LOOK AFTER
PRESIDENT SETS ASIDE $1,00(
MONTHLY TO RELIEVE HOUS
ING PROBLEM
CONDITIONS TO BE IMPROVED
Washington City’s Population Hat
Been Greatly Augmented in Last
Few Months and Reasonable Ac
commodations Were Taken Up.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 5.—
Sighs of relief went up from every
household in the country from which
a young woman “war worker” had
gone to Washington, when it was an
nounced that the national govern
jnent had taken over the “housing
problem” in the nation’s capital.
President Wilson has set aside
$1,000 a month from the emergency
war appropriation which he spends
at his discretion in carrying on the
war, to assist Uncle Sam’s new em
ployes to find lodgings. This money
is being used by the District of Co
lumbia branch of the National Council
of Defense to form an organization
which will make a survey of the room
in gand housing situation in Wash
ington. This centralized bureau will
be under supervision of the National
Council of Defense. The action of
the president was due to the urgent
solicitation of the civil service com
mission which has been finding it dif
ficult to get employes, owing to the
idea generally accepted throughout
the country that rooms in Washington
were impossible to obtain and that
prices were practically’ prohibitive foi
j;uvci 111 11 v 1 ! L vTlil JJIUV vJo.
Ablest Employes Resigning.
Bureau chiefs who found theii
ablest employes resigning because ot
inability to get comfortable lodgings
added their pleas to those of the civil
service that "something” be done and
the district officials, realizing to the
full that Washington’s great oppor
tunity might be jeopardized did she
not succeed in making the strangers
comfortable, have done yeoman serv
ice in attempting to do away with a
situation with which they had no
funds to cope.
Government officials thought the
city of Washington should cope with
the emergency which had increased
her population of 385,000 by 100,000
in a few months.
Had the chamber of commerce of
the District of Columbia possessed the
funds available to the commercial or
ganizations of large industrial cities
they could have managed without fed
eral aid, but Washington has nevei
been a manufacturing or commercial
center and her chamber of commerce
is comparatively poor.
Centralized Rooming Agency.
A centralized rooming agency undei
federal control will, it is expected
succeed in guiding the newcomer to a
comfortable lodging and relieve the
anxiety of parents who wonder how
their young folk, especially young
women, are fairing in Washington. A
booth in charge of a trained welfare
worker has been placed in the Union
station and is available both day and
night to direct Uncle Sam’s prospec
tive workers to comfortable lodgings.
Business, religious, fraternal and
philanthropic organizations have tried
to solve the “rooming problem.” The
Young Women’s Christian association
and the Young Men’s Christian asso
ciation were the only recognized agen
cies in Washington at the beginning
of the war which attempted to find
lodgings for newcomers.
The chamber of comerce also tried
to list rooms but found itself unable
to pay persons for this important
service.
Co-Operation to Be Asked.
The great need has been for a cen
tralized agency, which the president’?
appropriation will now provide. All
organizations which have been trying
in their own way to solve the “housing
problem” will be asked to cooperate
and it is expected that their united
efforts the first few weeks of 1918 will
clear up the situation.
The increase or 100,000 persons in
the city’s population would have taxed
Washington’s resources in any event,
but the fact that the government itself
has not sufficient buildings for its
clerical force and that many large
apartments and dwellings were “com
mandeered” and their inhabitants add
ed to the swelling ranks of the home
less greatly complicated the situation.
While many war workers assert
they have been “fleeced,” residents of
the capital city indignantly deny that
they have indulged in “war profited
ing”at the expense of the thousands of
army and navy families and govern
ment employes of the district council
of defense investigated complaints
that apartment house owners were
asking unjustified advances, but found
that the increased cost of heating the
apartments had made it necessary for
; the owners to put up the prices.
1/H‘i v luwuru v ummuMis
i Reluctance of the new government
j employes to go beyond walking dis
| tanee of their departments is respon
! sible for much overcrowding and com
| plaints of high prices because the de
partments are located in the heart of
; the city where rents are naturally
! higher than in the outlying portions.
Fifteen hundred clerks, the majority
of whom are young women, have been
placed in private homes. The welfare
worker of the war risks insurance
bureau, who succeed in persuading the
young women employes in her charge
to seek lodgings in the newer portions
of the city largely populated by mar
ried couples who are buying homes,
found that the rooms in these sections
were comfortable and prices by no
means high.
Few rooms in Washington are of
i fered with board, though many famil
ies who take lodgers, especially those
whose homes are some distance from
the heart of the city, are willing to
furnish breakfast.
The notion that prices for living in
Washington would be comparable to
those in other cities of the same size
is dispelled by a knowledge of the ele
ments of its population and its unique
positon among American cities. Skill
ed labor was cheap and plentiful, but
owing to the exodus of large numbers
of the negroes to the munition towns,
it is now both scarce and high.
