Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-17

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| Failure to Secure the Shafer site,
| the Secretary OF the Treasury Be
Empowered to Select Another
Compliments to Richmond from
Chairman Mercer--New Site for
Portsmouth Postor1ce.
WASHINGTON, D. C.. January 10
(special1.-The delegations of Richmond
business men representing different views
| in Richmond on the choice Of a .postoffice
site, appeared before the House Commit
tee on Public Buildings and Grounds to-
day. the outcome being. somewha confus-
Ing to the committee. and probably to the
mem bers Of the delegations themselves.
/. There seems to have been an. understand
ting here that the two delegations would
nreseEt widely divergent views. ana, con-
sequently, there was surprise when Mr..
Charles sHutzler, representing the people
i opposed to the Shafer site, announced
that in the event that there was any
ton of the Shafer site, other sites would
be taken up for consideration by the Com
4 mittee on Public. Buildings and Grounds.
Mr.. H L. Cabell,. speaking for the
friends of the Shafer site, said that this
was ali very agreeable to- them. and it
| 1nittee. Mr.. Mercer, chairman of the
committee said that he did not under
! stand the necessity .of Al visit of delega-
4 tions to Washington if both were prac-
tically agreed on the same thing. In
fact, Mr.. Mercer. inquired why the dele
/ cations had come to Washington, where
| upon member of one Of the delegations
quickly responded: ITO return the Wis
| it of your committee, sir; that is ALL
| The sally provokeu laugh.
Uptown Amendment.
The delegation opposed to the shafer
| site arrived here at Il o'clock this morn
ing It consisted Of Postmaster sWray
| T. knight, ]. NJ. Fourqurean, a.. C. Har-
mon. Colonel John Murphy, w. II. zim-
norman, T. NJ. Hundley, Charles B. Cook,
| Captain NJ. J. Dimmock, Major J. w.
/ Pegram, Colonel W. M. Cary and Charles
| EIutzler. For the Shafer site the dele
/ cation consisted of Colonel John B. Pur-
cell. E.. G. Leigh, Jr.,J. a. Moncure. II.
L. Cabell, =, A. Catlin and James r.
/ Gordon. They arrived here on a late
/ spokesman.
| The members OF both delegations were
| introduced to the comittee by Congress
man Lamb of the Richmond district
The captain then introduced Mr.. Charles
| Hutzler, who said that he had come not
to get the committee to undo what had
| already been done, but simply to so amend
the measure me as to provide that In the
/ event of there being a failure to secure
the Shafer site this Secretary OF the
! Treasury be empowered to select anoth-
/ er. He also called attention to the fact
| that the business Of the Richmond post
! Office had grown 63 per cent. in five
| years.
Mr.. TIutzler was followed by Mr.. H. L.
| Cabell. who said he represented the Clear
i ing House. the Stock Exehange. the To-
/ and the Grocers' Association. There was
no effort to railroad real estate scheme
| through Congress as to the property. Mr..
! Moncure had accepted tine $4,000 offer,
1 only after the strongest pressure had
I been brought 10 bear on him. The prop
erty was now paying five per cent. on
$500. GOO. Mr.. Cabell accepted very gladly
/! the proposed amendment of Mr.. Hutzlers,
and he thought everyone else did.
! It was at this juncture that Mr.. Mer-
Ger inquired what had brought the dele
/ cations here. He said that he didn't see
| why it was necessary to come up here
when they were already together.
1 Addressing the committee, he contin-
4 ued:
Rtchmonds Growth.
'.The committee. was much impressed
with Richmond, when It was there. II
seems that it has been born again from
a commercial standpoint. It's growth has
been SO rapid that we believe it promises
to become one of the leading cities Of the
1 East and South
Myself and several other members OF
the committee were INCLINED to favor an
j uptown site, but Main street will be. as
lit is now, the Wall street Of the city
4 for hundred years to come. and the
ajoritys OF the business interests Of the
city advocate the Main street Site y. 6
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