Evening star., 1904-01-23

the urgent need for the opening OF such
streets with apt and humorous stories. He
told of the courteous reception his subcom-
mittee had received at the hands OF District
officials.
THE committee went to see the Commis
sioners, he said, ''and we were received by
one of the assistant engineers with marked
courtesy, and were given information sum-
cient to convince us that a firm and con-
tinuous protest should be made by this rep
resentative body of citizens against the con-
summation of the present exterior plans OF
the east side of the great structure. am
conscious that this board has many things
to do, but the thing to do Is to do the right
thing at the right time and In the right
place. You may remember that Wen the
old bachelor asked the philosopher this
question, What do you think of love and
marriagew the old fellow. who evidently
knew a thing or two, replied. One thing at
a time SIR; one thing at a time.
"One of these things is to prevent the con-
summation of the present plans concerning
the east side Of the great terminal station.
which ought to be the noblest structure OF
its kind in the world.
What the Plans Embrace.
'The plans as they now stand leave three
cul de sac streets abutting on the station
and grounds, with intersecting and broken
blocks of lands, which, if left as proposed,
will soon be covered with unsightly build
ings, and the surroundings of the noble
structure on the west side will be an eye
sore for all time to come. 1t therefore pc
hooyes the Board of Trade, which mas tne
interests Of the national capital so much at
heart, to right this threatened wrong. we
should at least endeavor to get nrty-Ioot
street between the station and the remain
ing land. for If this be not done the people
of this city, our constituents. and the peo-
ple of the entire country, who are the con-
stituents Of that intelligent aggregation OF
gentlemen on Capitol Hill, Will, Wnen tney
realize this great fault, this needless ois, p,
figurement of the finest termlhal staeoh III
the world.
Mr.. Thomas w. Smith called attention
to the fact that the streets east OF the sta
ton which it was desired to connect with
the thorOughfares to the south run to the
wall of the station, which will be thirty-hve
feet wide.
The report of the committee was adopted
on motion of DR.. Farden, and the commit
tee was authorized to lay the subjects treat
ed in it's report before committees OF Con-
gress.
Repaving Streets.
Mr.. Henderson then referred to a resoiu-
ton that had been offered at the last meet
ing of the board by Mr.. Geo. w. Evans,
favoring a policy of replacing belgian or
granite with asphalt in the residential por-
tions of the city, which resolution had been
referred to his committee. The committee
had considered the matter and had de-
cided that while the change was desirable
1t was not thought advisable to confine such
improvement to residential parts of the city,
SO that the committee had agreed upon
resolution broader in its nature, providing
that wherever the interest of trade or San1-
tary conditions and the public comfort will
be promoted by repaving with asphalt or
concrete block such streets as are already
paved with stone, and conditions are favor
able to the change, such repavtng should
be done, and the Commissioners are re-
quested to recommend to Congress proper
1egisla ton for carrying into effect such sub
stitution as the conditions require.
Mr.. Evans said the residential parts of
the city alone were referred to In his reso-
luton, as there were urgent reasons why
they should receive attention. The noise of
teams passing over belgian block on some
of the finest resident streets is so great, he
said, as to constitute a nuisance greatly to
the disadvantage of property. Property
had in fact been decreased In value because
of such nuisances. He thought that bust
ness portions of the city might be looked
after, but believed 1t would be best to re-
quest first that residence streets be given
attention.
The resolution as reported by the commit
tee was then adopted.
Mr.. Henderson called attention to the need
for opening streets on which land has been
donated.
'In the cases of land donated for the
opening of Streets" he said, nothing has
been done for the benefit of the people who
have given their land for that purpose. The
committee thinks that if land is offered for
public purposes and our governing body
considers it of sufficient Importance to the
public to accept it there should be an ooll-
cation resting on the government, both
local and general, to give to donors OF the
land and to the people of the District at
large the benefits to be derived from placing
such land in condition that it may be OF
some service.
Resolutions Debated and Adopted.
In view of this condition the committee
offered the following resolution:
when necessary land is donated and
accepted for the extension of streets or for
the creation Of new streets to meet the
need of public convenience, steps should
be promptly taken for making such streets
available for public use, and in such cases
the Commissioners of the District of Co
lumbia are requested to urge upon Con-
gress the justice of promptly enacting such
legislation to place the public in the en-
joyment of benefits thus made possible"
Mr. Thomas Blagden offered an amend
ment to the resolution requesting the presi-
dent of the board to appoint a committee
of five members of the board to urge upon
the Commissioners and Congress the neces-
sity for more rapid opening of streets
where land has been donated
Mr.. Blagden said that four years ago he
had been requested to secure donation of
a strip Of land three miles long for street.
Practically all the land had been donated,
and yet there had been no improvement.
The tying up of this property had in some
cases caused great trouble.
The resolution as amended was adopted.
Mr.. John H. Magruder offered a resolu-
ton, which was referred to the committee
on streets and avenues. favoring action to
straighten F and G streets between 7th and
9th streets, by doing away with the pro-
jections into those streets made by the
steps Of the patent office building.
Commerce and Manufactures.
Mr.. Robert N. Harper, chairman Of the
committee on commerce and manufactures,
presented his report, as follows:
THE meetings of the committee have been
comparatively few since the last annual
meeting Of the board. but no little work
has been done by correspondence through
the office of the secretary Of the board, in
response to the numerous requests from
promoters. capitalists and manufacturers,
who desired either to change their location
in other Cities on account Of labor troubles,
etc, or anticipated advantages in this city
for increasing their capitalization by being
brought into personal contact with people
from all parts of the United States, or, we
may say of the world.
"It has been found most difficult to sat
isfactorily meet these demands and re-