The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-03
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
 MAY BE DELAYED Iaz=saa-.' Eighty Craftsmen Gut from
 Pay Rolls NO MONEY IN SIGHT
Supervising Architect Claims It Will Mean Much Delay on Buildings Already Pro-
 vided for
BY WALTER HARPER


 Eighty men in the drafting department of the. office of the supervising architect of
 the United States treasury department
 were dropped from the pay rolls of that
 department Saturday. Fifteen of the 80
 men were provided with other positions in
 other departments, but 65 are dropped. 1 This curtailment of force and expense which amounts to about $25o,O00 a year,
 was made necessary by the refusal of the Congress at the special session to provide
 an emergency appropriation asked for by this department.
 The appropriations committee of the
 House of which Congressman Fitzgerald of New York is chairman included this cut in their general economy plan. l It is contended by Supervising Archi- l test James K. Taylor that this curtail-
 rent of force will result in several years 1 delay in the preparations of plans for postoffices and other federal buildings all ready provided for in congressional appro-
 priations. In the early part of last Au-
 gust MT. Taylor appeared before the com-
 mittee on public buildings and grounds and explained that his department would
 need at least an additional $200,000 to carry | his work on through the present fiscal year. He explained that his office was
 behind with the drawing of plans for pub.
 lie buildings about two years, that if the
 work was curta;led some of the buildings I already provided for could not be drafted
 for six or seven years. Before the cur | taiimert of the office force the monthly l lCa Da Cit af he off WI a "
 ings. After the curtailment only about six drawings can be gotten out 1t is
 claimed.
 ] TT. Taylor told the committee that draw
 ing for 339 public buildings would be de- layed unless the appropriation for his of-
 fee was increased as desired.
 The democrats and especially those
 members of MT. Fitzgerald's committee I opposed the appropriation and refused to
 recommend 1t on the ground that the
 drawing of individual plans for all public l buildings is unnecessary. It is contended that most of the public buildings of each
 class are built practically on the same 1 plan, and it seems useless to put the peo- pie to the ever increasing expense of
 drawing plans for each individual build ing.
 For instance, 1t is contended that all
 buildings of the same nature costing the
 same amount of money may be built from
 the same drawing. For instance: The postoffice buildings at Greenville. Ill.,, and l Greenwood, Miss, cost in round numbers
 $47.0O0 each. It is more than probable
 that there is practically no difference in
 tEe plans of these two buildings, yet the
 individual plans cost the government al-
 most 5000 or per cent of their cost. The two committees of the House hav- 1 ing in charge the matter of buildings and | appropriations believe that the office of
 the supervising architect can be run much
 more economically than heretofore, but
 the officials of the treasury department
 will contend that the curtaiment will be I disastrous and will ask the next session of Congress for an increased appropra- l ticn. IL individual plans are necessary and the office will be delayed in it's work as n- | dioated by MT. Taylor, there are three l buildings in Alabama that will be affected.
 They are as follows Cullman, s55,oo0; Florence, $120,000 and Mobile, $350,000. According to MT. Taylors statement be-
 
 be about eight months before the plans | for the Culnan building can be started, l more than F months to the Mobile build | ing and six seven years before work l can begin on the plans for the Florence l building. It has not yet been classified l for the reason that right to the site has I not yet been vested in the government. When seen in his office, Supervising Architect Taylor declined to discuss the 1 situation or give any figures on the prob | ale delay in the drawing of plans. l A large force of painters, carpenters, decorators and other artisans is busy put
 ting the capitol and the two congressional l office buildings in shape for the beginning | of the next session. When the senators and congressman get l back to Washington in November and l December they will find everything in l fresh, fine order. Most of the rooms of | the members have been freshly painted | and the furniture overhauled. Some | changes and extensions have been made | to meet the demands of committees and 1 their office force. Judge Henry D. Clay ton, chairman of the judiciary committee | Of the House, will have three large rooms | instead of two. The committee room in | the northeast corner of the building on the third floor is one of the best located | in the buldin. It is large, airy, well light l in the building. It is large, airy, well light | the next session. The adjoining rooms l are for the use of the clerk of the com
 mittee and for Judge Clayton himself Jasper Wilson, son of Secretary James Wilson of the United States department of agriculture, who has been private secre- | tary to his father for the past II years, has resigned He was a close personal friend of Solicitor McCabe. the arch
 eremy of pr. Harvey w. Wiley. This resignation following as closely as it was
 convenient the decision of President Taft exhonorating the doctor. is believed here
 to presage the general movement of the
 Wilson's back to the farm.
 You may expect to get up tomorrow morning and find that Red mountain has transferred it's habitation from the south ern border of Birmingham to Pinson val ley and that the Warrior river has changed places with Mud creek q believe that Is the name of the sluggish stream that runs through Elyton and out behind Redwood Field).
 Why should you expect to find such an impossible condition?
 The Washington Star has changed it's tactics on the tariff board l am con ferrlng capital letters on the title of this
 greatly advertised institution in a spirit
 of respect; the feeling of kindness that ouses us to withhold words of criticism in the presence of the dead.
 President Taft and the Star in the same breath have attached wonderful virtues to this same tariff board. Sometimes the Star 1 has beat MT. Taft to it and sometimes