Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-04
The Governments Rents.

During the past fiscal year the United
States paid out the sum of $275. 900 In rents
for privately owned buildings in this Dis
trict, for use by bureaus Of the public serv-
ice. This sum represents at 21a per cent,
capital of 3l1,OoO,eoo. or more than
enough. under the terms OF the Hepburn
bill. to buy for the government all the land
lying between the Mall and Pennsylvania
avenue.
In another part of The Star today ap-
pears a detailed list of these rentals. with
the use to which they are put. This list
proves that not only Is the government put
TO very heavy annual expense, but that
Che public business is today being transact
I'd in a most unbusinesslike manner. with
scarcely a department housed under sim
gle roof, and with some departments dis
tributcd between half dozen or more
separated structures. Good administration
cannot we'll result from such a system.
The growth of the governments rent
charge is the result of a long series Of neg
iects In respect to one of the most urgent
needs of the public service. Though plain
~ warned by the development and multi
pication IA bureaus, provision has not been
made for even the decent accommodation
of the clerks in come of the offices. Build
ings have been overcrowded for years, and
Congress has been appealed to for relief.
but seldom successfully. Appropriations
for sites and structures have usually been
granted. when at all, from five to ten years
after the urgent need has developed. Make
shift authorization to rent has been granted
readily. to be rure, even too readily In
many cases for the best interests OF the
public service. / has seemed an easy way
out of a difficulty to appropriate a few
thousand dollars to secure an annex. or to
house a new bureau, or to accommodate
an overflow. certainly much easier than
the slower process of deciding upon site
and persuading economical members of
Congress to agree to allot some hundreds
of thousands for real estate or buildings.
Thus the government has been living in a
large measure from hand to mouth for
years in respect to Its building require
ments. until Its rentals roll up to $275.OO0 a
year The accommodations 1t gets In re-
turn for this sum vary from the best class
to the poorest. Some of the rented quar-
tiers are wholly unsuted to public uses,
while others have been planned and built
especially for government occupancy. But
whether good or bad from the physical
point of view. the economical aspect of such
ment has in the last quarter of a century
spent enough in rentals to buy all the land
between the avenue and the Mall and to
erect thereon enough buildings to house
every one of the public offices now occupy
ing private quarters.
The passage of the Hepburn bill would be
a long step toward the solution of this rent
problem. 1t would ensure the speedy ac-
QUESTION of all the building sites the govern
ment now requires or is likely to need for
years to come. 1t would permanently solve
the problem of choosing building spaces. 1t
would eliminate the rival advocates of real
estate propositions. This would mean that
whenever a department was newly created.
or required more room, put forth new
bureau branches, it could be with compare
tive promptness accommodated by the APP
preparation of the funds for building
Meanwhile the government could be receiv-
ing rents for the unused portions of this
space. The point to be chiefly borne in
mind in this connection is that the rent
roll has grown to its present size mainly
because of the bubbles and troubles over
sites in the past.
Without regard to the capitals need.
without reference to the justice of the prop
foreclose the mortgage it has been mora ,ly
holding for years as a cloud upon all the
property between the avenue and the Mall
the plan embodied in the Hepburn bin is
good business for Uncle Sam.