Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-25
THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING
Favorable ReporbU Upon Senate Bill Ordered
byseonmittee.
Senator Mcmillan and Representative
Mercer Discuss sthe Districts
Needs-Sitel Suggested.

The Senate committee on the District of
Columbia has ordered favorable report
| of bill to provide Ia municipal building
| for the District Of Columbia. Mr.. McMil-
Ian, chairman ofithat committee, has long
favored a measure of this kind. Speaking
70 Star reporter today in regard to the
necessity for adequate quarters in which to
| transact the District business, he said:
For eleven years the proposition to make
an appropriation for a municipal building
for the District Of Columbia has been be-
fore the District committee and has inva-4
| riably received favorable consideration by
| that committee. There have been questions
| as to what the location should be and the
committee was opposed to plans which had
been prepared by former boards of commits
sioners. Public opinion seems to have set
tied upon the present site of the court
Rouse for this purpose and the legal bust
ness OF the city has already been adapted
to that site. so to make any change would
be to destroy large property values based
on the present location of the courts.
me District offices are cramped and the
guiding in which they are located can ac-
comm0date comparatively small number
of visitors; and the crowds of people who
nave to go, to the District building to pay
taxes, 10 OBTAIN licenses and to transact
olher business makes it impossible to keep
the offices in decent condition. The ar
rangement OF the offices is unnecessarily
| announcement, and the police headquarters
nave recently been forced out of the build
ing, and the other offices are much crowd
ca. There is neither proper light nor air.
| 50 FAR as it is known to this committee
there Is no city III the United States which
| Is not better equipped with office facilities
IMAM the capital of the nation.
The development of the city of Wash
| lngton mas bann slow growth. Originally
| most or the executive work was formerly
done by the employees of the national gov
Ia11f wit ~, ~
years Washington has grown enormously as
| a city and as territory. The District of
columbia now needs all the laws of a state
and all the ordinances of a city, and yet
this enormous amount of executive work
has to be done under the most disadvan-
tageous circumstances.
1T is proposed, If the bill which has been
recommended by the District committee be-
comes a law, to go to work deliberately and
intelligently in order to provide the District
Of Columbia with a building adequate for
the executive offices and for the courts.
What have said in regard to the District
offices applies with equal force to the Of
fees Of the courts. The arrangements for
the Police Courts. which are a very impor-
tant element in the judicial system of the
| District of Columbia, are simply disgrace
full.
Il hope Congress will not hesitate to en-
act this measure into law at an early day."
Mr.. Mercer Deeply Interested.
Chairman Mercer of the House commit
tee on public buildings and grounds is TAX
| ing a deep interest in the question of pro-
| vding municipal building for this city.
The fact that the government and the Dis
trict Jointly are paying rent for buildings
for the use of the city government has
been discussed by Mr.. Mercer with his
colleagues, and the chairman of the COM
mittee, at any rate, thinks that rent pay
| ing should cease and that an adequate
structure should be owned by the District.
'Therp Is Doubt in mind said
Chairman Mercer today, that bill
should be passed at this session to provide
4 municipal building for the District of
Columbia. The only question to me is
whether the building should be exclusive
| ly for the municipal government, or wheth-
err it should also include accommodations
| for the courts.
THAT phase of the subject is being looked
| into now, but no decision has been reached
and no bill has beer prepared by our COM
mittee. l have been in correspondence with
the municipal governments of several cities
concerning their buildings. Replies to our
letters have been received from the mayors
of Cleveland. Minneapolis Providence, To-
peka, Baltimore, New Orleans, Buffalo and
Cincinnati, describing the character of the
buildings in those cities and Offering sus-
gestions, in the light of their experience
for model municipal building. The gen.
eral advice is. don't build too small; pro-
vide plenty of light and ventilation and
make provision for future needs.
Il think that favorable action should be
| taken at this session upon a bill, but as l
said at the outset, 1 not prepared at
| this time to say just what kind Of bill
| it shall be-"