Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-04
PLANS OF COMMISSION
CHARLES MOORE SPEAKS BEFORE
SOCIETY OF FINE ARTS
Makes Strong Plea for Preservation of
Rock Creek vailey-Progress
Of the Work.

Millan's secretary and having served as the
secretary of the park commission Mr..
Moore was not only thoroughly conversant
with his subject but deeply in sympathy
with the work and able to tell Of its be-
ginning and its progress. The impression
that the report had meant finality he de-
clared erroneous. and the difficulties which
continually threaten accomplishment the
speaker set forth.
After telling of the adoption of L'Enfant's
plan and of the additional advantage de-
rived by taking into consideration existing
conditions and needs. Mr.. Moore said that
TOUR years ago the city was on the eve of
that enormous expansion in the way of
building IN the midst of which we find our
selves today.
Not only the government ITSELF" he
aoded, but the railroads, the educational
institutions, the patriotic societies and the
banks and trust companies all have felt
called upon to build for themselves habita-
tons planned and carried out on a scale so
elaborate and costly that while Washington
and JEFFERSON would have approved most
heartily Andrew Jackson would have
pointed to such structures as signs of ma
tional decay.
Beginning to Awake.
Indeed, We as people are just beginning
to awake to the fact so happily expressed
by President Eliot of Harvard when he
wrote to the American Institute of Archi-
tects that when a country gets rich and
strong. industrially and commercially. the
first way in which its wealth should be
visibly expressed is in architecture Noble
buildings should rise for public and pri-
Vate uses, and rouno these buildings parks
and gardens should be created A republic
should not remain behind monarchies and
empires in its artistic development On the
contrary, 1t should gain much from the fact
that the great mass of the people feel a
strong sense of ownership in the republics
Th.
tutions in this respect is the danger lest the
public wealth should increase earlier or
faster than the public tastes and the public
confidence in real artists
The great danger to the WASHINGTON
plans Is lest public taste and the public
confidence shall fail to stand behind them
until they shall be carried out according
to their spirit. and, as firmly believe ac
cording to their very letter 1t is such a
calamity which overlook the l. Enfant plans
When the generation of Washington and
OF the younger Adams had passed away,
and the people were led to believe that
democracy meant mediocrity
rev Know or can know the difficult pro-
tracted and disagreeable work that has
oeen zone tc Keep the entire work of the
commission from shipwreck almost before
the voyage began. Fewer still appreciate
how very much remains to be done and
now few are the men who can be depended
upon TO DO 1t. Since Senator McMI,lan's
day no one in Congress has found the time
and the inclination for systematic pains
taking. aggressive and unremittins work
others nave met the problems as they
came up, but 1t is quite within bounds to
say that until some man or men in the
capitol make the affairs of the District of
Columbia their first concern progress will
at least be fitful and uncertain.
At Other End Of Avenue.
AT the other end of the avenue quite diff
ferent conditions prevail. The new plans
were received with thorough appreciation
at the White House and by the present
secretaries of State and War There is no
difficulty in dealing with men who are
really and broadly great. The same
acumen which enables them to handle other
questions also enables them to grasp
great plan for a city and to exert their
energies to carry 1t out. But cabinet officers
are exceedingly busy men, and while they
can step in at a crisis to prevent a catas-
trophe. they cannot be expected to watch
the plan lest cataStrophies happen. Several
times the persons mentioned have come to
the rescue at certain crises When the boat
ran aground. they waded in and lifted it
over the shoal If there had been compe-
tent pilots there would have been no
grounding.
I'm past generations it was convenient
to thank heaven for all good things and
to blame Satan for all bad ones. This
SCIENTIFIC generation has abolished Satan
without at all getting rid of his works
Certain forces not necessarily diabolic are
arrayed against the plans. The first of
these is ignorance of the general scheme
and of it's details, the second is timiditv
on the part of those who have to deal with
the matters embraced in the PLAN a third
is self-interest on the part of those who
would sacrifice a great conception in order
to obtain personal temporary ADVANTAGE
the fourth is the lack of strong we'll
organized and effective local support ex-
erted for the plans and for every part of
them.
Project for Rock Creek.
'The primary object of this meeting is
to discuss project for Rock creek, but
this particular project is but link in the
general chain. Beginning at the Capitol
and its group of legislative buildings now
most happily begun, we come first to the
d1gnihed and adequate approach to the
Capitol from the west. This space the
Botanical Garden has mercifully preserved
for the fulness of these times Here is to
be placed the Grant memorial; and let me
say to you that amount of time and
thought and patience has been expended on
the proper treatment of this square out of
all proportion to the subject and all be-
cause there is no competent authority to
settle disputed points.
THE location of the National Museum
building on the new axis was readily &C
complished because both the architects and
the builder were thoroughly acquainted
with the general plan and were in hearty
accord with it. But when it came to the
hostile forces that existed both in Congress
and in administrative circles were deter
mined that the park commission plans
should there meet their Waterloo 1t was
at this juncture that the power of the ex-
ecutive was exerted to prevent such a blum
der.
There is looming up in the near future
still another critical conflict. The location
and character of the Lincoln memorial
must soon be determined. The park COM
mission after giving great deal Of thought
to this matter unanimously decided that
historic fitness decreed that Lincoln should
have place with Washington on the axis
of the Capitol. This point having been
decided it followed of necessity that the
proper site for the Lincoln memorial was
at the extreme western end of the great
kite-shaped composition in which the whole
scheme depends for it's grandeur and i'm
pressiveness. This site is commended also
by the fact that the proposed location will
associate the memory of Lincoln with the
memory of those legions of soldiers to
whom he was indeed Father Abraham. the
soldiers whose never-again- to- be- broken
ranks are now drawn up on the slopes of
Arlington.
As to Petty Ambitions.
with the larger minds this reasoning
prevailed; and If we could be sure that the