The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-27
HOUSES AND PATRONAGE
By SAvOYARD

Champ Clark Is reported as favoring the proposal of Senator Hepburn to appropri- ate a large sum with which to acquire title to all the real estate in Washing ton between the capitol grounds and Eff teenth street, and between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall. At present the gov rnment owns great deal of land in this locality, and it is very well understood that it is soon to own all of 1t, and the intention is that for a solid mile Penn sylvania avenue shall have grand public buildings to ornament its south side.
 John Wanamaker set this scheme on foot when he was Postmaster General in Ben Harrison's cabinet, and Congress thought him visionary and extravagant, though the land could then have been had for one-half what 1t will fetch now. At that time the treasury was grooming with surplus and the G. O. P. had to waste. or providently expend it, or re- duce the tariff. Instead of buying this land, which would have been a fortunate speculation, Congress passed the pauper pension bill, and that did the work for the surplus. Then the G. O. P. went through its great stunt of revising the tar if "up," and we had the Mckinley tariff of 1890, which sought to seduce the south by means of tariff duties on her raw ma terials.
 And even now, when real estate in this town has greatly increased in market value, 1t would be an excellent trade to buy this land, for there is nothing more certain than that it is destined to be- come public property, and covered with public structures. For years and years the government has been robbed by land lords in the District of Columbia. It is an easy and certain way to get rich in this town to build house and rent it to the United States, which is rapidly be- coming a government by commission The department of commerce and labor is in a rented house. owned by an opulent cit izen, who collects every five years enough in rents to pay for the structure. The interstate commerce commission, the civil service commission, the new commerce court and other like annexes of the gov ernment are in rented quarters, and so is the department of justice.
 When I first came here, now 31 years ago, the pension OIIlce IOuIlu TOOll eliouSl in which to transact all it's business on the second floor of dry goods store at Twelfth street and Pennsylvania avenue. Ten years later the pension office required the largest department building in Wash ington. see it daily, and always recall the debate between Calhoun and Webster in the Senate when the bill to establish the interior department was considered, and it is curious fact that on that occasion Jefferson Davis, then senator from Mis- sissippi, supported Webster in speech equal to that of Webster himself. But to read the speech of Calhoun in that de- bate is to read prophecy. He spoke like a sage, Webster like a politician. Cal houn was defeated in his opposition, and the interior department was carved out of the treasury department, and by 1892 the pension office, a mere bureau of the in- terior department, cost the people annual ly more than three times the total yearly expenditures of the government when the interior department was formed.
 And in addition two other departments