The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-04
Snyder 5. Letter
Special to The Evening T,me..

special TO The Evening Times.
Washington, d. c., Sept. 4. =
So great has been the humidity in
So great has been the humidity in
the Washington atmosphere during the
present summer that building opera
tions have been greatly retarded. BY
this 1t Is not meant that the rainfall
has interfered with brick-laying and
stone-setting, but the bricks Of new
buildings have absolutely become
saturated with water to such a degree
that 1t will take months of dryweather
to evaporate the entained moisture.
Never before in the history of the
capitol city has there been SO many
large government buildings in course
OF erection at one and the same time.
The superintendent of the capitol Is
erecting two new Office blocks. one for
the senate. the other for the house of
representatives. The total cost of both
Will be in the neighborhood of five
million dollars. \ new building for
the national museum. to cost $3,00O.-
900 Is In course of constructions; the
new department OF agriculture build
Ing at an expense of $1,5O0.000 is
we'll underway. while a municipal
building at like cost is up to the
top of the second story. In addition
to this and the building for the d. A. r.
and the George Washington university
to say nothing of the magnificent
structure being built for the union
railway station and a dozen other
buildings of less Importance.
In all these structures hundreds of
thousands of bricks have already been
used and these bricks have become
so thoroughly permeated with mois-
ture that the superintendent of con-
structiOn assert that from three to
six months will be required to dry
them out sufficiently to enable them
to be plastered and the wood work in
stalled.
In the ninety days since the first of
June there have been less than four
teen when rain has not fallen when
during the total of two weeks of clear
weather. humidity has been SO great
that little or none of the surplus mois-
ture was evaporated. WashingtOn's
park, lawns and gardens were never
so beautiful in August as they were
this year, but the building operations
have had a severe setback and many
of the structures in course of con-
structiOn will not be finished. in con-
sequence. in time for the next inaugu-
ration.
Although the railroad rate bill went
into effect on Tuesday last the rail-
roads have not complied with its
terms. in some respects, and
probably they never will. The reason
is that it Is physical impossibility to
do so. The new law requires every
railroad to post each and every
station along the line complete copy
of passenger and freight tariffs to
every other point in the country. The
railroads have pointed out to the in
terstate commerce commission that to
comply with the letter of the law in
this Is absolutely impossible. Not one
of them has yet been able to prepare
such schedule and not one of them
has force of expert freight-rate
clerks to enable it to make a schedule.
Besides this it is agreed that there
is scarcely station in the country
with sufficient wall space to accom-
n1odate the table of rates when COM
pleted. 1T would be necessary to
have building at each railway station
as big as convention hail." said one
of the railroad men to the commission