Evening star., 1927-10-09

The heavy rain which hit Washing
ton last Monday night was almost or
the fiftieth an
Public Archives. sloeI1 aoca in th;s dlsturo uit,
in 1877. 1t occurred on the 4th of Oc
tober of that year and did heavy dam
age, flooding some of the lower areas
of the city, delaying travel, uprootine
trees. injuring buildings and stocks o1
goods. Particularly heavy damage
was done to the papers and records Of
the Patent and Land Offices, exposed tc
the weather by the fire of a few days
earlier. The storm, indeed, was so Sc
we're that additional injuries were in
fiicted upon the building, and some OF
were brought down, adding to the con
fusion.
The Patent Office fire started a live
ly discussion regarding methods OF
caring for Government activities in
Washington, particularly the Patent
Office, which was even then in need OF
more space. A suggestion was ad.
vanced to erect a structure within the
courtyard. Against this proposition
The Star entered it's objection in the
following editorial printed In its issue
of October s, 1877:
I'VE venture to dissent from the rec.
ommendation of the Patent Office
Commission that another building be
constructed in the courtyard of the
Patent Office to accommodate the
growing business of that office. Aside
from other objections, the health con-
sideration seems to forbid the utiliZa-
ton of this space for building pur-
poses. There is no more air space af.
forded now than is requisite for the
number of persons OCCUPYING the build
ing, and in view Of the extent of Gov
ernment ground yet available for
building purposes, 1t would seem un.
necessary to curtail the not excessive
amount of light and air supplied in
any of the Government buildings.
And again, while there may be some
convenience in massing together great
numbers of public offices, the danger
of serious damage to public records
from fire, etc, is so much increased
by having various branches of public
business transacted under single
roof that it would seem to be ad.
visable to isolate each departmental
building instead Of adopting the pol
icy of concentration.
"If the Patent Office needs more
space, as it appears that it does, the
proper course would seem to be for
that department to occupy the whole
building, as was originally intended.
The Interior Department., which now
uses so large a portion of the Patent
Office, should be provided for with a
building of it's own. The truth is that
the public buildings in Washington
are altogether inadequate for the
transaction of the vast amount of
business of this great and rapidly
growing country, and as a conse-
quence the Government has to rent
private buildings about town, of all
sorts and sizes, to get some sort of
shelter for the clerks and the public
archives. Among the new buildings
imperatively needed Is one made alb
solutely fireproof. and put in an iso-
lated position and used solely for the
storage of archives. In this repository
of archives should be placed all pub
lie papers as soon as they pass out of
use in current business"
Though half century has passed
since this manifest object lesson of the
need of an archives building in Wash
ington was given by the Patent Office
fire, plans for such a structure are
only now being prepared. with the
prospect that half a decade may
elapse further before the Govern
ment's irreplaceable documents are Sc.
curely housed.