Evening star., 1904-03-11
Maintain the Park Principle.

II is to be hoped that at tomorrow's hear
ing before the Senate District committee
on the Newlands bill to lay down build
ing line In the Mall the fact will be clearly
enunciated on behalf of the defenders OF
the park spaces that all further building
operations in that reservation are contrary
to the spirit of the latter-day development
of great cities. Parks are created for GER
tain purposes, one of which is not the ac-
cCmmodation OF buildings of any character.
They are for the benefit of the people, ply
sically and otherwise. They are designed
to relieve the lungs of the depressing eff
fects of city air. Their trees and grass and
plants are intended not only to please the
eye but to work correctively upon the at
mosphere. Thus park is natures remedial
agency in the midst of a congested popula-
ton.
When a certain space has been in this
way set apart for tree growing and for
turf making, in order that the peoples
lungs may be given good air and their
weary bodies rested, and their eyes de-
lighted, and their spirits generally stimu-
lated by wholesome things, every encroach-
ment for building purposes. in whatever de-
gree lessons its usefulness. There will be
fewer trees less grass, less resting space
When a city is growing the parks should
grow in number, if not in size. They should
never diminish in size. A public building
is a permanent thing, not to be easily re-
moved when the whim for economy passes.
Thus every building emplacement In the
Mall, beyond the present structures there
located. may be regarded as an absolute
loss to the city's system of regenerative
forces
But, it is urged by the advocates of park
sites for public buildings, the space taken
is insignificant compared with the space
remaining. That is true in point of mathe-
matics, but not with relation to the real
needs of the city. The space taken is lost
absolutely. Only a great disaster such as
the Baltimore fire, or some sudden wave of
awakened legislative conscience-hardly to
be hoped for in these business days-is
likely to correct the mistake of such en-
placements, to restore to the people the
lands thus taken. Furthermore, what as
surance is given that the ''just one more
building in the park plea may not be re-
peated every time the government needs
new structure? There is as yet no law
against it.
The lands proposed to be taken between
Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall will
not, when so acquired, serve as a substi-
tute for the lands in the Mall covered by
masonry. Some small sections of them will
have the semblance of park to be sure,
with some degree of landscape effects in
tbs emplacement of the buildings there
erected. if the best plans now in view are
executed faithfully. But this space will be
built up substantially, and in the end the
park system of the capital will not be in
creased through it's acquisition
If the Mall space must be utilized for one
or two more public buildings, why take any
additional space now, or pre-empt it now,
or designate it as the prospective future
site for the needed buildings? Let the
building lines for future public structures
be drawn the legal distance back of the
curbs of the two streets. Let that pro-
mbition apply to all future opera tions
Then with such an immediate permanent
preventive against further encroachments
upon the park space, the governments
building operations can properly proceed
with fair assurance not only of suitable
future emplacements but of the preserva-
uon of the parks from spoliatiou.