Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-28
Mr.. Bryce on Capital Making.

1t IS source of constant surprise and
qualification to the American people that
James Bryce. who is about TO retire from
duty as ambassador to the United
States. should so accurately and sympa-
thetically grasp the fundamental ideas of
the western republic and so appreci-
atively understand its true character and
the purposes which had animated its
makers and it's developers. And it is
particularly gratifying to the people of
Washington that Mr.. Bryce should so
clearly conceive the ideal of the National
Capital and should so eloquently express
II in terms of its possibilities and the
duty which rests upon those responsible
for its maintenance.
Last night before a meeting of the COM
mittee Of one hundred of the Chamber
of Commerce Ambassador Bryce gave ex-
preston to his ideal of Washington the
capital. No enthusiastic American in
spired to the execution of George Wash
ingtons conception of the federal city
could have more wildly described or
more convincingly urged the execution
of plans making to this end. Mr.. Bryce
demonstrated in the course of this ad-
dress that he has studied Washington.
not as a detached and single American
community. but as the seat of the gov
eminent of the United States, as city
made for the purpose of accommodating
the federal organization. a city free from
the usual trammels of commercialism and
peculiarly situated to work out an I'M
surpassed result in beauty, efficiency.
comfort and impressiveness.
Mr.. Bryce has seen here unaccepted
opportunities, and he now points them
out in vigorous language that should i'm
press legislators as the Judgment Of an
entirely unprejudiced observer, whose in
terest is solely that Of an appreciation of
the beautiful and student OF govern
ment. Mr.. Bryce can be moved by no
personal considerations to say the things
that he has said. He is under no obli-
cations of mare courtesy to pay COM
pliment to the city or to point to its re-
markable opportunities. He is about to
leave this post, where he has served with
peculiar fitness and efficiency. and where
he has been made to feel at home. and
he has now taken the occasion offered
him by this meeting to say that which
could be said SO effectively by no
other ardent believer in the American
duty to make the capital OF this republic
a city surprising an others In the world
in attractiveness.
1t is particularly important to note the
clear vision with which Mr.. Bryce sees
the physical situation OF Washington.
Perhaps few Washingtonians recognize
the peculiarly suitable and richly poten-
tial environment of the city. We have
perhaps grown so accustomed to the hills,
the woods, the watercourses. that domi-
nate the immediate situation that we do
not recognize their true values. Some
have seen with chagrin the despoilment
of this environment here and there, and
have struggled against 1t. In some re-
spects much has been made of the oppor-
tunities for attractive capital-making
But the work is not finished. and Mr.
Bryce points out without hesitation the
things that remain to be done and the
things that have been neglected. as well
as the duty that rests upon Congress to
make this city in which, as he says,
every American citizen will be proud, so
that Washington will become a capital
of capitals, ito overtop the capitals of
the states as the nation overtops the
states until "all that is finest in Amer
lean conception. all that is largest and
brightest in American thought, is repre-
scented here in the capital of a great
nation"