Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-04
More Money for the District Building

The Commissioners decision to renew
their recommendation to Congress that the
cost limit of the municipal building should
be raised to 81. 100000 is in line with the
general program of developing the national
capital on an adequate scale. The progress
sive citizens of Washington have felt from
the beginning that Congress was pairing too
closely in the matter of this project. In the
light of the increased cost of land and of
building materials 1t was fairly certain tina t
a suitable home for the District govern
ment could not be created with the funds
allotted at the outset The inquiries made
since then by the Commissioners have
proved that it Will be impossible with the
money in hand to construct the building of
a durable material insuring monumental
appearance for decades.
The half million added to the building
cost will not fall wholly upon the tax
payers of this year. or next year, or
the years of the buildings construction
This work is one of the permanent i'm
provements for which Congress is in theory
compelling the District to pay on cash
basis. In point of fact, however. these ex-
penses are accommodating deficit which
cannot be liquidated by the surplus of rev.
enues over current needs for some years
payers of the capital is that this deficit, in
stead of being allowed to accumulate year
by year in an indefinite system of federal
advances should be financed as are the
debts incurred by other cities and by great
business corporations for engagements and
improvements. But whether 1t is thus
financed in specific terms now or later. the
fact remains that the cost of the munich
pal building will chiefly fall upon the tax
payers of later years, in something like a
proper proportion to their ability to pay
and their use of the added advantages.
Thus this additional half million will be
paid 1t may be assumed largely by thoss
who will enjoy the Districts new official
home 1t is in the last degree undesirable
that the building should be shabby and old
in appearance. when the last dollar of Its
initial cost is paid. If constructed of In
ferior stone, such as the cost limit now
set will compel. 1t will in all probability be
an eyesore rather than an ornament to the
capital in the course of ten or twenty years.
whatever Its outlines. If built of fine stone.
whether of marble or of granite of good
quality. 1t will hold its beauty indefinitely.
This question must be answered now. It
is altogether unlikely that Congress would
ever appropriate in the future enough
money to reconstruct the District building.
however dingy and second-class 1t might
become in consequence of its cheap mate
rails. The work has reached the stage, too,
where a decision must be Immediately rem
dered. If Congress will not grant this ex-
tension of the cost limit the Commissioners
must go ahead this season with an Inferior
structure in view. The District has waited
long enough now to be entitled to prompt
action. There would be use In waiting
another year in the hope of persuading the
next Congress of the wisdom and neces-
sity of granting this requisition. The case
should be presented to the District and ap-
preparations committees in the strongest
terms possible.