Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-31
WHY WASHINGTON o
TOLD OF BY HASKIN

July 30:-ln his
Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin
tells an anecdote of an old man
whose most conspicuous trait was
a lack of faith in the real estate
values of great cities. DR.. Franklin
says he remembers as a youth how
the old man used to tell his acquain-
tances in the city of PHILADELPHIA
that anyone was extremely foolish
to buy land or houses or make any
permanent investment in the CITY.
Any such investor, said the old
croaker, was sure to lose his money.
he kept this up for years, seemingly
blind to the splendid growth the I'M
portant provincial capital was maxi
ing while he was uttering his dolor-
GUS prophecies.
Dr. FRANKLIN remarks that years
later he saw the old man finally de-
eide to buy a house. He paid for il
three times what it would have cost
him when he began his dismal prog
~nostications twenty or thirty years
earlier.
Such an anecdote related with the
strong authority of such a man as
Franklin, serves as the best possible
example of what has been happening
in the capital city of Washington.
Every school boy knows the early
history of the National Capital-how
its site was selected by General
Washington himself and how it's
magnificent streets were laid out by
Major LEnfant, an eminent French
engineer. What, perhaps. is not so
widely known is the new era of
growth which has come to Washing
ton with the war.
One of the excellent reasons why
Philadelphia continued to grow il
spite of predictions to the contrary
Was that it was the provincial capt.
tai of Pennsylvania. For a while 1t
was the seat of the Federal Govern
ment. There were other good rea-
sons why F~ranklin's city should grow
but the presence Of the governmental
machinery was enough to give it a
good start. An advantage which
Washington has over such a city as
Philadelphia is that it is not the
temporary station of a transient
government machine, but the we'll
established, permanent location of
the greatest Government in the
world.
Now The World Capital
Washington" said one of the
statesmen at the Paris Peace Con-
ference, following the great war,
now is the capital of the world"
From the point of view of the
residents Of the city itself, Washing
ton was lucky in being a relatively
small city at the time of its Access
sion to worldwide greatness. Lon
don, Paris, Rome-other great cap
itals of the world-have long been
cities of tremendous size. Washing
ton has ranked we'll down the scale
in population compared with them.
Therefore, the rise of Washington
to SO great a position of prominence
has produced a civic boom which is
bound to be of long duration.
1t Is true that before 1917 there
were some vestlges of the provincial
about the National Capital. With
the entrance of the United States
into the World War all this was
changed. A spectacle was presented
of extraordinary interest. Almost
overnight the population of Wash
ington was swelled by 10000 per-
sons. 1t was like putting a num-
Der 10 foot into a number 7 shoe.
A curious and important fact about
this growth of Washington relates to
the type of population which the war
brought. Population, in general GEN.
sus terms, means men, women and
children, the aged and infirm and in
dignent--in short everybody. The
10000 population which suddenly
was added to Washington was differ
ent. 1t was made up very largely
of active adults. 1t was made up of
workers. from millionaire dollar-a-
year men to flapper stenographers,
Some officials and others brought
families along, but for the most part
the new population was adult, In
census terms, a tide of $50, GOO per-
sons usually NEAR about $4,000 &C
tive adults or less. In Washington's
case 1t meant that almost all of the
$780, were of the type to make
constant demands on the facilities of
the city. They did not represent
children and invalids who would stay
at home, but rather workers who
demanded service and, above all. in
dependent and separate places to
live.
Everyone has heard the fantastic
stories of how millionaires lived in
Easements and stenographers slept
ten in a room. They were not ex-
aggerated. The result was an i'm