Abstract

In the Shadow of the Capitol

The bemused tourist visiting the national capital watches the U.S. Congress in session, hears arguments in the Supreme Court, wrings the limp hand of his representative, and observes the Grand Army of the Pay-Rollers flooding homeward when the government offices close for the night. In this and other Washington slums unemployment, hunger, and bleak despair have made such swift conquests in the past few months that me and women who have gone backstage of the conventional Washington scenery talk seriously of the onset of mass starvation. They contend, these sober social workers, church people, consumer and labor representatives, that the city to which the rest of America looks for leadership is failing to meet the elementary demands of its own unemployed.