The fact that the city has always
had a floating population which is
very large in proportion to its actual
inhabitants also complicates its prob
lem. This transient population includ
• ed not only the thousands of persons
i who were temporarily in the city to
transact business with congress, the
department and the supreme court,
but armies of tourists who taxed the
hotels to their capacities.
GREENFIRESFLARE
FOR COMMANDANT
TACOMA EXTENDS HEARTY WEL
COME TO OFFICER WHO PUT
BAN ON SEATTLE.
TACOMA, Wash., March 4.—Major
: General H. A. Green, the Camp Lewis
cantonment commander, who issued
the order forbidding soldiers at the
cantonment from going to Seattle,
which order remainded in force for
months, returned yesterday after a
I long absence during which he visited
j the European war zone.
As the train on which the major
general was a passenger came into the
Tacoma station, a number of green
i lires were lighted in the neighborhood
! He was greeted by military officers
; and a delegation of Tacoma citizens
' wearing green bands on their arms.
: He went last night to the canton
| ment at American Lake near here.
MONTANATOISSUE
FARM WAR BONDS
_
STATE TO RAISE $500,000 TO IN
CREASE PRODUCTION OF
CEREALS AND LIVESTOCK.
HELENA, Mont., March 4.—Mon
j tana will issue her first war bonds
j March 21. They will amount to $500,
| 000. They will be for the purpose of
providing a fund from which loans
i will be made to Montana farmers to
j enable them to increase the production
■ of cereals and livestock.
ATTACK BY TEUTONS SUNDAY
NIGHT RESULTS IN LOSS OF
SEVERAL DEFENDERS.
ACTIVITY IS INCREASING.
Kaiser’s Soldiers Are Making Free
Use of Gas Shells But These Have
Caused No Serious Casualties
Among United States Troops.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY
IN FRANCE, March 4.—Another raid
was made last night by German troops
on the American sector and after
sharp fighting the enemy retired leav
ing four prisoners. The Americans
lost several in killed, wounded and
missing.
Advices from the German lines say
that the Teutons Saturday captured in
the Chemin des Dames sector twelve
American soldiers. These must have
been members of a patrol of thirteen
Americans that were in No Man’s
Land when the Germans started a raid.
This patrol has not been heard of
since. At that time no prisoners were
taken from the American trenches.
' American volunteers searched for the
I missing patrol to no avail during a
! heavy rain and in spite of a heavy ma
chine gun lire by the Germans.
About 1500 German gas shells are
thrown on the American positions
daily, hut there has been no serious
gas casualties. The Americans are
| trained in the use of gas masks.
| Within the past few days the Ger
I mans have made three attempts to
i reach the American lines. The momen
I turn of the battle on the American
| front is increasing.
SWISS DEFER ACTION.
Foreign Residents in America Post
pone Forming Organization/
NEW YORK, March 2.—Because
the United States is concentrating its
efforts on war, Swiss residents in this
country have decided, it was announc
ed here today, to defer “until a more
suitable time” the movement to estab
lish in the United States a branch of
the Nouvelle Societe Helvetique, an
organization which aims to promote
the solidarity of the Swiss people at
home and abroad. :
The political and economic situation
of Switzerland is well understood in
i
America, according to resolutions
adopted by a committee representing
Swiss residents in America, so that
i “no particularly useful purpose would
oe served by propagating at this time
information on things Swiss in the
United States while propaganda de
tracting from the concentration of
heart and mind on the support of the
American administration might be
misunderstood.”
Swiss citizens and those formerly
Swiss are urged that they can best
render service to Switzerland “by
conducting themselves as good citi
zens of the country whose hospitality
or legal protection they enjoy”; and
they are advised to “devote their pub
lic spirit to the support of the Ameri
can administration and the attainment
of the magnificent world-peace aims
of President Wilson.”
The committee authorizing the an
nouncement includes Frederick Dos
senbach, director of the Official In
formation Bureau of Switzerland in
this country, and H. O. Ammann,
president of the Swiss Scientific soci
ety, of New York.
CHILDREN TO SAVE MEAT.
Boys and Girls Will Form Clubs in
Order to Conserve Food.
BOZEMAN, Mont., March 5.—To
help increase the country’s supply of
meat, boys’ and girls’ poultry clubs
will be organized in every country of
the state next spring under the direc
tion of the state college here.
Especial emphasis will be laid on
the importance of back yard flocks, it
is announced, with the expectation of
feeding a large increase in eggs and
poultry meat and a corresponding
conservation in other foods.
HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT, 8
YEARS, DIES AT HIS HOME
IN CALIFORNIA.
