Evening star., 1900-12-01
THE FEDERAL CITY
Its Growth, Prospects and National
Significance.
WISE WORK OF TEE FOUNDERS
Cause for Profound Popular Graft
tude in the Capital Centennial.
RETROCESSION DEPRECATED
Use WORK OF TEE FOUNDERS
RETROCESSION DEPRECATED
Albert Shaw In the Review of Reviews.

Albert Shaw in the Review of Reviews
The people of the United States ought 10
feel the keenest satisfaction IN the crcum-
stances under which, on December L. there
will be celebrated the centennial anniver-
sary Of the occupation by the government
Of the United States Of its permanent home
in the District of Columbia. The more at
tentvely one studies the work of the men
who framed the federal union and laid the
plans for its future development the more
profound is ones admiration for their
breadth Of view-for the largeness of their
intellectual stature and their gifts and pow
ers as statesmen in the true sense of the
word.
The idea Of creating a distinct federal dis
trict, apart from the jurisdiction of any one
state, whose development should belong to
all the people Of all the states was an orig
inal idea, and a very valuable one The
commonwealth of Australia, which is to
enter upon its career of federal union on
the LIST day of January, is proposing to fol-
low the American plan, and to create fed
eral district and capital city alb initio. The
European countries have not developed
distinct center for national government.
unless st. Petersburg should be excepted:
but they have not had to meet the delicate
adjustments Of jurisdiction that are re-
quired under our federal system.
The influence of Geography
Quite apart from those questions of juris-
diction, however, it is permissible to raise
the question whether the history of France
might not have been considerably different
If the seat Of legislation and executive au-
thority had been removed a hundred years
ago from Paris to some point nearer the
center of the country-for instance, to some
site selected in Touraine, on the Loire.
Imagine then that marvellous genius of Ma
poleon, which showed itself as markedly in
its demands for space and symmetry of
architecture as for method and harmony in
civil administration, applied, not to the
problem of erecting a splendid new Paris on
the site of medieval city, which already
had Incompatible beauties and charms of
its own but rather to the creation of a new
city as the political center Of the French
world. 1t is only the student nowadays
who knows what treasures Of thirteenth
fourteenth and fifteenth century archtec-
ture were destroyed in cutting the new ave-
nueS that give Paris its modern aspect.
Paris and Washington.
The comparison of Paris with Washing
ton is by no means fanciful or arbitrary.
For it is fact that the laying out of our
new federal city of Washington was not
only contemporaneous with the making of
the plans for the reconstruction of Paris
streets. but the two projects were directly
associated in the sense of having been in
itiated by the same French engineers. But
aside from the question of architecture, the
political destinieS of France would not have
been unduly swayed at critical moments by
the influence Of Paris if the senator's and
deputies from the departments could have
transacted public business at a capital per-
haps two hundred miles from the metrOpo-
lis that has always SO completely absorbed
them.
Similar remarks might not at first seem
applicable to the conditions under which
the united kingdom and the British empire
are governed in the very heart of the vast
English metropolis. Yet what are the facts
today! Nearly every member of the pres
ent British cabinet is a director in one or
more speculative or commercial enter
prises having their offices in the financial
district Of London. The members of the
house OF lords, all Of whom have their Lon
don town houses, are absorbed in social
pursuits or otherwise bent upon their own
interest and pleasure. The members of the
house OF commons, in a large majority of
cases. are more or less wholly engulfed-
as lawyers, business men, journalists and
otherWiSe-in the maelstrom of ENTERPRISE
and opportunity at the core Of the worlds
greatest center of business and popula ton
On many day the attendance in the housa
of lords, which has a membership of h91
can be counted on the fingers of ones two
hands; and so little is a full attendance
expected even in the house of commons
every member of which represents a yot-
ing constftuency-that even in the new
parliament houses it was not thought worth
while to provide Eearly so many seats as
SAClC dlS LleIllDeTS
American and British Public Men.
In spite of the British air Of responsibility
that lends its outward glamour. to all Of
ficial proceedings, the British government Is
seriously compromised, in character and
efnclency' by the powerful social and fnan-
cial influences that center in the METROPOLIS.
and by the thousand and one opportunt. les
and distractions that take the time and at
tention of officials and pariamentarians.
Inc American public men, on the other
hand, who are sent to Washington to
transact national business and to attend TO
the affairs of their constituents are moi
lost in the mazes of a great city, nor alb
sorbed in the pursuits of a financial and
commercial metropolis. In London the
great occasion of the official year IS the
lord mayors annual banquet. to which the
prime minister and the leading members
OF the cabinet go; and on that occasion the
mead OF the government is expected to
make Weighty deliverances, as Lord Sails
bury did on the ninth day of last month
But we in this country would regard 1t as
detracting little from the dignity of the
nation If the federal government were
located at New York and the President of
the United States should make his most
important statements on national policy
at a banquet provided by Tammany Halls
mayor. Yet the associated guilds of the
old inner city of London are the Tammany
of the British metropolis; and they play a
very undue part in influencing public af-
Idii diiu III SolltloillHS tHe Q6SUnleS OF the
British empire.
Choosing the Federal District
George Washington was first inaugurated
where the subtreasury now stands in Wall
street, New York city, and subsequently
the federal government held forth in Phila-
delphia. But even in the earlier period of
the confederation it was felt that local in
fuences should be avoided. and that it
would be we'll on many accounts to remove
the federal offices and legislative halls to a
separate district, with a capital city of new
creation.
The final decision to have a separate ma
tional capital was made in the convention
that drafted the federal Constitution in
1887 =
At length. by the act of July 49, 1890, i,
was provided that the seat of government
should be and remain in Philadelphia from
December, 1870. to December, 1900, when
1t should be removed Ito district and ter
ritory not exceeding ten miles square, locat-
ed the river Potomac, between the
mouths of the Eastern branch and the
Ccnococheague." Commissioners were ap-
pointed to fix the precise location and 10
the needful bargaining. 1t is well known
however. that all the important decisions