Evening star., 1919-03-21
Mr.. Barrett's Stand.

Theswriter was especially pleased al
the broad stand taken by John Bar
rett. director general of the Pan
American Union. in his address at the
Y. NJ. c. A. in Washington last Friday
evening, when he came out unauali
fiedly in favor of making the expo
sition an international one. Hereto
fore many advocates of permanent
exposition for Washington have in
sisted+that it be merely national, and
not international, in scope. Here we
have the favorable opinion of a man
who knows, and he uttered the golden
sentiment: washington should be
made the center of attraction, not
only for the people of the United
States, but . for the peoples of the
world" An opinion like that from
such - source will certainly attract
widespread attention and prove a
factor of eventual success.
There are bound to be divergent
ideas as to the scale upon which this
exposition is to be conducted. Mr..
barrett spoke of an appropriation for
the erection of an immense interna-
tional exhibition building, but it is
likely that when the project takes
shape it will be found that no single
building nor ordinary group of struc-
lures can take care of the enormous
mass of material offered, to say moth
ing of providing for the growth of
the enterprise. A mere commercial
museum will not fill the bill, and
evensfor that purpose a building such
as Mr.. Barrett has in mind would
hardly suffice for Brazil alone. to say
nothing of the other Latin American
republics. our own states and such
European and Asiatic countries as
might wish to join with US in estab-
fishing the clearing house of the
world.
Pan-American Park.
The writer hopes to see a liberal
area of ground laid off adjoining
Washington for pan-American
park, and for that feature alone at
least one hundred acres and many
separate buildings will be needed to
dc full justice to such a feature of
our world capital Each country
should have its own building, put up
In its own design, at it's expense, on
land furnished by us on long lease
(ninety-nine years or more) at nomi-
nal rates. That will appeal to the
national pride of each country, re-
1ieve our treasury of the burden and
form link of commercial and polit-
ical attachment between us and those
countries, which will not only help
them, but US. in many ways. AS time
goes on. and the scheme is proved to
be practicable, other countries may
Join, as well as all of our states, and
then we will have indeed a world
center of the first magnitude, worthy
OF the capital of our great country
and of all civilization itself
Besides its value as a commercial
clearing house, this center may re-
solve itself into a bureau of scientific,
artistic, financial and cultural infor-
nation for all humanity. One going
to Washington might thus find out
ali about the latest discoveries in
chemistry. medicine or physics or the
latest ideas concerning civic devel-
opment, banking and all matters of
human interest. 1t would be COM
mercial exchange. bureau of informa-
tion and university of intelligence be-
yond anything yet created by man
And with each country contributing
and keeping up it's own unit, the cost
to the United States would be small
and quite insignificant, in comparison
with the benefits to come from it,