The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-12
Struggles to Get District of
 Columbia on Firm Basis
STORY OF SHEPHERDS WORK
He Was a Plumber Who Put Into Execution the Ideas of President Washington, for Whom the
 City Was Named.
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKlN.

The District of Columbia, permanent seat of the government of the United | States of America, is the smallest polit- ieal division of the country. but it's wealth is greater than that of any one of twen- ! ty-five of the states and territories. Of the states whose wealth 1t exceeds, five are of the thirteen original states, name ly, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Dele ware North Carolina and South Caro- lima. The District has an area of but seventy square miles, yet 1t has a wealth of s1,O40,00O000. In the beginning little attention was paid to the needs of the district. Congress refused to appropriate money to erect public buildings, and the Commissioners were forced to borrow from the states, Virginia loanng sl2O,000 and Maryland $72,OO0. Congress again refusing to vote money. Maryland let the new national capital have another S1O0,- 0tJ but only on the personal security of | the commissioners. In those days the public credit was poor indeed.
 me Union was only an experiment, | and the constitution was an untried and | sorely mstrusted instrument. Few men 1 thought that the states would stick to, | gether. When MT. Jefferson was Presi- | dent he offered to give a fine building | square on Sixteenth street, which eX- | tends north from the front of the White | House, to any nation that would erect | legation building. Not of the eoun- tries of the world thought that the | United States would amount to enough to | justify the building of legation at l Washington, and no one accepted the 1 offer. Recently Germany paid $125,0OO for | site for an embassy building Had | Jefferson's offer been accepted by the nation, Sixteenth street the handsomest | of bouleyards. would have been today | the Avenue of the Ambassadors Now it | Is proposed to change the name to the | Avenue of the Presidents, because every 1 Prsldent since Adams has looked from 1 his windows out on it's beautiful sweep | to Boundary Hill.
 | The constitution gave Congress the power tto exercise exclusive legislation | in all cases, whatsoever over such dis trict fnot exceeding ten miles square), | as may. by cession of particular states | and tho acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United | States The rivalry between the North 1 and south, was marked in those early | days, and the question of the location of the federal district was debated with | heat and earnestness. The northern | states in Congress, led by Alexander Hamilton. favored the assumption of the | Revolutionary war debts of the states | by the federal government The south ern states opposed the assumption.
 Thomas Jefferson met Alexander Ham ilton on the street. Hamilton appealed | to Jefferson to aid him in passing the assumption bill Jefferson gave din ner. A. the dinner table 1t was agreed that sufficient number of southern con | gressman would vote to assume the state ] debts if a sufficient number of Hami | tons followers would agree to the loca- | tion or the federal district in the south. 1 The compromise was put through, and the Congress directed that a seat of government be selected on the banks of | the Potomac. The state of Maryland ! ceded seventy square miles and Virginia gave thirty square miles. In 1sf6 the | portion taken from Virginia, involving the town of Alexandria, was retroceded to the state. and the District of Co., lumbia was reduced to it's present area,
 George Washington selected the site of the District at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia. or Eastern Branch, rivers. The father of his coun- try was the founder of it's capital. in a peculiar and particular sense. He se- lected the site, he directed the acquisj- tion of the land, he formulated the plans for the federal city, which was to bear his name, and with the aid and advice of Jefferson, directed the work of the engineers At first the city of Washing ton and the towns of Alexandria and Georgetown were given separate munich pal governments, and each elected it's own officers. The district outside the in- corporated towns had no government ex- cept that of the levy court which as sessed and collected taxes. mistaken impression prevails all over the country that the United States pays all the ex- penses of the district. On the contrary the government paid nothing at all until 1878, when the present arrangement of alf-and-half taxation was arranged be- tween the district and the federal gov | ernment.
 In 1871 Congress changed the form of government and created the territory of Columbia, with a government based on the plan adopted for the other territories
 The governor was appointed by the Presi- dent. the council and house of delegates ! composing the legislature were elected by the people, and the territory had del- cgate in Congress who could speak, but not vote. The new government under took the improvement of the city on a comprehensive plan.
 Alexander R. Shepherd a plumber by trade, first a member of the board of pub lie works and then governor, was the moving spirit in the new government if Washington was the founder. Shepherd was the builder of the Capital City. He found II struggling town without pub lie improvements. and left 1t we'll on its way to be made the most beautiful city | of the world. Where the L'Enfant plan had been departed from. he restored it.
 He graded the streets and paved them. He planted 5000 trees. He narrowed the streets and established the parking which is one of the most attractive feat ures of the city today. citizen going away from home for s few weeks would return to find his house perched high on red clay bank many feet above the level of Shepherds new street.
 Disregarding the protests of citizens, he tore away an unsightly market house and made park of the space. He filled up the miasmatic open sewer that had been the canal of earlier days, and turned the water of Tiber creek into a great sewer In less than two years he paved forty miles of street with wood and fifty miles with gravel. He laid thirteen miles of sewers and fourteen miles of water mains The wooden pavements were d failure, and had to be replaced with as- phalt but once there was a pavement the people would not consent to return to the mud lanes which had disgraced the capital for so many years
 More than that, although the people au- thorized a bond issue of only S4,0o000O. he spent s2s, 100000 for improvements, The Congress was forced to give money to keep tho national reservations up to the new standard and the federal appropria- ton of 5000 for the district made in 1870 was increased to s400O.000 in 1873. The 1 sales of real estate, which were AOO.- GOO in 1s79 were tripled three years later. | Rut the sweepinp character of the public