Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-04
THE PARKS KILLED
AMENDMENT TO SUNDRY CIVIL
BILL DISAGREED TO.

The sundry civil appropriation bill has
been finally acted upon by Congress, and
the provisions for additional parks and for
Il site for public buildings between 18th and
18th streets, Pennsylvania avenue and the
Mall have been eliminated. The conferees
on the part of the Senate held for long
time to these provisions, but after the
House last evening voted against them the
House conferees were so strengthened in
their opposition that it impossible to
do anything more The result was that the
Senate conferees gave way and the Senate
did likewise, all of these amendments hav-
ing been put on the bin by the Senate. In
the House there was considerable discus
sion on the amendment for parks:
Mr.. Barthodt, as chairman of the COM
mittee on buildings and grounds supported
the amendment, which had been thoroughly
looked into. and said bin to the same
effect was pending before the House. He
thought some of the land in question should
have been bought ten years ago. He said
the prices in the bill were very much re-
duced from the figures originally placed on
the tracts involved, when the matter was
considered by the commission on parks au-
thorized by Congress few years ago Mr.
Barthoidt said these parks were needed by
the New Washington which had grown up
Old Washington did not need them so much
Mr. Bankhead made an appeal for the
amedinent He said the park commission
had inspected every plot proposed for pur-
chase. The recommendation to buy was
unanimous, as the price is lower now than
it Will be in the future.
Mr. Conner of Iowa opposed the amend
ment. He thought that land could be
bought much cheaper by waiting More
than that, ne said the people are not clam
oring FOR parks, and for that reason if for
no other, he was opposed to the idea of
buying the tracts.
MIR. Sims OF Tennessee said that Wash
nston already has more parks than any
other city in the country a statement that
MIR. Bowers of Mississippi disputed by call
ing attention to Richmond Louisville, Los
Angeles and Columbus. whose park areas
are greater than Washingtons. Mr.. Sims
objected to having his constituents saddled
with half OF the cost of parks in Washing
ton. Speaking of the people of the Dis
trict Mr.. Sims said: They don't need
these parks. They only work from to ~
Mr. Mudd urged that there is need of the
Anacostia park and that there is large
population far out beyond the town that
would use il.
Mr.. Tawney called attention to the fact
that the Senate had knocked out a House
clause in regard to miscellaneous supplies
in order to put the park item in. and he
objected. The House would, if it agreed to
the park item, not only get something 1t
did not want. but lose something it
garded as essential. He insisted that it
was not competent to adopt the park prop
osition as 1T came from the Senate. TAX
ing il out of the bill did not prevent con-
sidering IL on its merits in the bill pending
from the committee buildings and
grounds However. Mr.. Tawney said that
he thought that the project would be killed
effectually for this session by the House
action ON the Senate amendment.