Evening star., 1941-05-19

as tne chesapeake 0 POTOMAC 1ele-
phone Co., the Potomac Electric
Power Co. and the Washington
Gas Light Co. can testify. All of them
stagger their bills in the hope of
staggering payments throughout
the month, but as one official re-
| marked:
I'VE can control the billing, but
not the paying"
Jams Grocery Stores.
The electric company sends out
about 1000 bills a day, the gas
company about $4,000 a week with
20 days grace for payment. On
pay days the bookkeepers on the
night force who normally finish
around $50 pm. often have to work
until 2:30 am.
Hard hit by the ups-and-downs
created by the bimonthly pay plan
are the grocery stores The day after
pay day. the grocery stores are
jammed with wives of Government
employees buying as much as weeks
supply of goods. If Friday happens
to be pay day, the whole load of
buying falls on Saturday instead of
being spread over several days.
Trained grocery clerks are getting
scarcer every day and housewives
have to wait as long as half hour
while other housewives fill up mar
ket baskets.
Just to add to their headaches,
grocery stores that put in extra
stock to take care of the after-pay-
day peak sometimes get stuck with
perishable goods.
Restaurants Note Rush.
While sirloin steaks adorn the
dinner tables of some Government
employees, their colleagues prefer to
dine out these two big nights a
month. Proprietors of large restau-
rants say their business charts in
dictate the day of the month.
Washington's night clubs, too,
would welcome distribution of pay
days among members of the Gov
ernment family. Spokesman for
several clubs said their business
fluctuated from virtually complete
sellouts on payday nights to an i'm
posing array of empty tables and
idle walters in the days preceding
the 1st and 18th. Also by the
calendar, champagne dollars dwindle
to beer dimes.
Under stagger-pay plan, de-
mand on hotels for dancing space
for State society functions would
be more evenly distributed through
out the month, hotel managers
maintain. At present. wise promo
| tiers of such functions make an
effort to set the date as near as
possible to the prosperous side Of
pay days.
TaxicabS a Barometer.
Theater managers differ on the
effect of pay days on attendance, but
all of them agree that a stagger-pay
plan would be a good thing. One
spokesman maintained that movie
business depends most on the at
traction, but another insisted that
a good turnout for good picture
invariably is better the day after
than the day before pay day. Officials
at the Glen Echo amusement park
also noted that considerably more
money is spent" Immediately after
pay day.
Taxicab companies consider them
selves a barometer of spending
Workers who have been leading
quiet lives all want to go out the
night of pay day and, as everybody
who ever tried to get cab knows,
it takes half an hour or longer to
get cab those nights.
Some companies say their work
increases by 25 per cent on pay day
and the four or five following days.
| Others say it doubles. Trunk lines
into taxi dispatchers' Offices are
jammed payday night and no dis
patchers are given days off around
pay day.
Company officials would like to
see staggered paydays because they
know they're giving poor service at
the peak periods and can't do any,
thing about it.
Extra Police Detailed.
Cab drivers complain because they
never know when they can pay
their rent or buy groceries with such
a fuctuating income, but they also
are likely to use impolite language
about the traffic jams they get in
volved in when they pick up Gov
ernment employees who want to get
theil checks cashed.
Capt. Milton D. Smith of the
Trafic Division pulls a dozen men
off beats and clerical jobs to police
additional intersections in the
downtown area. He has to be care
full about granting leaves on paydays
because he has no additional men
available.
Traffic Director Van Duzer said
that all other conditions being equal,
accident rates involving both per-
sonal and property damage are
usually higher on payday and the
| day after than before. For example,