Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-19
SEES GRAVEFAULT
|NU. s. BUILDING
Charles Harris Whitaker Cites
Expenditure of Big Sums
in Small Towns.
FAST AND SLOW GROWING
CITIES ARE AIDED ALIKE
Some of Those Whose Population
Has Decreased Receive Large
Appropriations.

That there are grave faults In the
method of supplying the cities and
towns of the United States with their
federal public buildings. especially
post offices, is indicated in a paper re-
Gently prepared by Charles Harris
Whitaker of this city and entitled Our
Unintelligent Method of Providing Pub
lie Buildings"
Mr.. Whitaker is the editor OF the
Journal Of the American Institute of
Architects, the board OF directors of
which is now meeting in Washington
at it's headquarters, in Octagon House.
New York avenue and 18th street
northwest. His exhaustive paper, which
is the result of several months of work
and which deals largely with the go
post office buildings, to cost s23.OoO,o00,
included in list contained in sections
and 4 of House bill 2S166, may be
considered of timely interest in con-
nection with the speech Monday of
Chairman Clark of the House commit
tee on public buildings and grounds in
favor of an omnibus building bill.
Figures Carefully Compiled.
Mr.. Clark denies that his committee
is pork barrel affair; lays the re-
sponsibility for wastefulness in public
building bills on republican commit
tees, and recommends the use of
standardized type of public building
to help the supervising architects Of
fee make up the great arrears In Its
work. Mr.. Whitaker has exercised the
greatest care in compiling figures from
the government census reports In an
endeavor to discover whether the Ques-
ton of population and past growth
would shed any light on the method OF
granting appropriations Tor post OF
fees. .
while it is true that the number OF
inhabitants in a town is obviously no
precise measure OF it's needs for a post
Office building, except as factors OF pre-
vious growth and probable future de-
yslopment are taken into considera-
ton" says Mr.. Whitaker. in part,
these do afford some basis of COMPARE
SON
1895, 900 for Each Small Town.
For instance. he points out. three
cities were given post offices to cost
$95, 900 in the recent bill passed by
Congress. The three buildings are to
be in Huntington, Ind, with popula-
ton of 1922; Valparaiso. Ind. 6.ss7.
and Cedar Falls. Iowa, 5.012. This
group remains entirely unexplicable on
the face of the figures. Two Indiana
towns, one twice as large as the other,
and neither of which has made any as
tonishing growth in the last two dec
AIDES. are to have $4,000 post offices,
While Cedar Falls, considerably smaller
than the smallest Of the other two, and
which has lost more than 800 'inha Bit
ants in the last ten years. fares equally
we'll. s:-- .-1.-
sThe paper abounds in references to
similar discrepancies. The cost, under
over. borne by the entire country
Whenever unwtsdom and extravaganza
are noted, the responsibility. says the
author. rests on our policy as nation
viduals. Among forty-nine buildings,
each to cost $4,000. the average popu-
lation of the towns was $3.50 in 1919.
Basin. Wyo.. with 1853 people, received
that sum for a building to be used for
a post office alone.
Further Comparisons.
Douglas, Ga. shows a gain in popula-
on of nearly 500 per cent since 1900;
f,o-kville. Conn. shows a gain of 10 in
ts.nts year for twenty years, yet
both are to receive $4,000 buildings.
Fort Plan, n. Y, which is to get a
So 90 structure, shrunk from 1854 in
1880 10 1902 in 1900. Bayonne, N. j.,
-5.5-s. ta sons, is to get the same sort
II g. '1ulltng as Lock Haven. Pa. 7.772,
s-G Cd Suns only at the rate of twenty
pc -sns year, and as Kalispell, Mont,
r.lE. Each has more than doubled its
pep s,sttCu since 1900.
-st4:.ng comparisons to show the
s.e mess of methods are contained in
Itst which groups eleven towns of
-1- 3.255 to $3.50 people. Some of
are to have post Offices which
cost $4,000; others are to get
,Rgs just twice as expensive.
That there are local factors in all
these cases sufficiently important to
reconcile the otherwise apparently
mystifying differences is hard to be-