Evening star., 1925-06-21

tensive rural section has been closely
knitted to the city. In 80 years three
or four Catholic parishes, quite popu-
louS, have grown up around the uni
versity, and every year Brookland and
| Hyattsville, Md, are drawn more
closely together
! But there are other interesting
| facts brought out. We found that our
| residents are wealthy"
Leads i'm Assessment
Washington, he said, among cities
of 100, 900 or over, leads in per capita
assessment with S2,6S7.27, more than
| twice as much as the nearest compar-
| ing city, Newark, n. j. The tax as
| SCISSOR had informed him, he said, that
| the assessments increase at the rate
of S25,000,O00 per year. The average
income of individuals of the city is
! $4,000, he said, and as for automobiles,
their increase is we'll known.
On the matter of intelligence, he
| said that the survey cards from 120,
600 different people showed that less
than l per cent were improperly made
| out SO as to be useless. This, he con-
tinued, is really an astounding record
and he doesn't think it can be dupli-
Gated in any other city in this coun-
| try. High school attendance has
quadrupled in less than 20 years, and
the rate of increase of attendance has
been greater in the last five years
than in any preceding five years. But
even this does not show the increase,
| for, he said, many parents have taken
| their children from the public schools
and placed them in private schools,
| because of the congestion, and he pre-
! dicted that with the completion of the
| five-year school building program
| there would undoubtedly be a vast
| increase in pupils.
| Progress for Zoning.
| I'm zoning" he continued, I'VE
are moving forward. Maj. Wheeler
| informs me that when the Zoning law
went into effect in 1920 effort was
! made to forSee, as far as possible, the
| needs of residential areas and to Gre
ate all business islands therein which
| would be required for many years.
But. as usual, Washington went be-
yond expectations habit she has
! consistently adhered to in recent
years. The local business areas are
not sufficient and the coming commits
sion is constantly receiving demands
| for more, and, by the way, did you
| know that a careful estimate shows
| that one-third of the people of this
/ city live in row houses and one-fifth
| in apartments?
| I'm building, too, in spite of re-
peated assertions that we are over
| building, the city continues to break
all records. Last quarter, though
| fifteenth in population we were sixth
| in amount of building. We include
only private buildings, while some
other cities include public buildings
| also. This month, with one exception,
showed the largest total ever reached
here in one month, S6,334 900, being
exceeded only by April, 1923, when the
! single permit for the Mayf1oWer Hotel
amounted to $5,000,000. These per-
mits were for the most part for
| homes"
Then Maj. Covell went into the hotel
situation as a medium Of forecast. The
entertainment of visitors in the Ma
tional Capital, he said, is one of the
greatest industries, pointing out that
| $4,000 high school students each year
| come to the Capital. People shake
| their heads when they see q new hotel
/ going up wondering where the guests
are coming from, and at the same
time those in the know are making
plans for the erection Of more hotels.
Sees City of Million.
| Even our weather seems to be i'm
proving" he said, getting on a touchy
| subject. as his audience sweltered in
| the salon while steaming down the
| bay. when l was a youngSter around
Washington everybody knocked the
weather. / heard SO many people
cussing it that I, not knowing any
other. thought it must be terrible I
had to experience a 48-inch snow in
| Boston, a 100-mile gale in Buffalo
and fog of London to realize that
| this isn't such a bad climate after ALL
| Again it was our visitors who taught
US to know the facts, and who are dis
| seminating throughout the country the
| truth OF our pleasant and healthful
year-round climate.
| Now about the population 80 years
| from now. The replies on this sub
| ject are surprisingly uniform. The
lowest was 100000 and the highest
| 100000. You might say that they
/ are naturally optimistic, and yet our
| own postmaster, Mr.. Mooney, reaches
the same figure based on a study of
| his post office records. It is interest
ing to note here that the District Of
Columbia was originally laid out to
| hold population of 100000. The
| Washington Gas Light Co., the Poto-
mac Electric Power Co., the District
surveyor and the District electrical
/ department all estimate about 900, 900
| inhabitants 80 years hence, based on
| the data avavilable in their respective
| offices. The Water Department reaches
$500 The Chesapeake and Potomac
| Telephone Co., as you know, studies
the growth of our city very carefully
| and conservatively. It's figures 20
/ only to 1943. but projecting them to
1855, we get $1,000, which is the
same as the estimate of the Health
| Department"
| Suburbs Grow Apace.
| I'm all these replies" Maj. CoveIl
| went on, "one general tendency
struck me very forcibly, that is the
tendency toward conservatism, a hesi.
fancy to believe or to follow the signs
as they exist-how different from our
friends in California and Florida. If
you look up the estimates of the past
you will find that practically every
one of them is too low. Can it be
that we are having difnculty in keep
ing up with our own city?g II re-
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