Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-26
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
WASHINGTON PAST AND PRES
EMIT. Charles Moore. Illustrations,
e. H. Suydam. The Century Co.
I. C. M.

EMIT. Charles Moore. Illustrations,
e. H. Suydam. The Century Co.
In New York, Elihu Root, guest Of
ceremoney to the National Academy OF
Design, will receive from that body its
choicest tribute, a gold medal, in recog-
milton of Mr.. Roots high service to the
cause of art in America. Two cabinet
officers and Charles Moore, chairman of
the National Commission of Fine Arts,
viii be present at this formality.
For our particular purpose let US
with Elihu Root himself, back to Wash
ington. Back, indeed, to 1910, when
President Taft approved bill creating
the Commission of Fine Arts. Senator
Root was chiefly responsible for the
shaping of that measure upon broad
" organic conception of the Federal
City in whose special behalf the bill
was originated. This city in its fulfill
ment was to be of unsurpassed physical
beauty. 1t was to be also city OF deep
inSpirationa1 effect rejecting great
Government, created and supported by
the free choice of the people living
under it. For IS years Charles Moore
has served as chairman Of that COM
mission.
Still further back, in 1901, James Nc
MILAN, chairman of. the Senate Dis
trict committee, proposed and brought
to pass in Congress the Senate Park
Commission. This. too, for the i'm
provement and Identification Of Wash
ington. Serving Senator Mcmillan in
secretarial capacity was a young jour
nalist and university man, who, after
the fashion Of the most competent of
this clan, came in no very long time
to be carrying huge bulk of precise
detail concerning the no-system condi-
ton of the park situation-came to be
in command also of the sum of remedial
projects bearing upon the existent con-
fusion. Charles Moore, again. ELw,
for something like % years, Mr.. Moore
has been engrossed, with various groups
of associates, in the supreme enter
prise of redeeming Washington to its
original design of structural beauty in
keeping with its high purpose as the
seat of a great Government.
And here he is. Washington Past
and Present" Charles Moore. In
effect, Mr.. Moore's first move is to open
to us long vista, stretch of 100 years.
At its further end, leading up to 1900,
stand three men looking westward
upon miles of dense forest, impenetrable
undergrpwthS, and upon two rivers,
which, flowing through marshy lands,
unite right here to make common course
to the sea. One of the three, clearly
an excitable man, contends that this
is no wilderness across which they are
looking. No, it is great and splendid
city instead, with wide streets, broad
avenues, noble buildings, long arcades
Of shade made by beautiful trees, parks
and drives, and happy official citi-
zenry tranSacting business for the whole
United States, of which it is the legis-
lative and administrative center And
in proof of his contention he flouriShes
a paper upon which the city stands,
ordered and complete. Mai. Charles
Pierre L'Enfant, telling Washington and
Jefferson all about it for the hundreth
time.
At the near end Of this vista stands
the group which today is seizing its
better opportunities for achievement
than those the French engineer was
able to command. Still, these artists.
engineers, law makers, Presidents and
philanthropists who believe in beauty,
are building with L'Enfant and never
against him. Between these two end
groups lies the welter Of Washington
grown through the short-term expedi-
encies that every city meets and gener-
ally succumbs to. naturally.
1t seems to me that at this point
one Of the clear triumphs Of this book
comes out to meet the reader. A COM
petent, even austere, process of simpli-
fication lifts the essential washington
in its basic elements up above the city
for Its own self-disclosure Here at
higher level is the Capitol for the law
makers. across there Is the White
House for the Presidents. To the left,
mile and more away Is the shaft
that embodies the spirit of Washing
ton, true originator Of our city, and his.
Farther on at the river bank is Lin
coin, memorialized in august simplicity
as the one who died thai this land
might live in unity. Such the sum 81
fact that Mr.. Moore lifts from thou
sand details for our eyes to see, for our
hearts to feel. To be sure, he, there
after or all along the way as the case
may be. fills in here and there to point
upon the advance that is being made
building. systematic park expansion,
the reclamation of river front, a bridge
OF beauty and use here, a highway
shere.an joining as parts of the new
ta1nly reaching out to meet.
The engroSsment of 80 years upon
any single theme would pack a person
past MS own holding were it not for
tne power to organize the contents of
his mind Mr. Moore has that power
The multitudinous facts of a new and
more beautiful Washington emerge from
the mind OF this writer as much a
unit as tree is a unit--root. branch.
stem, leaf. flower. fruit-all essential
parts OF single thing. AS simple as
that is the effect of this book of wash
ington.
Now and then Mr.. Moore pauses to
gather up bodies of fact bearing upon
the GROWTH OF the city toward its mani
lest destiny. In Grants period it was
put struggling village. In RooSevelt's
a modern city much like its kind
throughout the country In the Cool
ldge, period the advance was greatly
accelerated through that sagacious
mans influence in securing a long
term program of building. Today that
plan Is operating actively south of
pennsylvania avenue, where Govern
ment departments will eventually be
properly and adequately housed.
Having organized the Capital in its
terminated progress, Charles Moore be-
comes the historian. Against the new
playground he sketches the events that
nave overtaken the city - domestic
events and foreign. He projects a NOV
ing picture of its social preoccupations
up to the present. But, best of all, he.
IN the company of Saint-Gaudens,
French, Burnham, McKim, White and
many another, walks about the city with
us in a passing estimate of art in its
expression within the Capital. Archi-
lecture, painting, sculpture, landscape
art. highways and a reclaimed river
front are all brought into this summary
of Washington in it's outreach toward
beautiful future. Again, there is the
same unpretentious attitude which, all
along, has marked this story. Again
there Is the same effect of certainty
may be due to the fact that there is
not much of art language here. This
equestrian statue is good because-and
very simple reason is given quite to
tho ov,d