Evening star., 1924-01-09
GREATER CAPITAL
DISCUSSION SOUGHT
Pepper to Give Dinner for
Leaders in Development .
of Washington.

Correlation for Legislative purposes
OF the views and plans conceived by
the chairmen OF committees in each
pranch Of Congress, of the. various
| individuals administering public
buildings and having to do with fu-
ture growth Of Washington, and of
organizations backing plans for the
development of the Capital is to be
sought by Senator George Wharton
Pepper OF Pennsylvania at a dinner
at the Powhatan Hotel tonight.
Senator Pepper is giving the dinner
| from personal interest in the de-
velopment of the federal pIan for
| gton and with the hone that
an the various agencies that have
on various projects for the city will
| agree on definite and comprehensiva
plan for legislative action.
He regards himself merely as a
means to an end, and has no desire
| to usurp the functions of the chair
men of the six committees in Con
gress-three in the Senate and three
| in the House--having directly to do
with District affairs, he declared to-
day.
| Guests at Dinner.
Invitations have been sent to the
following: Senator L. Heisler Ball
chairman of the Senate District com
mittee; Senator Bert NJ Fernald,
chairman of the Senate committee on
! public buildings and grounds; Repre-
, sentative John w. Langley, chairman
of the House committee on public
| buildings and grounds; Representa-
tive Stuart +. Reed, chairman Of the
House District committee; Represent
| ative E. Robert Luce, chairman of the
House library committee; Maj. j.
Franklin Bell, Engineer Commits
sioner; Charles Moore, chairman of
| the Fine Arts Commission; Miss Har-
! lean James, secretary, and j. Horace
MacFarland, president of the Ameri-
can Civic Association; Frederick A.
! Delano, chairman of the Washington
| ISOLATION; David Lynn, architect OF
the Capitol; George w. Hess, director
! of the Botanic Garden; Mrs. Hare
| Lippincott and Col. c. o. Sherril
| superintendent of public buildings and
| grounds
! There are many projects for the
development of Washington along ar
! tistic and esthetic lines Senator
| Pepper said today. backed by ind1-
! viduals and organizations all work
ing toward definite end. OF course
! they all have the same purpose,
namely, the betterment of Washing
! ton. but their plans have crossed and
J failure of agreement on details and a
! scheme for Legislative action has re-
| suited in a stalemate. This condition
/ will exist indefinitely unless they
! get together, and make some com
promises that will enable the plan as
| a whole to go forward.
Seeks Only Discussion.
81 propose only to secure a round
| table discussion of the entire matter
and am asking these people 70 dine
| with me in the hope that al agree
| ment will be reached"
| Senator Pepper emphasized that he
| is actuated only by a deep personal
| interest in the development If Wash
| ington, although he said some fea-
! lures of the federal plan will come
| before the Senate Library committee
! of which he is chairman.
| Discussing the future growth OF
Washington and the possibility of ex-
! pansion OF the federal plan to meet a
! city of more than a million popula-
! ton. Senator Pepper said he under
stood the plan was one of construc-
tion in units which could be increased
| as the city expanded. The original plan
could be left unchanged in principle,
no matter what the future population of
the city might be, he added.
Broadly, the plan for the federal
city to be discussed at the dinner to-
night is along the lines laid down in
a report to the President, based on
the original rEnfant design. The
general purpose is to effect a har-
monious and beautiful relationship
of the buildings of Washington, pre-
serving the Mall as the center