Las Vegas age. [volume] (Las Vegas, Nev.) 1905-1947, 1928-01-21
NATIONAL CAPITAL
DEVELOPING into
MONUMENTAL CITY
Washington Fast Growing
City, Attracting. Wealth
and Culture from All the
World.
Fifty Million Dollar Building
Program Will Add Much
of Beauty and Attractive
ness.
(By Charles p. Squires)

tbJ OudTlc6 L OQuAACoJ
When | arrived in Washington
this time, almost two years after
my first visit, the weather was
bright and sunny, quite in con
trast with the snow and cold OF
the middle west. The day was
much like one of our delightful
Vegas days.
! went to the Hotel Lafayette.
a charming place without the
rushing commercial air Of the VII
lard and the other Washington
hotels. | found my old friend Mr..
Edwards still behind the desk and
he made me quite at home again
! by giving me the same room
/ had when here before.
/ again felt the shock Of disap-
pointment which all visitors ex-
perienoe in Pennsylvania Avenue.
! In our youth We all conceive the
idea that The Avenue Is a great
and beautiful thoroughfare. In
stead OF that it is still, for much
of it's length, bordered with shah
by, antiquated structures, which
may, at one time, have been pride
full, but whose glory long since
/ passed.
=, The appropriation of $4,000, 900
for new government buildings and
Identification OF the city was
passed two years ago, but there
! is as yet no material evidence Of
1t. But, l am told. practically
all the property, including some
rather good buildings, on the
south side of Pennsylvania be-
tween the Capitol and the Treas
ury, has been purchased by the
government. The old buildings
are to be torn down and series
of monumental structures for
housing various governmental de-
partments are to ibe erected, COM
! pleting The Mall and making Pen
nSyivania Avenue one of the really
/ fine streets of the world.
| Plans are being carried out
also for acquiring the remaining
lands between the capitol and the
palatial Union Station. The old
buildings Will be torn down and
. the whole converted into a noble
park with a fine Avenue Connect
ing with Pennsylvania Avenue.
/ This improvement will give TO
visitors much more pleasing i'm
preston on their first glimpse of
/ Washington and will be helpful
in Inspiring a real respect for the
| government in the minds OF the
! people.
/ The Supreme Court of the Unit
! ed States will also have a new
! building, corresponding in archi-
tectural features with the Library
of Congress and facing the east
front of the Capitol north OF the
. Library building. The land for
/ this has been acquired and some
rather historic old buildings will
be destroyed to make way for the
new Supreme Court building.
I | notice that the city in general
/ has improved during the past two
years. Many new business blocks
of monumental proportions have
gone mp. The material used is
/ largely a light gray sandstone or
granite and the new Washington
win be bright and glorious quite
! in contrast with the red brick
dinginess of the old. Great hotels
and apartment houses are going
up in all parts OF the city.
! Washington has hut little, COM
paratively, no commerce and in
dustries, but thousands of visi-
%ors are always here. OF course
the retail business of the city is
I no
the 10000 government employees.
In the outskirts of the city many
fine subdivisions have been open
ed I'm and hundreds of handsome
homes built. The tendency of
wealth and culture to grayitate to
Washington from the ends of the
world rs increasing l am told.
| arrived in, Washington In
time for the opening session of
the hearings on the Boulder Dam
project before the House Commit
tee on Irrigation and Reclamation,
and of course went at once to the
committee room in the House Of
flee building. l found our good
friend, Addison T. Smith, chair
man of the committee, on the job
as of yore, with most of the old
members of the committee at the
table, including our own Congress
man Sam Arentz. Also there were
the old guard of the Arizona dele
CATION, as usual full of pugnacity,
opposing the bill from every angle
and declaring that they will never
come into the Colorado River
Compact until an agreement be-
tween the three lower basin
states, Arizona, California and
Nevada, is reached. There, also,
were the old timers of the Cali
fornia delegation who have labor
ed long and earnestly, though per-
haps not always wisely. for their
Swing johnson bill.
In the place Of former Congress
man Carl Hayden, now U. s. Sena-
tor from Arizona, is Congressman
Douglas, an able chap, who has
taken UP the fight for Arizona
where Carl laid It down. He