Evening star., 1924-12-03
Says states Need Build dtnss.

In insisting upon his amendment
Senator Fletcher called attention to
the fact that eleven years have
elapsed since the Government pur-
chased some of these sites upon which
no buildings have been erected in
many OF the States. He said that the
public buildings in the States We're
needed as much as in the District of
! Columbia.
Senator Smoot urged that Senator
Fletcher let his bill stand on it's own
merits and not attempt to add it to
the District of Columbia building bill.
Senator Ashurst of Arizona defend
ed the position taken by Senator
Fletcher and said that Senator Smoot
should know that the House would
never agree to the passage of the
District OF Columbia building bill
without amending Ia SO as to provide
building in all the States.
Before Senator Fletcher offered his
amendment Senator Underwood of
Alabama presented and had adopted,
with the agreement of Senator Smoot
two amendments. one of which would
limit the construction of the proposed
buildings in Washington to sites al
ready owned by the Government. Sen
ator Underwood pointed out that the
Government now owns large tracts
of land to the south Of Pennsylvania
avenue, eastward from Fifteenth
street. and also land near the Pan
American Building, available for the
proposed buildings
In his arguments urging the pas
sage of the District of Columbia bill,
Smoot said the Government is now
spending s732.469 in rent for build
mEs III Washington annually. He
estimated in addition, the Government
would save S1,000,000 in labor by
having each department of the Gov
ernment under one building roof. He
said that every head of department
had appeared before the Public
Buildings Commission and said that
the loss of time caused by the
bureaus of their departments being
widely separated was very great.
Senator Fletcher expressed no
hostility to the District public build
inGs bill, but insisted that his amend
ment was equally worthy of con-
sideratiou.
Called Up In Senate.
Consideration Of the bill was be-
gun in the Senate today almost i'm
mediately after the compilation OF
the reading OF the Presidents mes
sage. President Coolidge strongly
recommended the passage of this
bill in his budget message.
Senator Smoot obtained unanimous
consent to call the bill up. 1t had
been favorably reported at the last
session of Congress by the committee
on public buildings and grounds.
The tremendous saving which would
accrue to the Government through
the ownership Of its own buildings,
instead of occupying rented quarters,
was described III detail by Senator
Smoot. He pointed out also that to-
day many of the Government en-
ployes are housed in the temporary
buildings erected during the war
buildings which are not well fitted
for the purposes for which they are
used. The Government clerks suffer
from heat in the Summer and from
cold in the Winter. The valuable rec
ords of the Government are imperiled
by the fire hazard Of these structures,
he said.
VIII Remove War Buildings
Senator Copeland of New York
asked If the removal of the war
buildings was contemplated in the
plan contained in the Smoot bill.
Senator Smoot replied that all of
these temporary buildings would be
ultimately removed, certainly within
period of ten years.
The Smoot bill provides for a total
expenditure Of S50,000,000, not more
than s10,000,000 in one year, over a