The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-04
COSTOF TIE CAPITOL.
It Furnishes a Text for a Wash
ingtOn Letter.
MONEY USED WITH FREEDOM
Striking Contrast to the Beginning, When the
Government Was Very Economical,
II not Penurious.

they fail to do this the visitors are very
likely to ask of this painting or that
statue, "And what did it cost?" This
curiosity as to the cost of buildings, their
adornments and furnishings, is as univer-
sal as it is natural among people noted
more for their practical business sense
than for their art culture.
The founders of this city and the first
builders of this Capitol never dreamed of
the millions upon millions that would be
expended after they were dead and gone.
They began economically, almost penuri
ously. The man who used his astronom-
lcal instruments in setting the Capitol
foundations SO that the building should
face precisely to the east, and whose genius
was shown in this and in the surveys of
the city site-Andrew Ellicott-was paid
S. a day and expenses, and the authorities
finally demonstrated against the expenses,
and he agreed to go on without them!
Any one of a score of clerks to commit
tees that were never heard of outside the
Capitol, and whose existence is unknown
to many persons who are in the building
every day, draw as much pay as that, and
more. Why, when the authorities first
offered a prize for the best design for a
Capitol of the United States, what do you
suppose it was? Five hundred dollars and
a building lot! And there was surprise
that among the dozens of designs sub
mitted there was not one worth using.
The site of the Capitol, considering what
a magnificent site it is-fifty -one and half
acres ON noble hill in the heart of the city
did not cost much. 1t is generally be-
lieved the site has cost nothing; that it was
r1o1.t1n hn Ion -al 1aryt l,a
ment when it created the Federal city.
But in site as we'll as in building our fore
fathers planned only for their own time,
and some twenty years ago Capitol park
was enlarged from twenty-five acres to its
present area at q cost of $685., 600. BY lit
tie digging among the archives in the office
Of the architect of the Capitol l have dis
covered that the old Capitol the Capitol
which the British found when they came
here in 1914, had cost about 81, 750 900.
The part which his majesty's soldiers, or
vandals, as they proved TO be on this occa-
sion, destroyed with fire had cost $500, 900,
but was restored for 100000. But it was
thirteen years before the work was done,
and meanwhile congress met in an impro-
vised capitol a few squares away, put up
by the citizens of Washington, who had
become alarmed at the talk of removing
the seat of government to another city
This temporary capitol still stands. Dur
ing the rebellion it was military prison,
and Wirz was executed within its walls;
now, remodeled into residences, it is the
home of Justice Field, Senator Spooner and
other distinguished men.
The statesmen of forty years ago did not
know what large job they were under
taking when they started the senate and
house wings. The first estimate for these
new buildings was 81, 675, 900 and five years.
time Five years later the work was about
one-third finished, and the engineer in
charge called for another appropriation,
greater than the original estimate. Two
million five hundred thousand dollars
had been expended then, and he asked for
thfae millions more. 1t is curious to note
the cost of some of the materials used.
Massachusetts, marble cost 50. so square
foot; Tennessee, Sc; Vermont green, 81;
Potomac Breccia, 81; Levant, from Barbary,
IS, and Italian statuary, 50. Bricks, gen
orally brought from New Jersey or Penn
sylvania cost from $50 to 50 IL per thou
sand, and the records show that it cost So. OS
per thousand to lay them. Instead of five
years, sixteen years were consumed in the
erection Of the wings, and when the total
cost was figured up it was S8,000,000 instead
of $4,000 600.
The fire in the library in 1851 narrowly
escaped destroying the old dome, and the
| architect recommended the building of q
| new one Congress was very parsimonious,
| however, and the manner in which $780,
coo was obtained for this purpose is thus
| described:
'Mr. Walter prepared plans for COM
| plete extension of the Capitol-new wings,
new dome, new marble front for the
middle building-and as he very we'll
knew that congress would never vote the
great sum required in the most economical
way-that is, in bulk-he first submitted
the wings. Next, as congress was about adj
journing at the end of session, and they
were all very merry at night session
| ladies on the floor and everything lively
| the new dome was presented, splendidly
painted in picture, and was adopted at
| once"
The first appropriation, 100000, was
| barely sufficient to remove the old dome,
and when the new dome was finished the
cost was found to have been 81, $50, 900. This
method of bamboozling congress into
| authorizing works by Understanding the
total cost, it being next to impossible to
abandon a public enterprise once started,
appears to have been as well understood
and as skillfully practiced in the old days
! as it is in our time.
Uncle Sam has spent pretty bit of
| money for works of art in and about the
| Capitol-how much no one will ever know
| precisely. Greenough's colossal marble
statue OF Washington, which is crumbling
to pieces so that it is deemed prudent to
house it in every winter, cost S45, 900. This
statue stands directly east of the main
| portico, and On inaugural day I have seen
a score of boys sitting all over George
Washington-perched on his head, nest
ling between his legs, peeking from under
his arms-to see one of his successors take
the oath of Office. Near by is a bronze
fountain, surrounded by flower caskets,
lamp posts and lanterns, which cost s31. 000
| At the Pennsylvania avenue approach to
| the Capitol stands the naval statue, or
monument of peace, which cost Sal ,000
Not far away is the Garfield statue, which
cost $50, 900. Within the grounds is Story's
statue of Marshall, unveiled in 1884, and
costing $4,000
| About the Capitol itself the guide who
has his lesson well learned is able to over.
whelm his clients with figures concerning
the cost of art works. He points to the
huge group in the tympanum over the
main portico and exclaims, Genius OF
America, allegorical figures, 10 feet high
designed by John Quincy Adams when sec.
rotary OF state, cost 81, 800" He pauses be.
fore the statues, which occupy inches on
either side of the door, and says: "War and
Peace. That is War, you know-old Mars,
a Roman soldier, with sword and shield
This is Peace-Ceres, with her robes and
fruits and olive branch. Carrara marble.