The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-04-15
LAY CORNERSTONE
Of new BUILDING.
Continued from First Page

House Of Representatives entered tho
Presidents box. Speaker Cannon intro
d,ced the President briefly
It seemed a minute or more before the
President was permitted to speak. He
was In splendid voice. and throughout
the address hearty and long continued APP
plause punctuated the telling periods.
The Building.
Tho building dedicated to-day will be
ella sso In design. 1t fronts on B street,
47G feet; on New Jersey avenue 40 feet;
OH First street 452 feet. and on C. street
street a4s feet, making a total frontage
OF mile. The building will contain 40
rooms for members, together with q
multiplicity OF caucus rooms, audience
rooms, postoftIce, restaurant and other
features Of n modern office building.
The long unbroken cornice lines Of tho
Office building. leading UP naturally to
the capitol building and from thence to
the great dome. the browning and domt-
mating unit In the group Of building now
on Capitol plaza, are calculated by It's
designers TO conduce to. the desired effect
OF making the capitol building more i'm
posing and effective.
The address Of President Roosevelt,
who spoke on THE Muck-Rake Brigade,
was IN part as follows:
over a century ago Washington laid the
corner stone OF the capitol In what was
then little more than II tract Of wooded
wilderness here beside the Potomac. We
now find It necessary to provide by great
additional buildings for the business of
the government. This growth In the need
for the housing OF tho government is but a
proof and example OF the way In which
the nation has grown and the sphere OF
action Of the national government has
grown. We now administer the affairs
OF nation In which the extraordinary
growth of,populntion has been outstrlpped
by the growth OF wealth and the growth
in complex interests. Tho material prob
lens that face us to-day are not such as
they were In WashinGton's time, but the
underlying facts Of human nature are the
same now as they were then. Under al
tered external form we war with the
same tendencies toward evil that were ev-
ident in WashIngton's time. and are help
ed by the same tendehcies for good. It
is about some Of these that wish TO say,
q word to-day,
Men With Muck-Rake.
In Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress you may
recall tho description OF tho Man with the
N1uok-rake, the man who could look no
way but downward, with the nluck-rake
in his hand; who was offered celestial
crown for his muck-rake, but who would
neither look UP nor regard the crown he
WAS offered. but continued to rake to
himself the NTH Of the floor,
There are, in the body polite. economic
and social, many and grave evils, and
there Is urgent necessity for the sternest
war upon them. There should be relent-
less exposure OF and attack upon every
evil man, whether politician or business
man, every evil practice, whether IN poll
tics. in business, or In social life. hail
as a benefnctor every writer or speaker,
every man who. on tho platform. or In
book. magazine, or newspaper, with mer-
ciess severity makes such attack, pro-
vided always that he In his turn remem-
bers that tho attack is OF use only If It Is
absolutely truthful. The liar Is no whit
better than the thief, and IL his mendaci-
lty takes tho form OF SANDER, he may be-
worse than most thieves, II puts pre-
MUM upon knavery untruthfully to at
tack an honest man, or even With hyster-
lcal exaggeration to ASA d bad man
with untrnth An epidemic OF indiscrimi-
nate assault upon character does not good.
but very great harm. The soul OF every
,scoundrel is gladdened whenever an hon
est man Is assailed, or even when q scoun-
drel Is untruthfully nssaied,
Will Result in Calamity.
The effort TO make financial or po-
litical profit out of the destruction OF
character can only result In public ca
lamity. Gross and reckless assaults on
character, whether on the stump or In
newspaper, magazine, or book, create a
morbid and vicious public sentiment, and
at the same time act as a profound de-
lernlent to able men of normal sensitiyer
ness and tend to prevent them from en-
tering the public service at any price. As
an instance In point, ! may mention that
one serious difficulty encountered In get
ting the right type Of men to dig the Pam
anna canal Is the certainty that they Will
be exposed, both without, and; ] am sor-