Evening star., 1927-05-26
Urges Trees i'm Plea
for Capital Beauty
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
The Star has been doing good serv.
Ice in airing the question Of tree ex.
termination, but in all the discussion
the point seems to have been missed
the sequence Of events that has re.
duced to a desert a large part Of
Washington and to disgust large
part Of those who used to love the
city.
Before the war Washington was be-
coming a favored residence for the
artistic, the cultured and the discrimi.
mating. 1t was q refuge from indus
trialism and commercialism. 1t had
beauty and charm. It did not try to
resemble New York. 1t was unique
and rather prided itself thereon. Then
came the war, the war worker, infia-
ton and huge real estate boom.
"Finis la guerre." Exit the war
worker. The boom began to totter.
Something had to be done. We all
know the solution here-high office
buildings downtown. cheap apart
ments uptown, cheap suburbs beyond;
| cheap being used wholly in fgura-
tive sense. This program required
transportation. which in turn helped
the automobile business and caused
the traffic jam. 1t kept up realty
values downtown and inflated them
in the. suburbs sufficiently for real
estaters" who were somewhat strait.
ened after the war to reap fortunes.
But traffic has now showed signs of
getting so pitifully beyond control
that the poor wage slaves of Chevy
Chase must perhaps get up five min
utes earlier in order to get to the job
st. at ix,lA 80
Hence we are told we must widen
streets and cut down trees. 1t will be
| done, and presently we shall be told
they must be still wider in order to
permit double parking, which is now
appearing on some of the recently
widened highways. The glorious pro.
gram Of Improvement" will go on
until Washington possesses all the ugli-
ness of an industrial city without any
OF its meaning, and the boosters will
perhaps find they have slain the
goose with the golden eggs, in that
the people who made Washington
what it was and what it promised to
be have fled.
With transportation facilities infe-
rior to those of any large city In the
East, with no raw materials and a
poor hinterland, the idea Of making
dIl lIIuuSlTIdl VI great COIIlLlcIGldi
city out Of Washington is about as
| sensible as to try and make q garden
city out Of Manhattan Island. But
there is good reason for trying to
make this city the most beautiful In
the country, for keeping 1t unique
and for attracting here the people
| who like that sort of thing. class
which would pay as well, IL not bet
| ter. in business way than an equal
| number of stenographers or mecilan-
| les to be brought here by some myth.
| ical and miraculous industrial devel-
| opment.
There is a remedy for all this street
| congestion. Prohibit skyscrapers and
downtown parking. deflate some of
this fictitious realty value, promote
the development for residence pur-
poses Of sections not now favored by
| important realtors. There is enough
vacant land and unimproved realty
within two miles of The Star Building
to house the additional population OF
Washington for decade to come.
Let any one attempt such a program
even in part and then listen to the
cries Of "Reactionary.' or "Bolshevik"
Such a program is, in fact. treason tC
| the current rulers of thought in this
our world, and SO the writer, should
he survive to 1850, expects to see this
q rather third-rate irdustrial city. in
which the Government buildings will
| be about as easy to find as Trinity
Church spire in New York.
The solution of Washington's prob
| lem Is in making it more beautiful
and, above all. a safer place to dwell
| in. In considering traffic problems
who thinks Of the pedestrian? What
is he, poor devil, to a lotion truck
helping to make a realty boom at the
expense Of the taxpayer who pays for
ruined streets?
| And. as a starter. why not have a
few more trees and many more traffic
| police, for if there is anything upon
which visitors are agreed it is that
this Is one Of the most beautiful and
one of the worst policed cities in the
world. ERNEST S. CLOVES.