and
wilful refusal to comply with black
out rules. do not expect this Will
apply to persons who cannot blot
out lighting for lack OF facilities, and
the like. but, of course, this would
not include any motorist who de-
liberately refuses to comply with
rules during blackout practice or
q real warning"
Citizens Groups Praised.
Col. Bolles added this statement:
Each one of us should look back
two months to the time when mass
meetings were being held under the
joint auspices of the Federatlons
of Citizens Associations and CIVIC
Associations. These two groups OF
patriotic citizens undertook at that
time the first steps toward civilian
defense of the city. 1t was not
popular then-they had little public
support-and many of their own
members were apathetic.
Despite this and other discourage
ments, too numerous to mention,
Harry N. Stull and DR.. E. H. Harris,
together with group Of far-seeing
association workers, persevered and
there and then laid the sound
foundation upon which the whole
structure of civilian defense is
builded.
TOO much credit cannot be given
to these organizations for what they
did then and what they still are
doing. The tests last night, with
whatever degree of success attained,
IS initially due to the early work
done by these associations"
All were agreed that vastly in
creased number of the 100000 citi-
zens in the Metropolitan Area knew
about this practice alert than were
informed of the first air-raid prac-
tice on December 81. At the first
drill the authorities depended on
sirens not strong enough to carry
the alarm or the all-clear to more
than a fraction of the people. This
time the alarm was well advertised
in advance and the radio served as
an effective substitute for the siren
alarm A real alarm, of course.
would shut down the radio stations
and sirens eventually will be OBJ
tanned to give the signals.
Traffic Obeys Quickly.
All observers remarked on how
completely traffic obeyed orders.
The Sudden silence that followed
the alarm was more conspicuous
than the absence of lights.
Streetcars, buses and automobiles
pulled to an immediate stop. Mo-
torists drew up to the curb and cut
off their lights. The streets sud-
denly were deserted except for cruiS-
ing police cars and those occupied
by other officials.
The White House blacked out
completely and quickly.
Here and there a store failed to
observe orders and kept display
windows lighted, but most of them
were out before the blackout was
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