The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06

ham, England, and the ballet of the flo'
in a very uninteresting country. 1t Is
true that close by there are some
charmisg bits of country, but nature
has done nothing for London, eonlpar-
able to what she has done for Washing
ton. The Thames, although it receives
a great deal Of water from the tides.
-is- not river comparable for beauty to
your own Potomac.
Old World Hallowed Spots
yet all these cities | have named,
have something that you have not and
cannot have This applies especially to
London and Paris. They are ancient
cities They have still, in spite of the
destroying nature of modern improve
nents, a certain number of picturesque
buildings, crooked old streets and spots
hallowed by the names of famous men
who were born there or who died there
or did their work there
You are at the beginning of your
history and you are accumulating his
toric memories which in four or five
centuries Will become as rich as those
of European cities.
But in every other respect you have
great advantages in Washington which
these European cities do not possess.
If you want to make a large improve
ment in London or Paris 1t is most
costly business. The land is very dear
You canot disturb the old lines of
streets and the drains and water pipes
and telephone lines that lie under them.
All that is exceedingly costly. And ev-
cry Improvement that has to be made
in city like London must be made at
a cost so heavy that where II Is added
to the necessary expenses of maintain
ing modern appliances in an old city
a nrnhihifarX
But here you have much more space.
and while YOU are growing very fast,
still If you take forethought and eonsid-
er your future you can lay out the
parks over which Washington is be-
ginning to spread in way that will be
far more beautiful than 1t Is possible
to do In the growing parts of London
and Paris. where land is so expensive.
London and Berlin and Paris arc
crowded and you are not yet crowded
You have still elbow room to do what
you want.
Absence of Smoke Boon
you have another great advantage
in not being a large commercial or
manufacturing city If you had manu-
facturers you would have tall chimneys.
and, as it seems impossible to enforce
an anti-smoke law in a manufacturing
city, you would have black smoke,
which would spoil the appearance of
your marble and granite and sandstone
buildings. the SCOT clinging to them as
1t does now to the buildings in London.
''lt was, | think we will all agree, an
act of wisdom on the part of the found
ers of the republic when they deter
mined to plant its capital in a place
where there was not already a city and
where there was no great likelihood
that either commerce or industry would
spring up.
the seat of legislative. executive and
judicial branches of the government,
removed from the influences of an i'm
mense population. Your city, ii is true
is large, and is growing larger, but it
is not likely to be the home of any
vast. excitable industrial population,
such as is growing up in these cities
1t is not receiving those crowds of i'm
migrants which are making New York
Chicago, and to less extent, Cleveland
Cincinnati and Philadelphia. more for
eign than American.
"Under these circumstances. what is
before you in Washington? The city of
Washington should try to set before it,
should feel that its mission in life is to
be great capital, that it is to be the
embodiment of the majesty and the
statelness of the whole nation, to be
capital of capitals, capital of the
whole nation overlapping the capitals
of those states as much as this nation
overtops those states, representing all
that is finest in American conception
all that is largest and brightest in
American thought, representing in ideal
what the capital of a great nation
should be. 1t should do that partly by
the stateiiness and number of ets edi-
fices; but above all by their beauty
What one desires is that this cjtv
should represent the highest aspirations
as to dignity and beauty that the peo-
pie can form for that which is to be
the center and focus of their national
life.
Model to Other Cities
"You would like to have it to be an
education to the people. You would
like it to be the model to other cities.
model which the capitals of the states
may all initiate. These states have
already initiated, in the building or
their state capitols, the capitol -at
W8fN1s They perhaps may carry
thF 90 far, but at any rate 1t
is sr At any rate, what YOU
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