—
BEGAN HIS WRITING AT 4C
--
Works Comprise Many Volumes an<
in His Literary Efforts He Employ
ed Hundreds of Assistants, Some o
Whom Were Collaborators.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 4.—Hu
bert Howe Bancroft, famous Ameri
j can historian,, died early Sunda;
morning at his home at Walnut creek
near San Francisco, at the age of 8'
years. Death was due to ailments in
cident to old age.
Although one of the most prolifi*
, writers of history which Americi
ever has produced, at the age of for
ty Bancroft had never written ;
book, nor, by his own statement
1 made many years later, did he knov
how to write even the simplest manu
script. From early manhood he ha<
been a bookseller and business mai
in San Francisco and previous t<
j that, clerk in a book store at Buffalo
N. Y. Earlier still he was a farn
hand and tannery boy near Grand
ville, Ohio, where he was born Ma;
5, 1832. It was in the book stores tha
he obtained his education, his attend
ance at public schools being ver
limited.
Following his opening of a bool
shop at San Francisco in 1856, Ban
croft conceived the idea of writing ;
comprehensive history of California
and to that end began collectinj
books, manuscripts and newspapers
So absorbed did he become in hi
search for material that ten or twelv
years later he had collected thousand
of volumes of books and stacks o
manuscripts and newspaper files
Still he had written nothing am
could not, for he did not know wha
was in the books and manuscripts.
Started to Write.
Finally, in 1871, the passion t
write so consumed Bancroft that h
gave the conduct of his business ove
to others and set himself in earnes
to the task. Long since the plan t<
write only of California had enlarge*
until it included the Pacific coast re
gions of the whole North and Soutl
American continents.
Soon despair seized upon Bancroft
for he discovered by tests that tin
mere work of reading, digesting am
notating his material unaided wouh
require at least 400 years. For a tiim
his despondency amounted almost t*
insanity. They he considered the ex
pedient of employing assistants am
made many experiments, failure gen
erally resulting. On one occasion h
threw into the furnace as worthies
twenty-five reams of manuscript, rep
resenting the work of six or eigh
men for months. A noted mediaeva
scholar, employed at a high wage
was unable to help him.
ojai-trm ui v ciiu
Persisting, the would-be historiai
i finally perfected a system of card-in
dexing which proved successful
Thereafter, he trained and employe*
hundreds of assistants, the sei’vice
of some of whom amounted to collab
orators. From the vast notes thu;
accumulated, Bancroft finally ap
proached his real task, he having
learned, painfully, in the meantime
some of the art of writing.
More difficulties arose. Bancrof
had selected Peru as the subject o
his first endeavor and had decide*
that its history should begin witl
the Spanish conquest Suddenly, whei
the work was half finished, he reject
ed it, holding to the theory that al
history should begin with the begin
ning of things Starting anew, hi
delved into the myths and legends o:
the mysterious peoples of the Amer
ican continents running back into thi
middle ages, marshaling therefron
the facts and theories of his “Nativi
Races of the Pacific States.” Thi;
work in five volumes, was issued ii
1874, it being necessary at the last
for the author to organize a publish
ing company to insure its printing.
Vast Quantity of Work.
Bancroft estimated that the worl<
of writing and research expended on
‘‘Native Races” represented the work
f of one man, toiling every day, Sun
days excepted, for fifty years.
Following this great effort, Ban
croft, now widely recognized as an
* [ authority on history, plunged into an
other work, continuing incessantly at
: his destc until he had produced thirty
i four volumes, comprising the history
of the Pacific coast states and coun
tries from Alaska to Argentina. His
* life ambition realized, he devoted him
self to occasional writing, producing
^ “Retrospection” after passing his
eightieth birthday. In 1883, accom
panied by native assstants, he visited
| Mexico and spent months in searching
' ; the ancient archives of that country
j for historical data. The result was a
t new history of Mexico, recently is
. sued. His library, housed in a spe
cially constructed building consists
of over sixty thousand volumes.
During the evening of his life, Ban
: croft lived quietly at his home near
1 San Francsco.
i
CAMP MONOTONY RELIEVED.
7 Baseballs and Bats Arrive at Ameri
can Quarters in Italy.
1 AMEPwICAN AVIATION CAMP,
> SOUTHERN ITALY, March 2.—The
> two chief events lately at the camp
> have been the arrival of some base
1 balls and bats and the opening of the
' Young Men’s Christian association
7 room by Dr. Walter Miller. Time had
t begun to hang heavily on the hands
' of the young men being trained for
■' officers, particularly at nights and
during wet and windy weather, or on
c days when there were not enough ma
- chines to keep all busy. In the latter
i case the students for whom there were
,: no machines had to go through infan
>■ try drill or do other duties of an un
. exciting kind. 1^ was a good deal
5 the same for the forty or more men
j who had passed their examinations
5 and been declared ready to receive
f | their commissions.
