The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-13

and the Republic have grown with equal
pace, and their step has ever been forward
1t was then Struggling village Of 2,UU0
souls: 1t is now magnificent metropolis
OF over 100000. The Republic Of 100000
people and sixteen States then rested its
western boundary ON the Mississippi River
its southern boundary on the northern line
Of Florida. 1t has row 10 GUU. 600 people and
forty-five States, and our continental boun-
dar.es are the Pacific Ocean. Mexico. and
the Gulf of Mexico. We have multiplied
our territory four-fold, and our popula
ton nearly twenty-fold. Our centre Of
population was then near Baltimore. Nd.
1t is now near Columbus. Ind. and is still
travelling west to grow up with the ooun-
try
ITO my mind this Capital City Of the
Republic is the city unique and beautiful.
Other nations have fixed their capitals in
the crowded urban centres of commt rec,
and they possess the splendors that opu-
lence has gathered around them. Our
Capital. like our nation was made to sub
serve principle. and it has grown up
in the midst of the mementOs and as
sociations of the principle which it rep
rescnts. Its broad avenues inteIsecting
its regular squares. it's frequent res rya-
its parks and trees, its substantial blsi
ness houses and slightly dwellings, its
colleges. universities and museums, its
monuments and public buildings. its noble
river and picturesque landscape, its in
tegral effect upoE the eye, wi h the apex
of the Washington Monument piercing he
sky on the one side and this noble pie
lifting it's dome on the other; these things
make Washington City nobler panor-
ANA and more inspiring contemplation
than are afforded by any other city in the
world.
Axle of the Union Wheel.
THE United States will live and with
them Washington will live, expanding,
multiplying, identifying, enlightening
with every turn of the prodigious wheel
of which it is the axle. Plans for its i'm
provement abound. One contemplates the
erection here of the Halls of the An
GENTS where the eye may behold re-
vived the architectural creations of by
gene nations. Another would produce on
some expansive field miniature of the
United States of America, showing in
the earth itself the delineations and I'M
dulations of our national topography.
These and kindred schemes are we'll
worthy of consideration. But the essen
tial must come first. Washington needs,
and the people of the whole country need,
fitting outlets for the new railroads that
press for admission. and bridges which
will span the Potomac and connect the
city with the military post, the agricul-
tural station, and the beautiful cemetery
at Arlington. More public buildings are
needed by both the District and the Fed
eral Government.
"All will be gratified to know that the
White House is to be enlarged for the
more suitable accommodation Of the Pres
ident in the exercise of the official and
hcspitabIe functions incumbent on the
Chief of our multitudinous people; and all
will wish the present occupant that happi-
ness which he would, If he could, bestow
on every one of them. No less pressing
are the needs of the many departments.
This Government should not be forced, as
it has been, and is now, to rent rooms like
a transient visitor. nor to put its public
servants in dingy lodgings like postponed
claimants. 1t is planned for the ages, and
it should reside in habitations adapted to
health and comfort and becoming to its
character. Whatever we do in building
should be the best of its kind in plan, in
material, and in execution. All our public
buildings should be of the noble classic
design worked out by American architects
according to the diversities of American
genius. As this Capitol building, rising
in white and soaring majesty, speaks to
the heavens and the earth, as it were, in
of its office, SO should every
public building established here express
to the beholder in every lineament of its
structure the stability, the dignity, and
the grace of the American nation.
And one public building above all 9TH
ers is needed here as the reflex of the
peculiar genius of the nation, and of its
supreme intellectual distinction in a de-
partment where it surpasses all ancient
and modern nations. We are the most in
ventive of nations. The free intellect has
been the most original and productive of
all intellects. Other nations have sur
passed us in literature and the fine arts,
but in inventive and useful arts the United
States is far transcendent- The Patent
Office, established by Thomas Jefferson,
and protecting for brief period the only
constitutional monopoly, the right to the
exclusive enjoyment of ones original
ideas, is the crown Of American intellec-
tual supremacy over the material world.
even as the Constitution of the United
States is the crown of political archi-
lecture and the Union itself the GROWING
glory of our people.
Francis Bacon says: The sciences
dwell socially together and We should
put on Capitol Hill, facing the Senate
hall. as companion piece to the exquis-
lite Library Building, now facing the Hall
of Representatives, another building OF
like architecture And the american
capitol of letters should have by its side
the American capitol of inventive art.
both facing this Capitol of the people,
where their sovereignty has its highest
exemplifcation. In that hall should be
displayed the eyolutions of inventions,
with every invention indicated by its
model, inclusive of the last Improvement.
1t would be the greatest college of ap
piled science that the world has ever
seen; a monument to and stimulus to
invention. and leading by gradations to
these truths of science which hover over
the threshold of the age waiting to be
caught
Americas Inventive Genius.
1T was the mariners needle that dis
covered America. The inventor made the
dscoverer possible, and inventive genius
is that which is putting us ahead Of all
the nations 1t is invention that mani
folds the thoughts of the wise and scat
tiers them in the humblest habitations 1t
is invention that has made the poor mans
cottage CLEAN in cleanliness and beauty.
like the palace. 1t is Invention that las
made circulating Libraries and art CALLER
les of our periodical literature. 1t is in
vention that forestalls the pestilence, ex-
tinguishes the conflagration, Eliminates
the darkness, make the fountain to gush
forth by the fireside and in the desert, re-
lieves the famine, and snatches the vic
Tins of the battlefield from the jaws OF
1t is invention that has made
princes of the earth out of merchants.
and skilled workmen; that
has given precedence to our products in