Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-24

Washington yields to no capital in ii!
surprising attractiveness.
And you also may tell him this
that Washington is being rebuilt on 8
scale never dreamed of in the Ole
World; that Congress soon will send to
the President for his signature bill
authorizing the additional expenditure
of Sis O00, 900 for public building prof.
ectS in Washington. This bill brings
the amount OF the total public building
and park rrrgram in Washington up to
$4,000, 900.
Bill Has Passed House.
"This bill has passed the House of
Representatives and is certain to receive
favorable action in the Senate after the
Christmas recess.
only a few days ago Congress took
action on a bill which will give the
United States Supreme Court new,
spacious, adequate home, just east of
the Capitol grounds and opposite the
beautiful Library of Congress. This bill
authorizes the expenditure of So, FAC, 900
for the Supreme Court House.
Now can appreciate the fact that
q great many of you radio listeners are
not familiar with the appearance OF
Washington, except through pictures.
ly not all of the rare and noble come
illness of our National Capital.
Perhaps you do not know what I
mean wher = speak of the Mall. The
Mall is a park in the heart of the Cap
ttal City. extending from the Capitol
Building westward to the Potomac Rlv-
er. It was laid out by George Wash
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a young French
engineer officer, who had served gall
lartly with the Americans in the Rev.
dictionary War.
When these three men first looked
at the land that was to be the home
Of the National Government, their
hearts must have fallen. Standing on
the wooded eminence which was to be
the site of the Capitol Building, they
could see the thriving community and
river port of Georgetown several miles
to the northwest. There were two
other small isolated communities,
Hamburg and Carrollsburg. Then
there was BladenSburg, far out to the
northeast. Directly before them,
stretching downward to the Potomac,
lay a Shiny, noiSome marsh.
This" said L'Enfant, indicating the
expanse of tangled brush and mire,
will be beautiful park
Redrafted and Revised.
The enthusiastic French engineer
drew his plans accordingly. They were
redrafted, Of course, and still later re-
vised once more But the essential
elements of L'Enfant'S dream today
are becoming realities in stone.
Can any American study this pic
ture and fail to find in it a real pa
triotic thrill? Washington and JEFF
ferson, with the excitable, jealous
LEnfant, standing on wooded hill.
looking over the farm lands, woods and
muck. And making out of this de-
pressing landscape the most beautiful
city in the world.
Ambitious? OF course, it was am
bilious. In retrospect, it seems pre-
sumptuous, foolhardy. There have been
only two world capitals SO founded-the
former Russian capital Of st. Peters
burg, now Leningrad, and the newly
created city Of Canberra, in far Aus
tralia.
why, in the story of the founding
Of our National Capital, we have one
of the greatest stories of all time, one
to stir the romantic imagination and
quicken the pulse of every citizen.
Let us look for a moment into the
plans which LEnfant drafted with
Washington and Jefferson.
These were plans which Congress
was in duty bound to carry out, TO the
best of its ability. But they were SO pre-
tentious that 1t was impossible to raise
the necessary funds. Remember that, at
that time, there were in this country,
less than 100000 persons. They simply
could not have borne the tremendous
cost OF building National city.
wilderness I'm 1900.
"Then let us see what happened to
these plans. The country gradually was
6IY1FF fKo ri nd oft nc
were arriving from foreign lands. In
1900, when Congress moved to Wash
ington from Philadelphia, they found
1t almost as much wilderness as it had
been in the days when the Powhatan
Tribe of Indians held solemn councils
at the foot of Capitol Hill.
THE story goes that, in 1886, Presi-
dent Andrew Jackson was becoming inn
patient at the delay in beginning the
present fine building which houses the
Treasury Department. He walked out
Of the White House one morning, with
the worried architects and harassed
public officials, and strobe of to point
not far from the White House. Then
he stopped, at the northeast corner of
the present site, and thrust his cane in
the ground. Here, right here he said,
I want the corner stone laid And 1t
was.
AT the end of the Civil War, WASH
ington was a disorderly, unkempt,
struggling town, mostly unpavad, poorly
lighted, the park areas grown over with
weeds and rank vegetation II was a
picture of the direst neglect. Visitors
from overseas visited Washington TO
laugh at it, to write Scornf1lly about
this Capital City wherein the work had
fallen so ridiculously short OF the ambi-
tious plans.
oArd thew oonoa cbanI,ard AIAv
ander r. Shepherd was governor OF
Washington at a time when the city
had a territorial existence. Shepherd
also was commissioner OF public works.
He is a unique figure in our history.
He was imbued with a burning desire
to clean up Washington and make it a
self-respecting seat of National Gov
eminent. He had to fight indifference,
so he used vigorous means.
Tackled Job With VigOr.
Although frequently he exceeded his
authority, he tackled his job with SUI
perhuman vigor and reSourcefulnesS.
With amazing diSreSpect for private
rights, he tore down offending struc-
lures, closed streets, tore up railroad
tracks. paved, lighted and beautitied
the city. He gave Washington its first
ideas OF sanitation. He planted thou
sands of trees. He inclosed in a sewer
the disease breeding Tiber Creek which
crawled across the city. 1t was dur
ing the reign Of Boss" Shepherd as
he was called, that the half-finished
Washington Monument was completed.
in 1884, one may still see, in this great
tribute to the father of our country,
the place where work was stopped and
where 1t was begun again.
But Shepherd, the recipient of bit
ter blame and threats i'm his time could
not do 1t all It is hard to believe that
this man, who did so much for Wash
ington, should have been SO hardly used
hz his conference.-the But IL &c q fact