The Washington herald., 1913-09-07

cause you are able to make city OF a
different kind, city of a novel type, a
city to which there will be nothing like
in this country and hardly anything like
in any other country.
| II was, we shall all agree, an act OF
wisdom on the part of the founders OF
| the republic when they determined to
plant its capital in a place where there
was not already city and where there
was no great likelihood that either COM
merce or industry conducted on a great
scale would arise. 1t is true that one of
the reasons assigned for choosing this
spot was that here was the head of navi-
CATION on the Potomac, and that the spot
would be a good commercial center for
| supplying the back country. Fortunately,
! that has not turned out to be SO. The
trade of Washington is not, and is not
Likely to be, a disturbing element
I 1t was wise to have the Capital City,
the seat Of the Legislative, executive, and
| judicial branches Of the government, re-
moved from the influences of an i'm
mense population. You are a great deal
better here for the purposes of conduct
ing your politics in a calm and deliberate,
| a thoughtful and a philOsophic spirit
| than if you were in New York, Philadel-
| phia, or Chicago. Your city. it is true,
/ is large and growing larger, but ii Is not
likely to be the home of any vast. ex-
citable, Industrial population such as is
| growing up in these other cities. 1t is
not receiving those crowds of immigrants
which are making New York, Chicago,
and. to a less extent. Cleyeland, Cincin-
natl, Milwaukee, and st. Louis almost
as much foreign as American.
Influence OF Paris.
! 7, tbasa circumstances NAV not the
| city Of Washington feel that its mission
| in life is to be the embodiment OF the
majesty and the statelness of the whole
| nation; to be, as was well said by the
| previous speaker, a capital Of capitals, a
capital of the whole nation, overtopplng
the capitals OF the several States as much
as the nation overtops those states, rep
resenting all that is finest in American
conception, all that is largest and most
! luminous in American thought, embody-
| ing the nations ideal of what the capital
| OF such a nation should be.
This il should accomplish partly by the
| stateliness and number and local disposl-
| ton OF its ediiices; but above all by their
| beauty. What one desires is that TINS
capital city should represent the highest
aspirations as TO external dignity ana
beauty tnat great people can form Tor
| that which is the center and locus OF
their national life, and there is in the
effort to do this here nothing to dispdrase
| the greatness of other American cities
which have much larger populations anu
larger pecuniary resources.
Paris is the most striking instance in
J the modern world of a capital that has
exercised a powerful influence on great
country. Some have thought its influence
was too great, for il used to be the nome
not only of art, but also OF revolution.
paris sometimes assumed for all France
| the right OF saying what form OF govern
ment France should have and who should
hold the reins of power; but notwith-
standing that, We must not ignore lh'
great tnings Paris has done for Franco.
| In polishing the language, in forming a
| brilliant type of social life, and IN beins
! the center Of the literary and artistic
culture which has been radiated out over
the whole country, Paris has done won
! ders
Tells of Greek Capital.
But an even more striking instance of
what a city can do is to be found IN the
/ ancient world; it is the instance oil
Athens. You will remember that wonder
full speech in which the greatest OIL
Athenian statesmen described what his
city did for Greece, not only Tor the
narrow territory Of Attca, Dut Tor the
whole of Greece. He showed how MS
city had made itself the finest embodi-
ment OF the Hellenic spirit. The highest
creative talent in literature and art was
| concentrated in that one spot. where
every intellectual influence played upon
and refined every other; and as Athens
represented the nnest embodiment OF an
| cient culture, so you would Ike Nash-
ington to represent your American lde4ls.
| You Would like il to give by its eXter'
nal spICndor a sort CT esthetic education
! TO the people. You would like lit to be q
model of other cities, q, model which the
capitals of the greater States may all
! seek to vie with, as most OF these States
| have already initiated, In the construc.
| ton of their State capitols, the Capitol
| at Washington.
What YOU want is TO have a city which
| every eae who comes from Maine, Texas.
| Florida. Arkansas, or Oregon can admire
! rs being something finer and more beaE'
| tiIul than he had ever dreamed OF be-
! fore; something which makes him even
more proud tC be an American; some
! thing which makes him wish to dinuse
| the same ideas of beauty through ms
| own State as he sees set form In visible
form mere.
Hn. Praise for Buildings.
I You wish to have not only DeautlLui
! buildings, but you want to have every
! thing else that makes the externals oil
| life attractive and CHARMING. You wish
| 10 have picture galleries You wish to
have museums. You have made ad-
vances in that direction already, for you
| lave an admirable and constantly grow
| ing National Museum. You have the be-
| ginnngs of a fine art gallery, and will
| doubtless add to 1t n national portrait
! gallery. You have admirable scientific
institutions OF many kinds, some OF which
will ultimately be housed in buildings
1 finer than they have yet obtained. Some
! of the administrative departments of the
| government, especially the scIenuHc ue-
partments, are organized on scale sucn
as can hardly be found elsewhere.
You have some splendid new buildings;
! for instance,> the new railway station,
with its two long and noble halls, that
| Yields only to the magnifcence Of the
new Pennsylvania station in New York.
You also have the Pan-American Build
| ing. That seems to me to be one Of the
most finished and graceful, one of the
most happily conceived and skiIlfully ex-
ecuted buildings that has been erected
anywhere within the last thirty or forty
years.
Let me add that there is one thing that
is still wanting. There ought to be a
great national American university in
Washington.
National University Needed.
Through no fault either of the profess
ors or of our friend who presides with
so much wise care over the George Wash
ington University here, that institution