Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-30
The People VS.. SQuatter Sovereignty.

To the Editor of THE EVENING STAR:
Whether you succeed or fail in your fearless,
steadfast and protracted efforts to save the
streets of the national capital from being con-
verified into human slaughter pens and to rescue
its beautiful parks from the grip OF grasping
corporations, you deserve the recognition and
cOmmendation Of every citizen and sojourner
in Washington. high or low, rich or poor,
because the steam juggernaut which hurtles
through and across lts streets and avenues is
mo respecter of persons;" men, women and
children fall before its irresistible rush, and
the fate of one today may be that of another to-
morrow. To the writer, cosmopolitan without
local interests to blind warp his judgment
il is simply Inconceivable that a population of
nearly quarter of million can submit any
longer to this remediable terror by night and
destruction by day." 1t is still a greater
wonder that the Senators and Representatives
of the nation should be willing to tolerate,
for a single day, the lawless and defiant
occupation of the public streets and parks
within pistol shot OF their beautiful Capitol by
hundreds of engines vomiting smoke and
cinder which are waited by every breeze and
with the increasing clang of bells and shrieks
of whistles into their very legislative halls.
Some one in Congress asked the other day
whether 1t was desired to preserve Washington
city of parks. The answer should hat We
boldly been yes-a city of beauty, of restful-
ness. OF repose, where nature and art together
may open up their treasures to the lofty and
the lOwly without money and without price"
Not one of Earring machinery and overhanging
CRIME and smoke. but one fit to be the Mecca
of the nation, which every citizen from the
lakes to the gulf and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific will long to visit and when he shall
have done SO will kinde his pride and quicken
his patriotism; one city at least in our vast
empire not preyed upon by the ghouls
of corruption and greed and which
will prove TO intelligent foreigners that
Americans can govern a municipality without
the domination of corruption or fraud. How
absurd the contention that the existing condi-
ton of the railways is essential to the proper
transit of north and south tradei That trade
can be conducted without being brought into
the heart of the city, rs if to rest Oh its weary
way? Let the two rival companies build a
bridge with few miles Of connecting railway
either TO the entrance east or west of Washing
ton to serve this through traffic and the city
can be spared. They can better afford to do
that than the nation can afford to sacrifice the
beauty and safety OF the capital to their ipsen-
safe greed.
In all probability, as this controversy is de-
cided now, 1t Will remain, not for five or ten
Years but for generations. As year follow year
the Crib OF existing nuisances will be streogth-
ened the northern, eastern and southern popu-
lations and suburbs will be more and more Sc
gregatcd. the slaughter pens will run with fuller
blood. and when IN the majesty Of outraged
humanity the people insist upon a Change in
tones that must be needed, it will cost thou
sands of dollars to effect that which can now be
done for tens. In the meantime, the heirs of
some who have coded lands to the government
for public purposes are looking into the Ques-
ton of legally recovering such lands which
given for specific object, have been diverted
20 private corporations for private ends
GEoRGETowN HEIGHTS. ism