Evening star., 1947-10-21
By Nelson M. Shepard

Harassed officials must squeeze
more than 100000 square feet Of
needed Office space from bureau!
long ensconced in the interior
Building to make room for three Of
Secretary Krug's old line agencies
moving back from Chicago.
The squeeze" is being applied re-
lentlessly by Chief Clerk Royal E
Dotson and Assistant Clarence L
Dawson, who are shuffling offices
about in the big building. Squads Of
moving men are gradually bringing
order out of the chaos created by
Office fixtures being piled high in
corridors for weeks.
In crowded Washington this move
of the Indian Affairs Office, National
Park Service and Fish and Wildlife
Service stirs hardly a ripple. But
it's "a terrific headache" to the In
terror Department, Mr.. Dawson
means, and 400 individual head
aches to returning clerks hunting
apartments.
Many Lack Housing.
Since the first Indian personne
began arriving about two weeks ago
only IS per cent of all returning
clerks have succeeded in finding
some sort" of housing here. The
Characterization applies chiefly te
rooming houses, a pitifully small
number of apartments and temper.
ary rooms in the Arlington Farms
dormitories.
Parry T. McCurdy, chairman o1
the cooperative housing committee
set up to facilitate the move sale
these people want comfortable
apartments for their families ane
decent single rooms.
Moving a Government bureau
halfway across the continent in
wolves more in the way of problems
than the average person imagines
Office Space Worked Out.
Long before the migration from
Chicago started on October II, wher
the Indian Office began shipping Il
freight car loads of Office effects
the Chief Clerks Office here hac
worked out the arrangement o1
office space in the Interior Building
There's about half a million
square feet of usable Office space ir
the building.
1t isn't as crowded as some Others
in Washington, officials having hac
in mind the day when the refugees
from Washington would return. But
it's crowded enough to necessitate 6
complete upheaval in Office arrange
ments to accommodate 400 more
clerks.
It's question of how much space
other bureaus can give up without
too much croWding of their own per-
sonnel. To move the Indian Office
back to former quarters on the
fourth floor and some space on the
second and third floors had the ef'
feet of an earthquake on the statu.
quo. The staff of the Bureau o1
Mines had to give up 10000 square
feet.
Its too much to expect three bu'
reaus and 400 employees to move ex
actly on schedule, as worked out ir
Chicago and Washington. The In
dian Office had not unloaded all O.
it's 10 freight cars at this writing
and the bureau certainly wasn1
functioning normally last Friday
the day scheduled for completion o1
the move'
The National Park Service is nov
in the midst of its move Nobody
expects it to be completed by mex
Thursday as scheduled. Finally thu
Fish and Wildlife Service started
shipping its effects Friday, with
about 131 clerks beginning to filter
into Washington this week.
Employees Have No Luck.
The 1875 or more Park Service
employees aren't having any better
luck than the hapless Indians ir
finding permanent homes.
1.-THE parade of the apartment
hunters" Is the way sympathetic
friends refer to the human stream