Clean Fun Delayed

What with politics and red tape, the Government still has not started building the U.S.O. huts for whose operation the public contributed $13,400,000 last summer.

The idea of the widely publicized money-raising was to help lonely soldiers get some good clean fun near the Army camps, but four months after the ceremonial ground-breaking for the first clubhouse at Fort Dix nothing more has been done there (see cut).

No other hut has even had the sod turned.

First cause of delay was a row between PWA and the Federal Security Agency to control the $15,000,000 Congress voted for building clubhouses. After PWA won, construction was tied up further because before the Army Quartermaster Corps gets the green light to start work each individual hut must be approved by 1) the local community, 2) FSA, 3) U.S.O., 4) PWA, 5) the White House. Also, FSA wanted to build big clubhouses, but U.S.O., which has to pay for running them, had more modest ideas (around $80,000-$100,000 each). Also, many local communities are trying to make a good thing out of the buildings. One Oklahoma town demanded a $600,000 project, the first floor for soldiers, the second for permanent offices for the mayor, his staff and the local police.

Last week 66 of the 300-odd clubhouses projected had at least been approved though none outside Fort Dix had been started. Meanwhile, U.S.O. has been carrying on as best it could in 153 temporary rented clubhouses.

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