Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-10
LANGUAGES who would be provided with
sufficient funds and who would devote
his efforts to informing and caring for

languages, who would be provided with
sufficient funds and who would devote
his efforts to informing and caring for
visiting foreigners.
Washington is. indeed, strlklngly
beautiful in spots but it is in SO many
places an over-grown country town with
here and there such hodse-podges OF
architecture in its very heart that IL IS
far from presenting that harmOnlously
and consistently beautiful and inviting
aspect which il must achieVe TO De real
world capital.
For example let me point out an i'm
pressive evidence Of this contention:
Pennsylvania avenue. viewed from the
standpoint OF appropriate beauty ana uls
nifty for world capital. is travesty
on good taste. Even though II cuts the
American and WashingtOnian to the quick
to admit it. 1t cannot be denied that Penn-
sylvania avenue is the least peautiIui
of all the great worlds famous avenues
of national capitals. 1t has hardly a sin
gle element of beauty nthe reach from
the Treasury to the Capitol. except these
buildings themselves and possibly the
municipal building: both OF these noble
structures at the two ends of the avenue
are dwarfed by the mixture Of high and
irregular buildings on either side of Penn
sylvania avenue If you doubt my word,
go at any time to the corner of the
Treasury at 18th street and look TOWARD
the Capitol, or at the Peace monument
reverse your view IL you have the slight
est sense OF artistic harmony in architec-
ture and of proportion Of details. you VIII
say that l have described the situation
in too moderate terms.
THE sky line of Pennsylvania avenue
reminds one OF the ups and downs of a
weather bureau chart; the varieties OF
architecture are as numerous as those OF
a mushroom manufacturing city. The
most prominent features of this sky line.
which strike the eye with the force OF
one of Walter Johnson's cut-the-plate
balls are the 'penitentiary tower and
front of the post Office and the wartlike
water tank on the Raleigh Hotel At the
eastern end of the Avenue sits the Cap
itol by itself one of the noblest struc-
lures of the world-'squat like a toad
as Dante, in his Inferno. describes the
devil in hell. Instead of gloriously COM
handing and dominating the whole city
as Washington and l. Enfant intended II
should the Capitol is dominated and COM
manded in the perspective by buildings
thas ceprive il OF lis majesty and carry
the suggestion that brutal. unsentimental
materialism correspondinSly controls the
government itself.
Care as to Manufactures.
Il hope I am stepping ON no ones toes
when / suggest that there isTtoo much
ftalk about trying TO make Washington
a manufacturing and industrial center
as well as the national capital. Such agi-
tation and realization cannot fail to hit
orally kill the goose that lays the golden
egg. This does not mean opposition TO
natural manufacturing and industrial
development segregated beyond the CEN
trail limits of the city or the residential.
official and business sections of the Dis
| trict of Columbia SO that the handicap
of smoke. dirt and noise would be avoid
ed and eliminated, but IL does mean that
government buildings filled with regular
| and permanent employees are far better
than manufacturing plants with chang
| ing pay rolls and their nuisances of dirt.
smoke and noise. The increase of busi-
ness which would come to the retail mer-
| chants of Washington from all the
manufacturing which could possibly sus-
| tain itself here is ridiculousiy small
compared TO the. advantages resultant
| from the development of an ideal ma
| tional and world capital without the
handicap of manufacturing plants
..One comparison which is before me
every day emphasizes what / mean: At
| the entrance to Potomac Park stands the
| Pan-American building. representing a
| cash investment of $1.1OO.O0O.
Now. let us have the contrast: Only
h,eck away I" the west is manu-