The Pittsburgh Press (December 31, 1941)
Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SAN FRANCISCO – The White House is one of San Francisco’s biggest stores. It was named after the famous Maison Blanche in Paris. It has been here 87 years, and is as much a San Francisco institution as Twin Peaks or Fisherman’s Wharf. It has 800 people working for it, and they call themselves co-workers, not employees.
There are a lot of fine stores in America, so I’m not writing about the White House for that reason. I’m writing about it because, so far as I can learn it has done the best commercial job in San Francisco in its preparations for war.
For months the White House has been organized as though it were an army, for the possibility of air raids. It has raid equipment, its employees have drilled, everybody is ready.
And furthermore, the executives of the White House don’t share the complacent feeling of some of us that the Japs won’t bomb San Francisco for a year, or maybe never. They think the Japs will bomb San Francisco practically any moment now.
The White House began its preparations for the present war last May, which is thinking a lot further ahead than most of us did. That far back it began organizing the store floor by floor and getting its co-workers thoroughly trained in first-aid and bomb conduct.
Today it is organized in a two-fold way. (1) It is one of the strongest units of the Red Cross for general city-wide assistance in case of bombing. (2) It is thoroughly organized within its own walls for sudden disaster from the air.
Let’s take the Red Cross part first. Twenty-six of the store’s workers have trained so thoroughly in Red Cross work that in case of trouble they immediately become part of the general staff of the Red Cross. They will be executives, helping direct the thousands of volunteer Red Cross workers all over the city. Further, the White House’s fleet of delivery trucks forms San Francisco’s biggest bunch of potential ambulances.
The trucks are equipped with stretchers and blankets. At any time of the day or night they can shift almost instantly from the workaday task of delivering bundles to the dramatic business of carrying wounded to the hospitals.
And now to the store’s own inner organization for protection of itself and its customers.
Each floor is organized
Each floor is organized. Take the fifth floor, for instance. It has one captain, who is in complete command of everything on that floor in case of emergency. Under him are four emergency squads, all composed of employees. They are:
Traffic squad of nine people, who are to see that all shoppers and employees on that floor are quietly taken to the first floor or basement, either by elevator or stairway. As soon as the last person has cleared the floor, the traffic squad itself goes down.
Blackout squad. This has seven people. It is their duty to turn off all lights, pull the shades and make a final check to see that all electric appliances are turned off.
First-aid squad. Two people in this. They remain on the floor until the “all clear” sounds. They are equipped with first aid kits and stretchers. At three places in the store there are emergency hospitals.
Fire squad. Five people on this. They, too. stay on the floor throughout the raid. They have sand for incendiaries, and buckets, rakes, shovels, extinguishers and hose. If a fire gets bad, one of the squad turns in an alarm and meets the fire department when it comes.
Elevator starter gives alarm
As soon as the sirens sound, the elevator starter rings the general store bell three times. Elevators will keep running and right now every elevator has a card of instructions hung on its wall. A phone operator will stay at her switchboard throughout the raid.
The store has 75 new megaphones through which squad captains will give orders. As soon as the sirens sound, phonograph music will be piped all over the store to soothe people’s nerves. The basement and first floor have been equipped for complete blackout, so that workers and shoppers herded there will not have to stand in the dark.
All this is planned and it is not just theory. Nearly a fifth of the store’s 800 employees make up the vast emergency battalion to take over in case of trouble, and each one knows his place and his duty as well as any soldier. They have drilled and practiced for weeks and will continue to do so throughout the war, raids or no raids.
So thorough has been the White House’s preparations that other big stores here are ready to use its plan as a model. It’s all so wonderful and reassuring that I’m going to see if the White House won’t rent me a cot in the corner of the perfume department and let me live there till the war is over.