Evening star., 1942-05-10

walks until midnight, and they stay
out until we'll after breakfast-just to
serve the crowds that mill here, even
in the wee, sma' hours.
At even the smallest movie houses
there's a waiting line until II pm,
and then another queue starts at l
am. Movies run "a hours a day.
Over the week end it's impossible to
get a bed-unless you have money for
$40 night at the best hotels.
talked to one lad just going through.
He'd tramped to 80 downtown hotels,
and finally the Y. M. C. A. made room
for him. I talked to a couple of sailor
lads on leave. They knew better than
to waste time hunting bed. They
kept going for 48 hours, taking cat
maps in two chairs in the back Of q
pool parlor.
At the city's Fair Rent Commission"
I talked to a shipyard worker from
Montana who arrived here two months
ago with his wife and two children.
They found one room for the four Of
them. But they could have it only four
have found a room they could have
permanently. They've lived in 16 places
in two months, and he's about to throw
up his job and go home.
The housing conditions here are even
worse than those in Washington, D. c.,
which does all the bowling. And I've
lived in both in recent months.
This town is loaded with the men
who really do the work. the builders OF
planes and ships, Army and Navy,
foundry workers and parts makers. And
by midsummer Seattle has had to make
room for Is 600 more workers-and their
families.
They have asked all mon essential"
people to leave the city. And 1t looks
like they'll have more luck than Pres
ident Roosevelt did when he asked the
parasites" to leave Washington, D. G.
Seattle's commission lists the follow
ing as non-essential: Pensioners. peo-
ple living on private incomes, unen-
ployables and young people waiting to
enter college this autumn.
The non essentials are asked to move
east of the mountains-into Eastern
WASHINGTON, Northern Idaho and into
Canada.
To make 1t easier the commission has
lust finished q threeweek survey OF
towns east of the mountains. They drove
$500 miles to list houses for evacuatlng
Seattleites. They came back to report
that five-room houses which cost sou
here-if there were any-can be had in
places like Spirit Lake, Idaho. for SIS
a month.
The morning after the first request to
move appeared IN Seattle papers "a
people registered to evacuate. The pa
rade continues. The pensioners, whose
checks depend on residence, will be
helped by the Social Security Board
which promises to mail checks even out
Of the State and into Canada.
It's suggested that Seattle youngsters
waiting for college find summer jobs in
other towns. And it's hoped their par
ents, with vacant rooms, will advertise
for roomers.
The town has Just taken a quick sur
vey to find 1t has ".04" vacancies. Which
means, practically, there aren't any.
There are some 1,100 rooms listed, but
most of them are without one of the
standard items of equipment" like hot
water, heating, inside toilets.
The town Is full Of stories like this.
Just outside the city limits there has
been q vacant chicken hatchery which
failed. But the shipbuilders arrived, and
the owner rushed out for carpenters. He
turned the hatchery into very de luxe
f1op-house, and now roomers are paying
the income the chickens didn't.
One night shipyard worker collapsed
and was rushed to the hospital. He died
there of pneumonia. 1t was found he'd
been working days and sleeping nights
in his auto parked by the waterfront.
There's a man who owns quiet home.
He was visited one night by committee
of shipbuilders who begged for help.
So the man threw up partitions in his
basement, made five rooms, and put a
double bed In each. The basement now
houses ten men.
Another eight men begged the use o.
an attic in new house. They have to
climb ladder to get into it. It's an
Al fire trap but it's q place to sleep.
The University OF Washington has
thrown open its fraternity houses to de-
fense workers. Seattle no longer thinks
its odd to see man with tin helmet
and lunch bucket trooping out Of frater-
nifty row.
This is pretty startling to Seattle
people. The town had settled down to
about $4,000. Now nobody knows the
number. But it's guessed there are
100000 new people here. The last build
ing boom was in 1925, so Seattle was
caught plenty short.
Food costs as much as it does in New
York. Over the week end it's so hard
to get taxis that some taximen run a
sort of streetcar service. Pick up load,
and drop them of as they can Mattresses
e \ t-Lt