davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1944-06-18

LfIt7tk tite gHOStS 0aG u
IN reUenge."
1.6S percent births per 100 population
Total number of white students is Sc, ,249.
To meet the needs of the colored
population. 16 schools built for white
students have been reassigned to divi-
sions 10 to Is in recent years. Salaries
for 100 teachers recently were shifted
from white schools to colored.
In the history of the school system,
only two buildings first occupied by
colored later were reassigned to white
students. These were the Russell Ele-
mentry School, Ninth and E streets
S.W., formerly the Anthony Bowen,
and the old Bunker Hill Elementary
School, Twelfth street and Michigan
Avenue ~ E. The Rossell had so few
students it has been closed and turned
over to the Commissioners for a stor-
age plant. Four years ago the old Bunk
er Hill School was torn down and a
new one erected, also for white stu
dents, at Fourteenth street and Michi-
gan avenue NE.
AS in the past schools built to fill a
need later have been abandoned for
lack of students, Mr. Haycock pointed
out, there may come day when the
now overcrowded Anacostiax schools are
empty. They, too, he said, may cease to
function as schools and become instead
centers for ghost stories. The quirks of
the shifting, oddly adult population of
Wa ashiDpton he said are IInrredict h1e
Public officials can only watch the fig-
ures and try to interpret them cor.
rectly.
Evening star., 1944-06-18
BY Richard Tompkins,
Associated Press STAFF Writer.

WEsTPORT, Conn.-What have
strings and hooks and eyes and little
plastic pegs got to do with increased
war production?
Well l, one manufacturer reports he
saved $4,000 in one year by pulling the
little strings and inserting the pegs in
the right punch board holes to get
day-to-day picture of production.
The punch board system, the idea of
F.. Lloyd Wassell, manufacturer, is now
in use in more than 1900 war plants,
saving money and breaking bottlenecks.
There's another story in Wassell him.
self. Starting two years ago with virtu-
ally nothing, he now has a $1,000 900
business.
Wassell wanted desperately to do
something in the war effort. He had
four sons, all in the air force. Two have
given their lives. Two still are flying
'Action.Facts'
Wassell went to war plants to see what
he could do. He learned of the need
for something to project the flow of ma
terials, orders and time-a sort of
graphic presentation of "action-facts" to
aid in speeding up production and saw
ing valuable man-hours.
Wassell set to work with Chinese
abacus. But this gave him only the
count, not the projection of time. He
needed some common denominator to
tell where production stood.
He experimental with eight different
boards before perfectins his war baby
Evening star., 1944-06-18

costa River area near Alabama avenue
Sc. Now there are 1,039 Five years
ago there were only 500 elementary
school children in the Congress Heights
Washington Highlands area. Now there
are 1,100.
Figures Misleading
Ordinary census figures are no help
to of1cials trying to decide where to
build school and where to close one.
The figures are misleading. There have
always been many adults here and few
children. For example, the figures show
District population of 27S,0Oo in 1900
swelling to 100000 noW. Population in
Metropolitan Washington is more than
a million. Yet the number OF children
going to public schools has only doubled
in this time. It was $4,000 in 1900. At
peak registration in the 1930s there
were only 100000 students. Wartime
jobs have cut the number now to $1,000.
The widely -publicized number of
single women In Washington. officials
say, is not the only reason for this
extraordinary percentage of adults.
Many couples here remain childless or
have only one child before the wife goes
back to work for good. In other. in
stances member of q family will come
here to work for comparatively short
time. The family-including the chill
dren-will stay home in Kentucky or
Idaho.
As result the daily attendance re-
ports Of teachers are the only reliable
clue to the number of children included
in the steady migration of people to
Washington. The District Commission
ers and the Census Bureau often call
on the Office of Mr. Bristor for the latest
reports.
In the Older Neighborhoods
The figures gave the first indications
years ago to changes in Georgetown and
the Dupont Circle area Now they are
Evening star., 1944-06-18
Punch Board for Victory

