The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-12-21
WHITE HOUSE TOO SMALL
OF THE EXECUTIVE
EANSloN CONTEMPLATED.

The news that Congress is TO take
up seriously the subject of enlarging
the White House in Washington
comes not day too soon, says the
New York Post. The need of some
such relief has long been plain, but
no President since Harrison has
moved in the matter. President
Cleveland preferred to set up a home
at a considerable distance from his
office, so as to be sure of refuge where
politicians and curiosity seekers would
have no excuse for intruding on his
privacy. President Mckinley, though
using the White House for domestic
as we'll as public purposes. finds it
spacious enough for his small family,
and has never encouraged proposals
to enlarge it for his own comfort.
But the question has ceased to be
one of mere personal convenience.
The great increase OF executive bust
ness has made necessary a correspond
ing increase in the Presidents cleri-
| cal force, and this, in its turn, means
more furniture, more heavy books
and files, and many more persons
continually coming aud going. The
old timbers were evidently not laid
with view to such strain, and
bends and breaks have occurred from
| time to time, till certain parts of the
interior of the building are relics of
ingenious patchwork. The main
staircase gave way in President Ar
thurs time, and had to be tied into
place with chains, which tradition
says are still doing duty, hidden in
partition. A beam under one of the
doorways through which hundreds of
persons sometimes pass in day
cracked several years ago and had to
be reinforced with metal plates aud
bolts. An enterprising mechanic,
who attached the cold-air box to the
present heating apparatus, finding
one Of the masonry arches in the cell
lar i'll his way, cut through it to save
DETECTION, thus making it necessary
to put in a less satisfactory support
after his trick had been discovered.
1t is an open secret in Washington
that the floors of the parlors and
state corridors always have to be sus-
tanned by rows of temporary wooden
piers when the President holds his
receptions, so great have the crowds
become. These are few of many
facts which have come to public no
tice, showing that some form of relief
is not only desirable, but essential to
the safety of human life and limb.
Congress has had repeated warnings,
but has always preferred to spend
the Governments money on other
things, and treat the White House to
little more patching. If it had hus-
banded the fortunes which it has
wasted upon inferior works of art and
makeshift repairs, and devoted all
this to the enlargement Of the Presi-
deet's official home, the country would
have approved its course as in the
line of true economy.
The thing which undoubtedly has
retarded any permanent improvement
is the fact that whenever the subject
has been agitated some Philistine in
authority has begun to make plans
for radical change, involving the
demolition of the present structure
and the substitution of something
more modern" This would be van
dalism indeed. The priceless histor-
ic memories which cluster around the
old pile forbid it. The best artistic
judgment in the country would revolt
at it, for the White House is architec-
turally a rare specimen of the work
done by an earlier generation, when
the republican idea was associated in
| mania do uftth olaaoin nj wall
as classic politics. 1t would be inde-
fensible on economical grounds, be-
cause, however much the interior of
The house may have suffered from
strains which it was not meant to bear,
the outside walls and supporting par
titions are worthy of baronial cas-
tie, and u monument to the conscience
as we'll as the skill of their builders.
In short, no plan for change ought
to be tolerated which does not have
for its central idea not only the pres
ervation OF the old building, but the
maintenance of its artistic integrity.
Another consideration which isun-
derstood to have influenced Congress
to set aside some of the earlier
schemes suggested, was fear lest the
ultimate expenditure might far exceed
the estimates. But of late years the
country has learned that there is one
agency to which it can look with con-
fidence for the completion of public
buildings within the appropriations
as we'll as within the time specified.
The Washington national monument,
after tagging for forty years, was at
last taken in hand by the army en-
gineers, and finished with creditable
speed, yet with no sacrifice of strength
or of perfection in detail. The State,
War and Navy Department building,
badly designed and threatening to
consume a lifetime in construction,
was transferred to the engineers in
like manner, and with like success. The
! Library of Congress, the most gor-
geous public building in the world, is
specimen of engineer work, the
keys of which were turned over to
the custodian before the date fixed,
and with a small balance of money to
restore to the treasury.
There need be no more of sob"
in the enlargement of the White
House than in these other cases, if
the same precautions are taken. Es-
timates made by Superintendent of
| Il II - 4 j.. NJ