Evening star., 1896-12-04
FOR NEW QUARTERS
Secretary Francis Will Ask Congress
for q Big Building.
PROPOSITION TO CONDEMN 2 SQUARES
Present Building to Be Turned
Over to the Patent Office.
A VAST ART NJ E n 7

II shall try hard this winter to secure
a new Interior building" said Secretary
Francis to Star reporter today.
No Secretary was ever better abe, doubt
less. than Mr.. Francis to derive from his
daily duties a consciousness OF the magni-
tude and Importance of the public business
assembled in that department.
Appointed in the last half of the last
year of this administration. he has been
obliged to master the details of the Dusi-
ness done by the department. and with the
prudence and cautiousness of a safe bust
ness man in new field of responsibility
administer it while learning what t was.
Personally Mr.. Francis is a remarkable
toiler. He is at his desk as soon. often
sooner, than any of the 1000 clerks under
him, and it is an easy and rare day when
he has finished his work before O'Clock
al night
Those who frequent the neighborhood of
the department building have fong ago
noticed tina. the Secretarys carriage waits
at the 9TH street entrance for MIN every
night until a late hour. while in his llghted
office he may b. seen at work. with MS
Office clerk, dispatchins the business tha'
accumulates on mis- desk
Heavy Rentals.
The Secretary says that the department
Is. now paysng out nearly s5o,Uh yearly for
buildings rented for the civil service COM
mission. Indian office. the geological survey,
the census Office. and other branches OF the
service. This is the interest on a sum
amounting TO mere than the main anterior
building cost.
That building is badly crowded. 1t is
rot modern building, having been begun
in 1886 and finished in 1861. 1T was orig
inalIy intended solely for the patent Office.
Il name by which it is now more commonly
known than by any other.
The vast accumulation of the archives or
the department is gradually encroachini
on the space given to clerks ana many
rooms are used jointly for storage ana Tor
Is NOT 'fire-proof, it is. also true that none
of the buildings rented for the six or seven
nureaux that are housed outside are hre-
proof. Neither the health OF the clerks
nor the security of valuable doc cuments can
be properly maintained in the use of the
building under such crowded conditions.
the Secretary WILL it IS understood. 'lrSe
that tte whole Interior building be given
over to the patent Office, which now &C.
cupies nearly, if not quite, hair of it, and
IS. seriously crowded for room. having
been forced to rent several floors in the
present post Office building for the stora ge
of patent models.
To this he will add the recommendation
that ground be secured in the vicinity fer
the erection Of. a large modern. commo-
ulcuS, Tre PROOF blil!ulhS, suited SpeClfcal-
ly to the vast business of the, greatest busi-
ess department of the government.
Good Deal of Work.
Secretary Teller used to say that he was
the equal of four or five supreme courts.
He rendered. he said. more decisions in a
month than the court did in a year
At the same time the Importance of the
law laid down in those decisions and the
vast pecuniary value involved made the
work of the court look insignificant in com
pariSon. 1t is a sense of the fact thus EN-
phasiZed by Mr.. Teller that has led Secre-
tary Francis to determine if possible tC
secure action this winter by Congress for
a new building.
If Congress looks upon his idea with
favor il is not unlikely that two blocks
will be condemned for the new building.
To do this il would be necessary to vacate
the street between these blocks
These limitations would seem to indica Il
the selection of the blocks bounded by nth
and 9th, G and II streets, that part of Sth
street Intervening to be vacated and en-
braced in the site. These are short blocks
from east 10 west, and the vacation of tina
part of Sth street would not interfere Sc
riously with traffic in that section Of the
ri