the "produc-tol." contraction of the
two names 'production" and control"
Revolutionary but as simple as ABC,
his control applies time and motion to
records, high lighting any delays or
unbalanced details in time to forestall
dangers of shortages, materials and
even human failures.
Where busy executives once spent
hours analyzing and reporting work
progress, now they see the whole story
at glance" reports a methods ANALYST
in one large war plant.
Wassell explains that where before II
took IL persons working eight days to
get out report on work progress, five
men working only three days can now
do the same job, using four of the
control boards.
The 55-year-old Wassell is not an eff
cheney expert. He prefers to be called an
eXpediter or an expert IN industrial con-
troll, having worked on production meth
DDS for Is years before he started his
own business here.
A Westport zoning law of 1891 pro-
hlblted the erection of any more plants
in the town, SO Wassell had to use exist
ing building-an old garage, a show
room, dress shop and space in an old
bank building, $500 square feet in all
For offices he restored the old Colonial
John Adams Thayer home.
I'VE just grew into the business" eX-
plains Wassell. The family pitched in
and went to work stringing the boards.
We made few, sold them and made
some more. When we finally got into
production we had only $1,000 in the
bank" Production now is an average of
TOO to 800 boards a month.
Evening star., 1944-06-18

Of the first magnitude-that Of helping
to care for the wounded on the battle
field, bringing some little comfort to
soldiers In the mud and cold Of behind
lines areas and, perhaps most i'm
portant OF all, acting as link between
them and their families at home.
Not that the Red Gross has been idle
in the past. In North Africa, in Italy
and in the wide areas Of the Pacific, 1t
has carried out its traditional war tasks.
But these operations have been small
compared to the unrolling Western Eu-
ropean front.
Davis Deeply Grati6ed
Norman H. Davis, president OF the
American Red Cross, told the writer he
was deeply gratihed" now that the men
and women Of his organization were at
last in France ready to carry out the
tasks for which they have been trained.
Our devoted and earnest field men
and women" he said, "long have pre-
pared for the invasion, training for their
tasks with the military units to which
they are attached Many began this
training in the United States with mill
tary units and others have had two
years experience in American Red Gross
work in Great Britain. Some have been
with military units in North Africa,
Sicily and Italy.
They are there to serve our American
military men and women in the name OF
the American people. AS conditions
warrant and the commanding officers Of
the military forces approve, many hun
dreds of Red Cross men and women,
including our clubmobile girls with their
mechanical units, will 60 to the conti-
nent. Meanwhile, they are engaged in
their duties in Great Britain, aiding the
men about to go to the continent and
the wounded as they are returned"
The men and women who will minister
to the wants of American soldiers are
not recruited and put in uniform over
night. They are the product of careful
selection and arduous training-often, in
the case of the men, the same sort of
battlefield training that soldiers under
go, the Red Cross explains.
They are selected, in the first place,
on the basis of character, experience in
large scale welfare work and their
ability to handle men. Many now in
Red Cross uniform once were we'll
known business and professional leaders.
The tremendous training program of the
Army here in the United States gave the
Evening star., 1944-06-18


finished school, Few new children
have appeared to use their desks.
The growing up" process, as ex-
planned by Robert L. Haycock, super
intendent Of schools, happens this way.
The fathers and mothers in an older
neighborhood 60 on living in their homes
after their children graduate. When
these families take in tenants, they are
apt to insist that the tenants be single
or childless couples. +
If the parents do decide to sell their
homes, the buildings are apt to be used
as boarding houses or apartments for
single persons and childless couples.
Somehow there Is little chance for more
children to move into the neighbor-
hood and go to school. In Georgetown
for example, there has been selling
boom lately. But most OF the pur-
chasers either have had no young chill
dren or send them to private school
Georgetown and Dupont Circle have
just grown up," Mr. Haycock said.
Now Stores and Offices
There is another type of school cas-
ualty also. Some buildings have been
closed solely by the inexorable spread
of stores and Offices into neighborhoods
once teeming with youngsters. There
are four such elementary schools in
downtown Washington The Gales, at
First and G streets NV, near Union
Station; the Polk and the Henry, at
Seventh and P streets NV, and the
Franklin School, now the central ad-
ministration.
The Webster School, Tenth and H
streets NV, once an elementary school,
has been converted to use of adults
studying for their citizenship papers.
In a quiet Office at the Franklin, a
man and four woman clerks chart these
changes in school populations Each
month, Boise Bristor, school statisti-
clan, prepares lists showing changes in
numbers of students in certain sections
of the city. Mr.. Haycock studies these
lists to determine whether any schools
should be closed. He sees where a
teacher could be transferred to a more
crowded school. He notes buildings so
overburdened that Congress should be
asked at once for money for an addi-
tional structure.
Population Changes
Watching population changes has al
ways been a responsibility of school
administrators. Here in Washington it
De nF he t,,fo afy,
duties. The Nations Capital since 1900
has confounded its leaders by doing the
unexpected. Schools were planned long
Evening star., 1944-06-18
BY Joseph H. Baird

