The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-08-02
SENATOR MORRILL, WOULD BEAU
THY THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.

Senator Morrill, on the 2nd ultimo de
livered a very able speech before the
Senate in behalf of restoring to the peo-
pie those parts of the public parks OF
Washington which have been granted,
with limitations, to the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and also those that the road
has taken without leave or license. No
member of Congress in either house has
been more assiduous than our junior
Senator, though the oldest man in that
body, in trying to make Washington
what all the people of the country want
il to be, the handsomest capital in the
world, But all such members have up
tin ,. What with greedy railroad
and other corporations OH the 'O'''''
and unthinking or worse, designing col
leagues inside, the Congressional beauIi-
fer of Washington has hard work 10 get
his ideas accepted by his fellow members
OF either house. To save a few dollars
in the exppnoe VI site. Congress erects
hideuus brick building for Pension
Office on one of the largest and finest
public squares Of the capital, To allow
one railroad to successfully compete with
rival, il permits it to run its tracks
across another reservation, build a pas
senger station on it and use the adjacent
streets for side tracking its extra cars.
All this, too, directly in front OF the cap
itol and in plain sight of its western ter
races and windows. The rival road at
the northern end of the edifice and its
magnificent grounds, is still allowed to
maintain its station house and to occupy
street after street with its care and loco
motives. Against such use OF the streets
and parks OF Washington Senator Nor
ril and others who would keep the mum
erous reservations of that city for the use
of the public, as reservations, have pro-
tested in season and out of sea son. Some
times they are successful, sometimes
not. The great beauty of Washington
consists, as has often been observed, in
its wide avenues and streets and its nu.'
merous public parks, some of them
SQUARES, some circles and some trlangles,
and some of them with no regularity OF
shape. Its public buildings are also, for
the most part, very fine; the capitol
though not beyond criticism, is said TO
be the stateiest building in the world.
That there should be any who are un-
Willing to keep the reservations of Wash
Ington from intrusion either by railroads
or by placing on them public buildings
whether unsightly or otherwise, seems
very strange. Yet Senator Morrill, and
all those who think like him that the
capital Of our country should be made
and kept beautiful city, are constantly
impeded in their aesthetic labors. The
Senator evidently understands why this
is so,apart from any selfish interests that
work against him. 1t is in the inSbllity
of the ordinary American citizen to
comprehend at the outset the nature OF
any great art scheme, like the beautlfy-
ing Of town or city and TO labor stead
lily for its accomplishment. he says ::
"Conceited foreign cities with compass
sionate superiority often sweetly remind
Americans of many shortcomings, OF
making the almighty dollar the guage
of every mans eminence, of having no
interest in anything which does not add
O the bulk OF material prosperity, and
of being wholly destitute Of the instincts
which respond to letters, to the arts and
to the love Of beauty" This charge he
would fain consider as he says, gross
and unsubstantial, yet in his heat he
knows that ii is the most serious obsta-
Gle to his success in identifying Wash
iugton. Were all his fellow members
possessed of his love OF the beautiful, his
appreciation OF the fine arts and his
Instructive response to letters, no railroad
corporations however greedy or power.
full would Shrek the whistles Of their
locomotives into the doors and windows
Of the capital.