Although the “piece,” as is called
1 the big flat body of land used foi
t training, is generally pretty well
| crowded, room has been found for the
: baseball players and life for them has
} once more become interesting. The
Young Men’s Christian associatior
room provides a place to write letters
j. home and above all to read books anc
) magazines.
I For months there was hardly £
. fresh American periodical or newspa
j per in camp, and all the old ones were
falling apart from much thumbing
! Added to the old-fashioned eliseases
s of loneliness and homesickness te
j i which youths hardly over twenty are
I subject was added also the discom
5 fort of the cold, raw weather withoul
) any heat, and this lack the Younp
Men’s Christian association also fillee
j; by providing a good hot fh-e.
US
ITEFFI
SO ILL WIFE
DELIRIOUS
■ NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE
PATROL RETURNS TO DAW
1 SON FROM HERSCHEL.
■ | DAWSON, March 1.—Vilhjalmur
; Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, who
■ is wintering at Herschel island, con
" tracted a severe cold, which turned in
> to a delirious fever, when the North
west Mounted Police were at Fort
; McPherson, according to word
: brought by them on their return to
l day to Dawson.
i The police patrol met Stefansson at
i Herschel island. He told them that
• he had endeavored to reach the out
1 side last fall, but that his ship, the
• Polar Bear, had grounded at Barter
: island and that he had then returned
? to Herschel island.
The police patrol on their return
? trip from the Arctic were overtaken
i at Fort McPherson by a messenger
> from Herschel bringing them a letter
; saying Stefansson was so ill he was
i delirious, but not indicating there was
, any danger of his death.
PACIFIST ANNOUNCEMENT IS
MADE AS TEUTONS DROP
BOMBS ON PETROGRAD.
CONCESSIONS BY MUSCOVITES.
Council of Workmen, Peasants and
Cossacks Will Meet at Moscow
March 12 to Consider Ratification
of Tentative Act
PETROGRAD, March 4.—While
German aviators today dropped bombs
on Petrograd, killing three persons,
injuring five and occasioning slight
damage to property, Lenine Trotzky,
! Russian foreign minister, officially
announced that commissioners repre
senting the Russian Maximilist gov
ernment and commissioners represent
ing Germany and Austria at Brest, in
the province of Litovsk, in southwest
ern Russia, had just concluded a draft
of peace terms and that as a conse
quence the Teutonic powers would*
halt their invasion of Greater Russia.
Must Retire From Turkey.
By the terms of the provisional
agreement, Russian troops must re
tire from all of Turkey’s Asiatic prov
inces, which have been occupied by the
Muscovites since the beginning of the
present war, and also must abanc^f
the territory near Kars, Batum and
Karabagh taken from the Turks in
i previous wars.
The Russian commissioners at Brest
were induced to make peace on the
theory that further resistance to Ger
many was useless and that the longer
the conclusion of terms was delayed
the more onerous would be the condi-*
tions imposed by Germany.
En Route to Petrograd.
i Tire Russian commissioners are now
| en route from Brest to Petrograd with
i the peace agreement.
Foreign Minister Trotzky announc
ed that the tentative pact would be
submited for ratification to a councd
of workmen, peasant and Cossack de
| puties at Moscow March 12.
It is declared that Germany in her
Russian campaign has captured fid,000
prisoners and taiven over a large sup
ply of war munitions.
SHELL EXPLODES
AFTER 16 YEARS
| AMMUNITION GOES OFF WHILE,
ON HEARTH OF SOLDIERS
HOME IN BRITAIN.
LONDON, March 4.—A huge hovv
: itzer shell which has stood on the
} hearth in the home of Sergeant Daniel
| Morgan at Tweedmouth for sixteen
years, exploded with tremendous vio
lence a few nights ago, almost demol
| ishing the house and injuring the ser
j geant’s three children. The shell was
brought back from South Africa as a
souvenir and it was supposed that 1he
charge had been withdrawn. It is sup
posed that a spark of burning soot
penetrated the fuse opening at the
nose of the shell.
_P
CREWS OF THREE
GERMAN BOATS LOST
TEUTON VESSELS AND ALSO
ONE DUTCH FISHING CRAFT
HIT BY MARINE MINE. j
LONDON, March 4.—All members
of the crews of a German .torpedo boat
and of two German mine sweepers
were lost last Friday morning when
the three crafts truck marine mines
and were blown up off Vlieland Island,
according to a dispatch received in
London from Amsterdam, Holland. A
large German vessel near the scene
lowered a small boat in an effort to^
save the crews of the destroyed
crafts, but the sea was so high that
rescue work was impossible.
A Dutch fishing boat also struck a
marine mine and all aboard of her
were lost. iff