Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1910-03-12
WASHINGTON LETTER

WASHINGTON. D. c., March 9th, 1910.
IT is now expected that one Of the most
important OF bills, that relating to
the postal saving banks, will become a
law during the present month. There
has been considerable opposition to the
bill, mainly from Democratic IND insur-
gent sources. Many amendments have
been presented and some of them accepted.
Senator Root of New York, in advocacy
of the bill, has made the most forcible
speech of his Senatorial career 1t is un.
derstood that he voices the views of the
President. 1t is expected that the bill will
add greatly to the strength of the finan-
cial situation in this country, and the fact
that ii has long been in use in conserva-
tive foreign countries will llrecommend tito
refecting people in America.
~
It is thought also that the bill fixing
the last Thursday in April for new
inaugural day, will be adopted. Chang
ing the date for the Inauguration Of a
president from the 4th of March to the
later date involves an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, and will
therefore have to receive a tWo-thirds
vote OF Congress and a majority vote Of
three-fourths of the forty-six states
through their legislatures, before it can
become law. The change in date is of
the greatest importance, for the weather
on March 4this seldom pleasant, and
occasionally, as oil. the day of President
Grants second Inauguration and last 4th
of March, it is bitterly cold and tempest.
uous. The National Capital is rapidly 4
growing in improvements and accommoda-
tions for visitors snd also in accessibility
to all parts of the country, and the travel
TO the city for the quadrennial inaugural
event is steadily increasing in volume.
1t becomes of importance, not SO much to
the citizens of Washington, most of whom
have at least bed and board, but to the
two or three hundred thousand visitors
who come here to witness the imposing
ceremonies and parades attendant upon
the Inauguration of the President-elect.
~
Thirty or forty years ago there was
serious consideration of project to re.
move the national capital farther west,
or nearer the geographical center. This
project or dream has long since been |
abandoned. Nothing but disruption of |
the country or revolutionary upheaval
can be able to fix the capital elsewhere,
and in such an event there would be more |
than one, and perhaps more than half a
dozen capitals in the Disunited States. |
Distance is no longer geographical ques-
ton, but question of time, and Wash
ington is quite as accessible by steam,
electricity aud gasoline, to say nothing OF
the areoplane, as any other locality in the /
Union. The capital is becoming more |
and more firmly rooted by millions spent |
for marble and granite offices in which |
the stupendous work of the nation is
transacted. A bill is now under consid- |
Grafton in the Senate for appropriation |
of twenty thousand dollars to be raised |
by 2per cent government bonds forthe erec-
ton OF needed government Offices. At pre- |
sent the government is paying from ten to
seventeen per cent. annually on the value |
of inferior rented buildings necessary for |
desk and file rooms for the thousands of |
government employees who make their |
homes here. That 30 pay ten or seven
teen per cent. for poor building when
the government can get the better build
ing for 2 per cent. is not business like,
may be demonstrated to child.
~
The whole country by this time must
have heard of somewhat unique under
taking, the building of memorial temple
in Washington in honor of the Father of |
his Country. The undertaking is unique
only in the fact that woman, Mrs. Dim.
mick, is most active in urging it, that it
has the enthusiastic and active approval
of the President, of Senator Root and of
many men distinguished in national af.
fairs. The proposal is that it shall be
built by the school cbildren of the United
States, and already The contributions,
mostly in dimes, amount to very re-
spectacle sum in dollars. The building is
TO take the form OF an immense assembly
hall to which the many conventions now
making Washington the center for their
deliberations shall find free access. The
now coming TO Washington
must rent halls. 1t is proposed that this
building sball be so arranged that many
if desired, may hold stimuli
meetings in smaller annexed balls, |
but all sufficiently large to accommodate
large meetings,