The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1893-06-19
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.
The System Governing Their Erec-
ton and Cost.
How the Plans for New Buildings Are
Engineered and Pat Thre~4gh~Ees
Congressmen-Tilc,N Need of
Proper Restrictions

In many of our cities and large towns
the most noticeable structure is the
government building. There are now
nearly four hundred such buildings
scattered through the country. The
number has been greatly increased in
recent years, and the expenditure for
construction has become large an
nuai item in the appropriation bills of
congress.
In 1891 the amount expended on this
account was more than four million
eight hundred thousand dollars, which
was one-fifth as much as all the ordi-
nary expenditures of the government in
1910. This great extension of the sys-
tenn has taken place gradually, but the
FpoEicy seems now to be firmly estab-
Iished.
Within proper limits, says Youths
Companion, it is an extremely reason
BILE system In little town the rent
s of a corner in q store for a post office
1anaonnts to almost nothing. The town
grows, and the posi- Office requires
larger quarters-a whole floor on the
street level in the center of business.
The town transforms itself into city,
Hand and rents increase, and the expense
for the hire of a building, which must
be conveniently located in the very
heart of the city where rents are
highest, becomes large.
a still further increase of population,
and now other departments of the gov
ernment begin to appear in the city. If
1t is on the coast or on the lakes, a dep
gty collector of customs is appointed.
The federal courts have business now
and then in the city. An internal rev
enue Office is established, or u branch OF
the pension or the land Office.
Under such circumstances it is cheap
er for the national government to in
vest, once for all, the capital needed to
erect buildings than to continue to pay
rent. The only question is, at what
point it becomes a matter of economy
to build rather than to hire.
Naturally the people of a growing
town are convinced of the necessity
for public building long before con.
gross can see the matter in the same
Light. The congressman from the dis
trict, anxious to make himself popular
urges the Importance of the building OF
his associates, and sometimes succeeds
in obtaining the consent of congress tc
the project before the building is really
needed.
Formerly authority to erect buildings
was inserted in appropriation bills, and
there was great chance for ''log-roll
ing'''-thatis, Congressman Smith would
help on Congressman Jones scheme il
Congressman Jones would help Con.
gressman Smith At present each build.
ing is authorized by separate act, but
there is still some opportunity for log.
rolling.
All government building is done un-
i Al l.
the treasury department. First, con-
gress authorizes the building and appro.
PIRATES money for the site and the struc-
ture. Next lot is selected, approved
and purchased. Plans are made by the
supervising architect, and the building
is erected. The custodian--though he
may be, and frequently is, the postmas-
ter-is under the direction of, and re-
ports to, the secretary of the treasury.
The reason for this is, perhaps, that
IN the early days government buildings
were chiefly for the offices of collectors
of customs, who are under the secretary
of the treasury, and only incidentally
for post Office use.
No doubt the eagerness of commune
ties to obtain costly and ornamental
building at the government expense has
caused this system to be abused. At
tempts have been made to lay down
certain conditions which must be salts
fed before . town or city shall be
deemed to need q government building.
Thus, il might be required that the
= population shall be so many, or the re-
ceipts of the post Office SO much, or that
there shall be other uses than the post
Office for such a building. No such
restrictions have been made, and