Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-04

the Editorial or business Departments.
according to tenor OF purpose.
For several years Congress- in it's capac-
fly as the legislature OF the District. has
been demonstrating over the problem of
the steam railroad crossings and terminal
facilities in this city, putting II off from
year to year and session to session
disagreeable and difficult topic, until 1t
has become the most easily-postponed
question with which the committees have
to deal. 1t cannot be prudent to neglect
this matter. for IL is becoming more diff
cult each year while the necessity for its
solution grows more urgent. 1t is said that
there are certain reasons why It should
not be attacked during this session. 1t is
suggested that the time is too short for
comprehensive grasp of the situation to be
secured. and delay is urged on the ground
that at another session the conditions will
be more favorable. 1t is limited that there
are certain men on the committees and in
the houses whose antagonism. for certain
reasons, is such as to preclude any possi-
bility of settling the long-vexed question.
Granting this to be true and presuming
that there is a disposition on the part of
some at least, of the members of the COM
in this matter. would it not be fair to the
citizens for Congress to make preparations
now to this end by authorizing some joint
commission of the two houses TO make
preliminary survey of the entire question,
without power to do anything more than to
outline a plan for the future which might
possibly be enacted into law at some
other session? 1t is certain that when the
question is finally taken up for legislative
adjudication much time will necessarily be
lost in inquiry into the premises of the
case. 1t seems reasonable to hope that
even the friends of the railroad themselves
would consent TO full inquiry into the
merits OF the case. Any refusal on their
part 10 such a proposition would confirm
the suspicion that has existed for long
whitehall they love darkness rather than
light. At all events let a start be made,
let Congress give some evidence of good
faith in the matter rather than continue
TO make empty promises and so crush all
hope.
1t is certain that the citizens of the Dis
trict, almost without exception, desire Con-
gress to take definite action that will es-
tablish for all time to come the matter of
the location of the stations. the grade of
the crossings and the thousand and one
smaller matters attendant upon this great
subject. The delay has already resulted
in an unstable condition of property values
in the vicinity of the railroads and a gener-
ally unsettled state of business. Real es-
tate interests around the lines and ends Of
the two railroad systems that now almost
bisect the city are greatly injured. They
can never recover until Congress shall de-
termine once for all the routes and ter
ritories of these lines and regulate them to
point where life and limb shall be safe
in comparison with the present conditions.
II may not be realized by members of Con-
gress whose routes to and from the Cap
itOl seldom bring them into disagreeable
contact with these terrible menaces the
railway lines with their grade crossings
what a large proportion of the citizens of
Washington is daily compelled to cross
the tracks. AS suggested. the two lines
almost cut the city in half. There now re-
mains a very narrow strip of territory less
than half mile in width between the two
death-dealing tracks. Fortunately for the
roads. Pennsylvania avenue, that great
artery of the city. has been left open to
traffic. and so the ordinary congressional
route to the Capitol has not been destroyed.
Otherwise, IL is not doubted for a moment
some radical solution of the question would
have been reached years ago. AS 1t Is
the residents of the northeast section are
compelled to cross the Baltimore and Ohio
tracks into the heart of the city. This is
a rapidly growing part of town and in a
few years will be one of the most
-densely populated quarters. A majority of
the employees of the great Printing Office
in addition to having their lives endangered
by the building they are now forced to oc-
cupy. are compelled to traverse this DEATH
belt twice and sometimes four times a
day. The conditions are similar, but per-
haps worse in the southwestern section of
the city A solution of this serious prob
lem should be forced and the work ought
not to be one OF extreme difficulty for
both the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and
Ohio companies have intimated willingness
TO do something of a reformatory sort
Should member of Congress or a Sena-
tor some day be crushed under the wheels
of locomotive at a embarrassing in
stead of the helpless child of humble
man of labor. even the Wanted power Of
the corporations would not avail to stem
the tide of tardy resentment that would
sweep through the halls of Congress and
remove the monster that has done as much
damage to Washington as the railroads
interests permitted.
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