Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-21

The allied army of railroad attorneys, specu-
lators, lobbyists school book publishers, corpor-
alton promoters" school site and liquor license
Intermediates, who are working the wires
so industriously in behalf of the District build
ing ring are getting desperate. As last re-
sort they are now crying out that any criticism
OF the civil Commissioners. however moderate,
viii result in the vehement propulsion OF tine
city in the direction Of the 'demnition bow
vows" East and central Washington may not
complain of sectional discrimination. South
Washington may not protest against official
subserviency to railroad corporation.
No one may say that Mr.. Webb should have
exercised more vigilant oversight over his real
estate intermediary, and that his method of
purchase was iniudicious. No one may suggest
that Mr.. Wheatley should sink his private in
terests In obedience to the requirements of his
public trust and withdraw opposition to the
amendment Of the lien law. A republican may
not express the opinion that better republi-
can and less feeble-willed and vacillating
man than Mr.. Webb can be found to serve as
Commissioner. A democrat may not say that
democrat of more intelligence and larger cali
Der than Mr.. Wheatley can be discovered in
the District to serve as his official substitute.
At the expression of these views the District
building chorus and its echoes break forth in
lamentations and prophecies of evil. Beware
a business collapse, a cataclysm, an earthquake.
q cyclone, a tornado, disaster, devastation and
destruction The real estate boom will boom
not. real estate men bewarel The people will
no longer desire to supply their ordinary needs,
let all the merchants beware! There will be
no more increase of business, no new indus
tries, no more prosperity, no more congress
sional appropriations, but the Districts skies
will be darkened its earth will open, the Capt.
tol and Monument will topple-let everybody
bewarel
very serious condition has been reached
when the forces of nature and the currents of
business are so profoundly affected by criti-
cism of Mr.. Wheatley's lumber lien law, and of
the operations of the Commissioners cousin
and confidential friend in making real estate
purchases. 1t is rather remarkable that all
nature should be convulsed at the idea that
anybody else would make better Commission
ers than Messrs. Webb and Wheatley. The
STAR had labOred under the impression that
with the District bill safely in conference and
with the present terms of the civil Commits
sioners approaching an end, the present was
the proper time for the people of the District
to speak their minds in reference to
their rulers. But all the Stars in
terests are intertwined with those of
the District. If it really thought that nature
would blight and the nation boycott the capital
unless Messrs. Webb and Wheatley were smiled
upon it might possibly-but no. that cannot be-
Surely the concerns of these two men are not
so mysteriously confused with the fate of the
capital that their grip alone withholds it from
the abyss! Surely universal nature does not
sympathize so profoundly with the fortunes of
what seem to be ordinary individuals Perhaps
this scare is only an amusing bugaboo after all
Perhaps il is a mistake of the fatterers of the
Commissioners to place them in the attitude Of
that other distinguished American who is said
to have long doubted whether the universe
was part of him or he part of the universe.