The Washington times., 1909-04-29
WERE THE L'ENFANT CERE-
MONIES AN EMPTY FORM9

Tardily the nation and its Capital
have come to honor L'Enfant. The ex-
cellenee of his plan has stood the most
severe test-that of neglect and disre-
gard. 1t has received the highest com
pliment-a committee of foremost topo-
graphical engineers, designers, and
architects, after full examination into
the plans of all other noteworthy cities,
having given as their best judgment
that the future of Washington lay in
the fulfillment and extension of Major
L'Enfant's plan and not in alteration
OF it. We have come at last to realize
this--snd the recognition of it yester-
day by state and people was none too
formal or elaborate.
But the ceremonies in the dome of
the Capitol and at Arlington were
empty if they do not point 20 further
action. The L'Enfant plans needed
courage and the execution of them
needed energy. Alexander R Shepherd
supplied the latter. But no one man,
no one generation, can supply all that
is required of the former.
Courage would have prevented the
erection of the Treasury Building across
Pennsylvania avenue. Courage would
have averted the triplet horrors of the
Postoffice building, the H Street An
mex to the Government Printing Office,
and the Pension building. Courage
would long ago have led to the pur-
chase of the ground between Pennsyl-
vania avenue and the Mall. Courage
would have made it impossible for sue
ceeding commissions to award prices
for ground purchased by the National
Government which could never have
been obtained, by so per cent. at pri-
vate sale.
What L'Enfant did for the Capital,
what Shepherd did, the park commits
sion has furthered. But if che beauty
of the L'Enfant plan is to be realized
it remains for us to continue the work
of the park commissioning improve
the parks in the old city; to extend
that system of parks beyond the bound
ary and the Eastern Branch as the
Board OF Trade has recommended and
the park commission provided; TO To-
cate memorials of every sort where
each will contribute to the effect of
the whole; to see that new government
al buildings are designed and located
according to a well-determined plan;
to establish such restrictions on private
building as viii contribute to general
esthetic result.
And this is not all. The L'Enfant
plan, the Shepherd construction, the
park commission plans are alike aes-
thetic primarily. There has been gross
neglect of every other consideration
Alleys have swarmed with segregated
life Slums have been allowed to
tester in the very shadow of our finest
residence and within half a minutes
walk of our broadest parks. Washing
ton, once the City of Magnificent Dis
tanees. has come TO suffer from con-
gestion.
The way out has been found by other
cities. Not by American municipalities
so much as by cities we are prone to
think relics of an older day or still
struggling with the wilderness, by Ber-
lin and Melbourne. London and Rio.
An exhibit of what these other urban
communities have done is shortly to
be disclosed TO Washington. Let us take
inspiration from what L'Enfant and
Shepherd accomplished, adopt methods
from what these other cities have ac-
complished, and in the ceremony of
Yesterday and that of next Monday, re
solve 20 do our full part in a work of
such immediate Importance to our
selves.