Catoctin clarion., 1910-03-10
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1910.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(rRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT

(FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, d. c., MARCH 5.
1t is now expected that one OF the
most important of bills, that relating
to the postal savings bank, will be-
come law during the present month.
There has been considerable opposi-
ton to the bill, mainly from Demo-
cratic and insurgent 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 under
stood that he voices the views OF the
President. 1t is expected that the
bill will add greatly to the strength
of the financial situation in this coun-
try, and the fact that it has long been
in use in conservative foreign coun-
tries will recommend it to rejecting
people in America.
1t is thought also that the bill fix
ing the last Thursday in April for
new inaugural day, will be adopted.
Changing the date for the Inaugural
ton of 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 majority vote OF three
fourths of the forty-siX states through
their legislatures, before it can be-
come law. The change in date is
of the greatest importance, for the
weather on March 4th is seldom
pleasant, and occasionally, as on the
Cay of President Grants second in
auguration and last 4th of March, it
is bitterly cold and tcmpestuous. The
National Capital is rapidly growing
in Improvements and Accommodations
f,r visitors and also in accessibility
to all parts of the country, and the
travel to the city for the quadrcnnial
inaugural event is steadily increasing
in volume. 1t becomes of import
ance, 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 im-
posing ceremonies and parades at
tcndant upon the inauguration OF the
Prcsidcntelcct.
Thirty or forty years years ago
there was serious consideration of
project to remove the national capital
farther west, or nearer the geograph-
i,al center. This project or dream
Las long since been abandoned. Moth
ing but IA disruption of the country
or revolutionary uphcaval can be
able to fix the capital elsewhere, and
in such an event there would be more
than one, and perhaps more than half
dozen capitals in the Disunited
States. Distance is no longer Il geo
graphical question, but question OF
time, and Washington is quite as ac
cessible by steam, electricity and gas
oline, 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.
The whole country by this time
must have heard of a somewhat uni
que undertaking, the building of a
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 APP
proval of the President, of Senator
Root and of many men distinguished
in national affairs. The proposal is
that it shall be built by the school
children of the United States, and al
ready the contributions, mostly in
dimes, amount to a respectable 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 conventions now coming
to Washington must rent halls. 1t
is proposed that this building shall
be so arranged that many conventions
if desired, may hold simultaneous
meetings in smaller annexed halls,
but all sufficiently large to accomo-
date large meetings.