Book Shops Swamped Again As Two-Hour Dclays Prevail

Like Topsy, queues at the Coop and Phillips book stores "just growed" yesterday, as several thousand veterans, armed with G.I. authorizations, stormed local stails for immediately needed texts.

Lines around the Square reached peak length at mid-afternoon, when 250 students formed a grand march that wound from the back of the Coop into the street, and then up two flights of stairs until it reached the Valhalla of the second floor book stalls. Book-seekers waited 2 1/2 hours.

At the same time, a queue of 100 people ran from the University Squash Courts on Linden Street around the corner to the Phillips Book Store entrance. A total wait of one hour and a half was encountered here.

Second-Hand Stores Packed

Delay at Schoenhof's Foreign Book shop was shorter, amounting to no more than ten or fifteen minutes, while second-hand stores were packed with students.

Crowds were small during first meetings of many courses yesterday morning, but as classes and dining halls emptied, book emporia gradually became inundated.

The new, specially constructed college text store on the Coop's second floor was manned by 27 sales clerks yesterday, 22 of them hired for this week only.

Enlarged facilities have eliminated the need for the two separate lines that students had to conquer last year, and therefore waiting time has decreased, George E. Cole, Coop president, explained yesterday.

A Deluge

"But we still have very long lines, he admitted, "because the veterans' office has been speeding authorizations up so much that there is a sudden deluge." Getting texts with an authorization takes approximately four times as long as a cash transaction, Cole said.

"The situation will gradually let up as there are fewer and fewer veterans, and more and more cash transactions," he added. "Meanwhile, we have done all we can."

Veterans Administration book authorizations will be distributed at Mem Hall through Wednesday