A new American Army entered France
last week end on the heels Of the men,
guns and tanks that blasted hole In
the walls OF fortress Europe. This sec
ond Army was not trained to fight
though it often takes" the enenys
bombs and shells-but rather to miti-
gate the he'll Of war for the troops that
preceded 1t. 1t advanced under the
standard of the American Red Cross.
D-day plus three That Is military
language for the time appointed for
the men and women Of the Red Cross
to follow the invasion troops into the
zone Of battle. The frst blow against
Nazified Europe was struck from the
west on Tuesday, June 6. So Saturday,
June 9, marked the opening Of the Red
Cross campaign Of mercy which will
mount on an ever-expandine scale until
our forces march through the Branden-
burg Arch in Berlin.
Here, for the first time In this war,
the American Red Cross faces task
Evening star., 1944-06-18


handling misbehaviour In the one class
she taught. She put on her hat and
said she was going home. When she
returned from outdoors few. minutes
later order had invariably been re-
stored.
The dog which barks for the Oldest
employees is gentle st. Bernard He
rode to school in carriage every day
and lay outside the classroom where
his young master was learning to read
Piesent-day regulations do not permit
dogs to accompany students to school,
Parts Of Chevy Chase have grown
up" too. Two elementary schools, the
Murch and Lafayette, serve an area
where three schools used to be operated.
The E. v. Brown School, built in 1898,
before there were any houses within a
mile of Chevy Chase Circle on the Dis
trict side, is now District headquarters
for the Office of Price Administration.
The windows of the Browns original
four classrooms now look solemnly out
into newer corridors instead of into
heavy woods. The playground is a
parking lot. Robert K. Thompson, OPA
administrator, occupies the sewing room.
But children still come to play under
the trees in the Brown yard, where
their parents and older brothers and
sisters played. A ration official was
interrupted recently by shouts of chill
dren playing outside his Office windows.
Asked why he did not stop the dis
turbance, the official shifted uneasily.
Il did scold them last week." he said.
Next morning my papers were messed
up"
Evening star., 1944-06-18
Red Cross Photo.

1scu 0Aoes AsAosSs
lines B "hot-water station" where sole
diers could always find a comfortable
shave. TO men who. have gone un-
shaven for days, or have tortured their
faces by cold-water shaving. such .
detail may mean much.
Perhaps most important. the Red
Gross man stands ready to aid the
soldier In solving the hundreds Of per-
picking problems and worries that sur
round him. Is the soldiers wife Ill or
about to have a child? Does she need
money for some unexpected expense?
Is some detail of the family's welfare
about which he does not know black
ening the soldiers morale?
Ready to Aid
In such cases the Red Cross field man
stands ready to aid-always with in
formation and sometimes with money,
advanced as a loan or grant. BY tho
use of rapid Army communications fa-
cilities the Red Cross man often trans
mits message to the soldiers home
town In America and hands him a
reply in his foxhole within a few hours.
In the amount Of money spent and
the number of personnel overseas, the
Red Gross has not yet reached the
peak 1t achieved in the World War.
However, it is pointed out that the
major task of the organization in this
war is just beginning now. From to-
day until Germany and Japan sur
render, its duties will be increasingly
heavier.
Between 1914-18, the American Red
Cross raised and disbursed approxi-
mately $4o0 900 900 and employed some
1924 paid personnel in Is countries.
From January /, 1912, to February 90,
1914, three months short of the approxi-
mate period of American participation
in this war; the organization has spent
S13S619,870 on war relief activities. In
addition it has distributed supplies
costing S78,951 1860 which were paid for
by the United States or other govern
ments and organizations The Red
Gross now has 1908 paid workers.
backed by some 6,500,000 part-time VOL
unteers. OF its paid staff, 14529 are
engaged in services for the armed forces
and 4.487 of them are overseas.
The opening of the French beachhead,
of course, marks the beginning of the
vast Red Cross program of European
relief, which will employ a constantly
mounting number of workers.
Evening star., 1944-06-18
Ghost Voices Echo in Old Classrooms
Advantageous School Scene Shifts /
Bv Marion Wade Doyle.


