The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-02-18

GuSOn Tuesday.
 Radio broadcast quiz program from the Labor Department audi torium, with prizes for the sol- diers and government gals who do the best, on Wednesday.
 Amateur night, a la Major Bowes, from the Commerce audi torium come Thursday.
 Big-scale dances at the Govern ment Printing Office and Bureau of Engraving Friday and Satur- day.
 SOMETHING DOING
 EVERY MINUTE
 No, soldier, this isn't phoney dream for a weeks furlough with pay in advance, but the honeSt-to- gosh program for entertaining the troops when they come to town on leave. And the town isn't Colum- bus, Ga, San Antonio or Boneville. but Washington, D. C., slated to be- come one of the biggest boom towns of the country in the next two years and as long thereafter as the defense effort continues.
 Within few miles of Wash ington will be four. big army camps which will train 120,000 men. There will be 5000 or so or leave every night of the week, and on payday week-ends there will be double that number or more The question is, what to do with them? So the chiefs of the federal en- ployeS' welfare units in the vari- ous government agencies have been putting their heads together to map out programs of enter tainment which will let of the steam of surplus population of nearly 3OO,Oo0, plus the 500,00o already here.
 Recruiting the noStesses from among the gals of the gov'ment is the first step. Getting the local merchants to put up prizes for the amateur and radio quiz pro- grams is another. Making over the capital park system, doing away with golf course to pro- vide more tennis courts and things like that is another
 The big idea is to have some thing going on every minute of the time-of periods for soldiers l and clerks. And in addition to the government building auditori- ums, every school hall and meet ing place is being catalogued for possible use as a smaller amuse- ment center. Capitol will be run ming rampant all over the place and motorists will be warned to safeguard their tires from stray arrows.
 COUNTER
 ATTRACTION
 All this effort is of course on the strictly nice side and it's being or ganized as a counter attraction to Washington's notorious red light districts. It's not in the guide books, but the sad fact is that south of the capitol is an area which is a na- tional disgrace. War Department and district police plans are al- ready afoot to have the area pa trolled by military police to keep the soldiers out of trouble when they're Oll 1CdVc 1IldG D ulcIcly dl1OLllcI manifestation of the boom town at mosphere which Washington is talk ing on.
 A white-collar WPA project has already been canvassing the hous- ing situation, and has reported fewer than 3400 - per cent of the city's dwellings - vacant, With only 5000 rooms for rent, you won't be able to find a place to hang your hat in another six weeks. The prob lem then becomes one of getting people who don't ordinarily rent rooms to turn over the spare bed- room to visitors.
 There's a 240O-unit government housing project under way, but it can't be completed much with in two years. And so, while the good people in Washington will be having fun this summer, dancing in the streets and such, they may not have any place to go after ward. In that respect, the soldiers will have it on the civilians.