Evening star., 1942-01-16
Business Federation
Advised 10 Fight for
Solution Of Problems
Randolph Points to
Districts Cumbersome
Form Of Government

Five big problems must be solved
BY the people of the District Of Co.
lumbia, Representative Randolph.
chairman of the House District
Committee. declared at the meeting
of the Federation Of Businessmen's
Associations last night-housing,
TRANSPORTATION, health, hospitaliza-
,stion and police protection.
.Coneress is not 10 blame for the
present problems" he said. 1--WE
have a cumbersome form Of govern
ment for the District Members of
Congress from distant States sit
around a table daily considering
local legislation that should have
never come before them.
you businessmen are going to
have to fight and fight to make the
city capable of handling them"
Preceding Mr.. Randolph's speech,
M. C. Schwartz, presiding in the
absence of William J. Mileham,
president of the group, introduced
special guests. including Harry N.
Still, president of the Federation OF
Citizens Associations; Harry s.
Wender. vice president of the Fed
Grafton. and Clement Murphy, chief
AFRAID warden for the District.
Mr.. Stull spoke Of the similarity
of the two Federations and the re-
suits gained from their close work
together on District matters.
Applaud Blackout View.
Mr.. MURPHY drew applause from
the group when he stated that he
thought it was not necessary for
merchants to blackout entirely the
front of their stores.
1T is essential to put out unneces-
Sary neon signs and other outside
lights. however he said. He spoke
of the present dimouts as valuable
mostly from the educational stand
point and promised that Col. Lemuel
Bolles, director of civilian defense in
the District, would soon clarity the
situation for the merchants.
Mr. Randolph, the main speaker OF
the evening. left no doubt as to his
stand on the steps necessary for
solution of the District problems he
mentioned.
Transportation has suffered a
complete breakdown" he said, be
cause of a lack Of facilities which
should have been foreseen."
He maintained that subway sys-
tenn is absolutely necessary and
would come sooner or later; that it
was foolish to wait five or ten years
to get started. Commuter trains
should be established and system
worked out so that taXicab COM
panies could get tires and new We
hicles, he said
Foresees 100000 Population.
Mr.. Randolph charged that the
District Public Health officials had
not been hard hitting enough in pre-
senting their needs to Congress. AS
for hoSpitaliza ton. more and more
facilities will be needed as the city
grows, he said, adding that made
ouate housing. as were the other
problems, was q natural result Of the
Il UWLil Va VIC Nltf "llASil lac PIC
dicted would not stop until it was
over million.
At its business session, the fedora
tion favored the construction of a
subway system. without further de-
lay, on motion of J. Nelson Ander-
son, legal counsel for the group.
The Office of Civilian Defense was
urged to set up blood banks on both
the East and West coasts, and To-
cally it was recommended that Dis
trict officials use the money allocated
to the District Civilian Defense
Board for medical purposes for the
establishment of like blood bank in
Washington.
A request for a cross-town bus
route over Military road, presented
by. the Chevy Chase Association
through its president, J. NJ. Heiser,
was approved by the federation and
the Public Utilities Commission was
commended for granting the cross
town bus previously requested on
klingle road.
Mrs J. Jeune Carter spoke for the
Billiard of the District Bar Associa-
tion presented various plans for busi-
nessmen to buy Defense bonds.
The meeting was held at the Hay
Adams House and was preceded by
supper.