There are seven old schools In North
west washington that now serve as Of
fees and storage plants--in the day.
time. At night, however. school ofiicials
say unofic,ally. the ghosts Of thousands
of children recite lessons in whispers
and play eerie games In the yard
Ration board workers at the 67-year-
old Force School, l740 Massachusetts,
avenue NV, for example, occupy class
rooms where Theodore Roosevelts sons
came to study during his term in the
White House. An old resident of the
neighborhood asked the secretaries If
they ever saw little boy jumping up
the marble stairway with flowers in his
hand
"If you do" she said, "it's quentin" +"
Quentin Roosevelt, later killed in the
World War I, brought flowers from the
White House gardens every week and
gave them to the little girl across the
aisle. Eventually her father wrote to
the President, complaining that the
Roosevelt attentions were turning his
daughters head,
back, were for the teacher"
Force and Addison Schools
The Force is one of several historic
old schools In Northwest Washington
that has been closed for lack of stu
dents This month school officials an
nounced another casualty, the 59-year-
old Addison School, on P street be-
tween Thirty-second and Thirty third
street NV. in Georgetown
There are seven elementary schools
open for white children in the rela-
lively small Georgetown area. In the
last five years, the total enrolment of
the seven has dropped from 1000 to
1,400. One must be closed, officials an
nounced. It will probably be the Ad-
olson. As plans stand now, when the
last pupils leave at o'clock on June 81,
the doors of the Addison will be closed
forever to children.
That is, the doors will be closed to
fiesh-and- blood students. No one men,
tions the ghost children. Ohicials have
long since found there is no way to keep
them out.
Neighborhoods Have Grown Up
The Force and the Addison are suf-
fering from the same malady-the neigh
borhoods around them have grown
up" Mostly adults live there. The
children of longtime residents have
Evening star., 1944-06-18

Wunan d. vale Of Baltimore and Phjla-
delphia. 8. Former oficial Of the united
States Lines. who is serving with the
Red Gross 'for the duration" as director
Of supplies for the European Continent.
Staff Is Well Supplied
Red Cross supplies, whose bulk fills
many warehouses, are varied in the ex-
tren1e.a They range from specially,p,iilt
"clubmobiies descendants
of the World War canteen-to tooth
brushes. shaving cream, candy, chewing
gum, stationery, playing cards, matches
and scores Of other items which may
bring a little comfort into the lives of
the front-line soldiers.
Long months Of preparation have made
the American Red Cross well-staffed,
well-supplied organization. Now it is
beginning to carry out one of the major
tasks for which it was created.
What are its men and women like
and how do they work? American Red
Cross headquarters here In Washington
supplies these answers:
Red Cross Soldiers,
The Red Cross soldier" at the front
is the field director. -Four are assigned
to each front-line division. On the
battlefield the Red Cross man is uni
formed exactly like the soldiers he
serves, even wearing, under recent
Army order, the shoulder patch of the
division to which he is assigned. Above
this, however, is the Red Gross flash"
and on his helmet appear the small
letters "A. r. c."
A jeep and trailer assigned to each
Red Gross man gives him mobility and
a conveyance in which to carry his COM
fort supplies. Women of the Red Cross
in Europe are to work from "clubmo-
biles," which, as their name implies, are
CLUBS" mounted on trucks, in which the
soldiers may enjoy cup of coffee or
chocolate, doughnuts, candy, cigarettes,
music from a portable phonograph or
radio and even dance with the host
esses, three of whom are assigned to
each car.
Here may be good place to point
out a fundamental difference between
the working technique of the Red Cross
in the World War and now. The differ
ence results from drastic change in
the nature of warfare.
In 1914-1918 the Allies and Germany
fought war of fixed position" Deeply
Evening star., 1944-06-18
Americas New Red Cross Army

