The Colorado statesman., 1923-06-09

| privately owned buildings must be
.eased and the government must paJ
rent money.
The President and the members of
his official family for four hours dis
cussed recently this question Of lack
of working quarters. to the exclusion
of all other matters Of public moment.
Under present conditions efficient gov
ernment work is said to be impossible.
II Is not hard to understand the re-
luctance with which an administration,
whatever its political complexion, pre-
sents for consideration a problem the
solution of which means the expendi-
ture of considerable amount of the
taxpayers money. Economy has been
urged so strongly by the country and
by congress that the asking for con-
siderable sums for government bund-
ings in Washington. a city which SEEM
lngly already is full of them, is not
altogether pleasant to administrations
which desire to make record for
keeping down costs.
There is one present case which
points up the existing conditions Of
things. There is building known as
| a treasury annex which was construct
| ed during the war. and which today
is showing symptoms of collapse be-
cause its underpinnlngs are giving
way. Ii is absolutely necessary for
safety reasons that this building be
put into condition. The conditioning
will cost $4,000. and there Is only
$4,000 available for the purpose. The
Z 70 a
| safety of its employees, is going to
take a chance and is to spend the
| $4,000 additional necessary TO make
| the repairs and is to trust 10 congress
I to supply the money without growing
about it.
Some Clerks Work in Railways.
| In some of the department buildings
| clerks are working in the halls at
| tempting to do their daily tasks unaf-
/ fected by the passing of visitors and
corridor-frequenters generally. The
/ word IS that efficiency is lost, and that
! it is n poor economy which forbids the
spending of a million dollars or so for
new buildings in order more than to
Offset the loss in time and in etii-
cheney which are the net results from
crowded and noisy conditions.
Some of the temporary buildings
which the government erected in war
time have been removed already.
They were ~nsightly affairs, many Of
| them fire-trans and many of them un-
safe from I, stability viewpoint. The
razing of these buildings necessitated
the removal of many of the clerks TO
older permanent government buildings
already taxed TO their limit.
At one time the State, War and
Navy building housed all the activities
of the three departments named and
housed them comfortably. Today only
Il small part of each of the working
forces of the three departments is
housed in the building originally given
over to the services of state and of
the armed forces.
Army and Navy Buildings Crowded.
Near the Lincoln Memorial there are
two buildings. each of which covers
many acres of ground. One of them
houses the navy officials and clerks
and the other those of the army.
These huge buildings are overcrowded.
and still other buildings are in use
to take care of officials and clerks.
One of these big structures is called
the Navy building and the other the
Munitions building. They were built
rapidly just after the United States
entered the World war. They will
not be torn down for some time to
come, for they are of semi-perma-
nent construction.
These buildings probably will last
for twenty years, but one day they
must come down because they will be
unsafe, and then the country will be
confronted by the necessity of erect
ing two structures, each of which must
be much larger than the great State,
War and Navy building, which it was
thought when it was erected would be
adequate for the uses of the three de-
partments for all time.
It Is expected that congress will be
asked early next winter to appropriate
the money necessary to remedy the
present conditions of affairs in the
overcrowded public buildings of the
capital. 1t is also expected that con-
gress will be asked to provide money
for new public buildings in several of
the large cities of the country. Busi-
ness men in these cities for some time
have been urging the necessity for
new post offices in their town, for in
some cases cities have doubled In pop
ulation and still are being served by
postal employees who actually are
being crowded onto the sidewalk in
order to find place to do their work.