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Show Capital Housing Problem Vexes District Officials School and Water Supply Facilities Are Also Seriously Taxed by Influx Of Defense Workers. By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator. closing a magazine article from a farm-woman listener. The newspaper clipping said: "The housewives of the United States are soon to receive the most thorough education in how to feed their families ever provided by any nation in the world . . . the American Ameri-can housewife is going to learn a great deal about vitamin B and about all the other vitamins ..." I ran through the magazine article. arti-cle. It was written by Velma Carson Car-son 12 years ago and in it she remarked re-marked on what a misapprehension most city people have concerning the modern farm woman. The author au-thor told how a companion in a Pullman Pull-man made some pitying remark about a woman they passed who was hoeing in a garden. Miss Carson Car-son said: "I explained that quite likely the pathetic creature we recently had passed would be in a chiffon dress by afternoon, powdered with the same brand Lady What's-Her-Name has indorsed, marcelled into shining waves, and driving her car to a meeting where a professor from the state university would give latest gossip on vitamins a subject so fascinating fas-cinating to farm women ever since they have discovered hidden forces in the old familiar 'greens.' As one progressive, earnest, white-haired lady said to me once after a home demonstration agent's lecture, 'Well I always fed my family on just what we had on the farm milk, butter, eggs, cheese, and vegetables, and such. It sure was a piece of luck these things all had vitamins.' " Flapjacks For the Navy When the cooks of the U. S. S. Wyoming or any other ship with a complement of 1,200 men get their pancakes, it is quite an undertaking undertak-ing to provide them. Down at the navy department you can see a cook book with recipes just like any cook WNU Service, 1343 H Street N. W. Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Millions for defense de-fense but not enough sense to contribute con-tribute sufficient funds to the District Dis-trict of Columbia budget. That is the Washington city government's present charge against congress. The other day I sat in the office of one of the district commissioners and an army officer who had been drafted to help work out the city's housing problems, and they seemed pretty helpless. "We haven't got the money to meet the emergency situation that is growing in the district as a result re-sult of the defense program," was the burden of their song. Washington is run by a commis-iion commis-iion three men our three "mayors," "may-ors," if you will, appointed by the President. Our board of aldermen are the district committees of the house of representatives and the senate. sen-ate. The federal government bears a share of the expense of running the city but not enough, say the citizens citi-zens of the district All they can do is "say," for they have no vote, either locally or nationally. The emergency is bringing thousands thou-sands of new workers here. From June, 1930, to January of this year nearly 25,000 new government employees em-ployees moved in. The figures for February, due to be released in a few days, are expected to show a big increase. The Washington Board of Trade estimates that 55,000 new residents have moved into the District of Columbia Co-lumbia in the last year. Question of Schools. In addition to these extra beds and baths that must be provided, there is the question of schools. The commissioner with whom I was discussing dis-cussing the situation, cited one example. ex-ample. "Down there between Boiling field . which will soon be the center of American aviation and the naval research re-search laboratory," he said, "the federal government has built 600 family units. It will probably be increased to 1,000. These are just for the navy yard workers. Right there will probably be enough children chil-dren to fill one schoolhouse alone." A million and a quarter dollars, it is estimated, should be spent on schools alone in Washington as a result of the influx of residents. This is to say nothing of the next most pressing need facilities to increase the water supply. The Canal Zone is not much hotter than Washington Washing-ton in the summer. People take a lot of showers. We have a Potomac-ful Potomac-ful of water but we need more pipes and pumps. The greatest portion of the city's , expense, however; goes to taking care of the homes and the offices and people which make up the federal fed-eral government. Anyone who thinks the life of a government worker is all roses, frankincense and myrrh in these days needs only to listen to the local director of the Housing association who says: 'Doubling Up' Complaints. "Frequent complaints of doubling up in apartments and rooming houses come to us. One bath for 15 to 20 persons is a common grievance. Three to six unrelated roomers in the parlor of a once fine private residence is not uncommon." uncom-mon." Very bad, say the health authorities, authori-ties, for sanitation. Very bad for morale, too. And then Washington has on its periphery a number of army camps, cantonments and forts. By July the boys on leave will be flocking in from an army of nearly a hundred thousand men. Their welfare and amusement have to be taken care of. too. The district government, therefore, there-fore, is struggling with the congressional congres-sional committees, attempting to convince them of Washington's needs. A bill is now being considered consid-ered which would increase the proportion pro-portion which the federal government govern-ment contributes to the federal city, but the officials cannot bank on the money until it is in hand. American Housewives And Vitamins An efficient secretary laid a newspaper news-paper clipping on my desk. The same day's mail brought a letter en- Sea air makes for big appetites. A cook in the galley of the battleship (7.S.S. Wyoming prepares flapjacks by the hundreds for breakfast. book but the figures are different. I looked at the recipe for flapjacks the other day. Here it is: 120 lbs. flour 2 lbs. shortening 10 dozen eggs 10 lbs. evaporated 10 lbs. sugar milk . TA lbs. baking 70 qts. water powder 2 lbs. salt The same men who dispose of this order of cakes in one day will eat 1,500 pounds of fresh meat, 3,200 pounds of fresh vegetables, 1,300 pounds of fresh fruit and 120 dozen eggs, to say nothing of the canned goods consumed. Bears Get 'Friendly" In National Parks The bears in our national parks are getting too pally with tourists, so the national park service has issued is-sued a warning. It seems that when humans begin fraternizing with a bear the bear begins be-gins to treat them as equals. This means that when a human gets between be-tween a mother bear and her offspring, off-spring, ma chases him out of the way, sometimes administering a well-aimed swat in the process. "Bear incident" is the government's govern-ment's name for damage to property proper-ty and injuries to persons as a result re-sult of the public's disregard of rules against getting too familiar with bruin. Moral: Don't treat bears asequals. |