The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-06
A TIME OF GOOD WORK.
The Next Four Years Looked Upon as Pro-
pitiouS for the City's Material Progress.

A party of gentlemen in the New Denison
House lobby, an evening or two since, were
talking about the future of Indianapolis.
1t was the opinion that the time to do the
best work in advancing the material prog
ress of the city was during the next four
years. There is ahead of u.s. said Judge
Martindale, ga chance for Improvement
that rarely comes to any city. Take the
new postofice building, for instance. Many
people here are under the impress
sion that we are to have an
addition built on to the present
edifce and that the appropriation of
$250,0O0 for the purchase of the adjacent
property, which was recently appraised,
means that we are TO have simply a wing
added to the old building. Naturally there
is good deal of discomfort among people
who have this impression, but in point of
fact there is no such intention in the minds
of those who have this Improvement in
charge. The promoters of the enterprise
and the Treasury architects who are in
trusted with the plans purpose to give us
government building equal to any in the
West, and thenew ground, when acquired, is
intendedfor one wing of structure. which,
90, and rival the one recently constructed
at Cincinnati. When the wing / speak OF
is completed, 1T Is the intention TO remove
the present postoffice building and use its
site and material for the remainder of the
new building. The bill providing for its
construction Will probably not be intro
duced until the next session of Congress,
but our people ought to understand the sit
uation and get themselves in shape to fur
nish assistance needed when it is desired"
Are there any more government I'M
provements to be SECURED, JudgeF asked
the reporter.
Yes There is no reas on why the United
States arsenal here should not be utilized
by the national govern lment as a manu-
featuring arsenal, instead of a supply de-
pot, and every reason why 1T should. Here
tofore lt has been merely a small supply
station, where few arms and munitic.ls
were stored, and handful of soldiers quar-
tered. Yet the buildings there are admira-
bly, adapted for manufacturing purposes,
and the grounds are ample for any possible
needs In manufacturing large or small
arms, or any of the munitions of war. They
could be made as cheaply there as ut any
place in the world, with the aid of our
cheap and ample natural-gas fuel, and the
central location of the plant and our rail
roads leading off in every direction would
make 1t the best distributing point iii the
country for the government. Chicago was
offered such an opportunity and took mil
1tary post with few hundred soldiers III
preference, but the location of a manu-
featuring arsenal wOuld furnish employ
meDt for several thousand skilled oper-
atives, who would be worth more to this
community than brigade of soldiers on a
peace footing. The project of securing such
an addition TO our industries here is perfectly
feasible, and this Is the time TO begin oper-
ationsv
What about securing some new indus
tries hers other than those in which the
general government Is interestedU
Il am in favor of offering all the induce
ments we can 10 get any new industries
worth having. My experience, however,
makes me think that it is not a matter of
AZ much consequence that we get new
manufactures as that our present ones
sheu continue to do as well as they are now