intrenched in ti1e earth, the two forces
advanced or retreated very gradually.
except during periods Of intense drives"
Consequently Red Cross canteens wers
more or less fixed just as the armies
before them, In positions behind the
lines, where soldiers could retire for rest
and entertainment. Only rarely did the
Red Cross men get up to the actual
battle area. IA
Now. with the development Of fsst
tanks, mechanical UNITS, supporting -
tank planes and highly mobile artillery,
this war IS one Of rapid movement.
There Is no fixed front It changes
from day to day. even from hour to hour.
Hence. the Red Cross. too. has been
forced to adopt . high degree Of mo-
biiity, and It's workers inevitably are
exposed to more danger than before.
In the Front Lines
The Red cross, according to It's head
quarters here, Is the nrst noncomhat
organization authorized by the War
Department to operate In the front
lines.
Now Just what does the Red Cross
man do?
First, In days Of battle he must be
trained to give aid to wounded soldiers
and help evacuate them from the bat.
tlefield. This is, of course, the primary
responsibility OF the Army's Medical
Corps, but the Red Cross man Is skilled
In first aid and stands ready to help
when called upon.
Behind the lines and during periods
OF lull in battle he and his trailer act
as a sort Of battlefield general store"
from which the soldier may obtain the
small Injuries mentioned earlier The
worth Of field director depends a
lot on his character and ingenuity, and
his assignment is to help the troops In
every reasonable way.
The story Is told Of one Red Cross
man In Italy who endeared himself to
battalion by securing the countryside
for nrewood and setting up behind the
Evening star., 1944-06-18

No one mentions the ghost
children. Officials haze long
since found there is no 1Dau
to keep them out.
ago in the northeast section near the
Capitol. But plans had to be shifted
hastily when the northwest section in
stead became the popular residential
district.
Now. suddenly, the tide of popula-
ton has changed again. Five years
ago there were only 1877 white elemen-
tary school children in the upper Ana
Evening star., 1944-06-18

said.
Not the live ones" said the official.
Il think the ghosts did it in revenge"
Despite jeers of his colleagues. he
sticks to his theory that ghost children
haunt the Brown. The downtown
schools are believed to be haunted, too.
For example, the windows of the de-
serted Henry School cape on play
ground that during the flu epidemic of
1918 was used briefly to store collins.
Before the principal and minister liv-
ing nearby could arrange for removal
of the coff1ns, pupils had found them
ideal for games of hide and seek A
janitor there at the time is quoted as
telling officials in later years:
"The children sneaked back last
night. They're looking for those
collins"
Old Time Relics
The Gales School still contained q
masters platform, antique clocks and
slate pencils when it was abandoned in
January to serve as a servicemen's
lodging.
The children at the Webster School
on June 8, 1893, rushed from their
classes to see the collapsed Ford The
ater. At the Franklin, Mr.. Haycock
has his Office in the same room where
he once studied. The Polk is q health
clinic now.
These five elementary schools are all
victims Of the growth of business alone,
rather than adult" tendencies in the
neighborhood. From Seventeenth and
K streets to Union Station, two schools,
the Thomson and Seaton, now are
enough to accommodate all the white
elementary school children In the area.
The number Of colored elementary
school students here has remained
stable at 1000 for some time. It, too,
however. is expected to decrease as
homes make way for ofices and stores.
Figures given by Mr.. Bristor for de-
creasing elementary school populations
In other sections Of the city are: Mount
Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Park
View. from $500 students five years ago
to 1890 now; petworth-Saui's Addition,
1,480 to 1000: Langdon- Woodbridge, $500
to 1890; Trinidad, 1900 to 1,400, and
Stanton Park, 800 to 500.
No Cause for Alarm
Mr.. Haycock emphasized that resi-
dents of these enighborhoods have no
cause for alarm that the doors of their
schools will suddenly be slammed shut.
1t takes officials years of deliberation,
he said, to decide to close a school.
Many factors, such as the distance stu
dents will have to walk to the next
school, are considered.
The enrolment in Georgetown, for
example, he said, had been decreasing
for many years before the proposed
closing of the Addison was suggested.
Citizens have been discussing the prob
lem at their association meetings for
years. AS an additional protection, Mr..
Haycock said, notice of any contem-
plated change is given publicly far in
advance.
In contrast to the decreasing enroll
ments in certain northwest sections ex-
pansion of the northeast and southeast
sections prompted school officials and
Congress to include provision for several
new schools and school sites in the 1914
45 budget. Five of these are for colored
students.
Additional facilities for colored stu
dents are mainly the result of the high
colored birth rate of 204 percent births
per 100 population. Many new colored
families have also come here recently.
The total number Of colored students
now is 38.485. The white birth rate is