Evening star., 1943-06-13

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problems as housing, fiscal relations,
transportation and rationing.
The intensive work of the Fed
Grafton, the high attendance at most
committee meetings and general
sessions-au maintained despite in
creased pressure of personal work
OF most delegates and gasoline ra-
tloning-has strengthened the con-
viction of those who believe that
civic groups should continue to
function during the war. Fedora
ton attendance has been approxi-
mately 25 per cent higher since last
tall than during any previous year
War Effort Unit Named.
Harry S. Wender, elected presi-
dent of the Federation last Novem-
Der, has maintained from the outset
that civic groups were needed more
than ever" during the war. From
the night of his election on he has
also held that the Federation should
shift its activities to wartime
basis. To fulfill this conviction he
Immediately named a Committee on
War Effort and followed that up
by appointing Housing and Rent
Control and Consumer Interest
Committees.
In the matter of suffrage, the Fed
Grafton backed the Sumners-Capper
Joint resolution for national repre-
sentation and the Walter bill for
a District Delegate in the House.
Hearings on the latter proposal will
start Wednesday. Mr.. Wender, who
is a member of the Executive Com
mittee of the District Delegate
Committee, told the Federation,
when the question of supporting the
Walter bill arose, that he regarded
the Delegate proposal as the first
step toward voting representation.
The longest debate of the year
was provoked when the Police and
Fire Protection Committee submit
ted report on February 20 which
charged that the civilian defense Or
ganization here was "in a state of
unpreparedness such as to invite ca
tastrophe in the event of enemy ac-
ton" Among other things it con-
tended that there was little or no
coordination of the activities of the
protective services.
At the final meeting of the Feder-
alton, the committee submitted a
progress report. declaring that "a
great many of the deficiencies noted
IN the report approved by
the Federation at its meeting of
March have been eliminated"
Percival ]. Ableman, chairman of
the committee. went on to say that
1T should be noted that the director
Capt. H. c, Whitehurst, head of the
civilian defense) and his assistants
are following the report of the Fed
Grafton on the civilian defense or
ganlzation in the District very
closely in planning their organiza-
ton and program"
Lost WAVES Apartment Fight.
In the field of housing, civic
groups. including the Federation,
have met with some success and
with some setbacks. They lost in the
fight against turning an apartment
house at Eighteenth and G streets
NV. over to the WAVES, but won
two objectives when the National
Capital Park and Planning Commits
sion voted to withhold its approval
OF a housing project along Fort
drive and Endorsed the proposition
that all temporary Federal buildings
should be removed after the war.
The Federation and civic groups
won certain gains in transportation,
although gasoline and rubber Short
ages have forced severe curtailment
in bus routes. Following announce
ment of major reroutings and par
tial elimination of bus service in the
Takoma, Chillum Heights and Pet
worth areas, the Public Utilities
Committee filed a petition for re-
consideration, which was granted.
Capital Transit, at the new hearing,
came forward with a plan that met
many of the objections Of protesting
citizens, and only last month still
further objections were met when
the Public Utilities Commission