Evening star., 1923-06-01

The north and south poles may be
the pivot around which the earth re-
wolves; Boston. the hub around which
American brains circulate. but Wash
ington has the Zero stone" the CEN
ter of the universe. around which cir
cumnavigate tho sun. moon and
Shriners. When the latter reach the
zero stone on their trip from the far
west their Journey will be ended. In
that the zero stone differs from the
Blarney stone, for the latter is noted
because it always starts something. :"
X X ~ X
Time was when "all roads led to
Rome" and the Romans prided them
selves upon their capital of the world
The central point Of the Eternal city
was a golden milestone, from which
all the world was measured. Emu
lating Rome's example, Maj. LEnfant
who designed the city of Washington
proposed a milestone of granite. In
the original statement of his plan
appears the following:
-, an historic column-also in
tended for mile or itinerary column
from whose station "a mile from
Federal House), all distance of places
through the continent are to be cal
culated"
tBy Federal House" is meant the
Capitol)
Without knowledge of Mai
l. Enfant's. idea, the same thought
was expressed a century and a quar-
ter later (June Z. 1919. by citizen OF
Washington. DR.. S. VI. johnson. Tn
a letter to Col. j. w. Richie of the
United States Motor Transport Corps
he suggested an official starting point
for transcontinental expedition.
Through private funds. a temporary
marker was placed on the Ellfpse
south of the White House, and, on
July z. 1919, impressive ceremonies
maraked the departure of a historic
convoy-ten automobiles, nine motor
cycles and fifty-four motor trucks
whose destination was San Francisco
On June 8. 1920, Congress author
lied the Secretary of War to erect
zero milestone on this spot. the
design to be approved by the Fine
Arts Commission. The exact astro-
nomioal location. as indicated by an
inscription upon the milestone, and
established by the United States coast
ana geodetic survey, is: LONGITUDE
from Greenwich. IL degrees. min
utes, 12.49 seconds; latitude, 3s de-
grees, So minutes. 1892 seconds" The
exact elevation above sea level, is
1855 feet.
Next Monday. this permanent gran
lite Zero Stone" as it is called, will
be unveiled and dedicated, upon the
arrival from California of the great
automobile caravan of Shriners
The milestone is on the meridian OF
the District of Columbia, as originally
; marked by the Jefferson stone -
placed there in 1904. from which all
land surveys of America are reck-
oned.
Representative Davey of Ohio views
with alarm" the statistics and mathe
matfcs by which he concludes that
this country will have a population
Of 4,o00,000,Oo0 in 147 more years.
That is just double the present age
Of the country.
There was once a college professor
who began early in the evening to
compute how rapidly his dozen hens
were going to increase, and by mid
night he had counted several millions
and had bought up the farms around
him for many miles-in paper calcu-
lations. He forgot the Group and pip
and various other drawbacks to
larithmetical progression of chickens.
Next day fox killed most of his
| hens and the rooster, so his calcuIa-
tions went awry.
Why should Representative Davey
worry? He won't be here in AID.
2010. so. even If America should hold
more than double the worlds present
population, by that time, there are