Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09
By GEORGE A. KICKER.


By GEORGE A. KICKER.
That Washington occupies a plac
high up In the list of the worlds mos
beautiful cities is q fact well know
to all Americans; that it has also at
tanned an enviable position by virtue
Of its achievements In city engineering
and city planning Is fact not so vel
known or understood. The city beau.
tiful has become the city useful; it
population Of q half million or more
Is no longer expected to exist on beauty
alone. In this era of unregulated city
growth with its concomitant evils Of
noise, congestion and stencil, Wash
tngton is emerging as the antithesis OF
all Of this-a livable, healthy, useful
city.
When in 1901 Maj. Pierre c. Len
fant's Washington included only 912 OF
the Districts 100 square miles and his
plan covered thousands of unoccupied
acres, the problems of sanitation and
communication were comparatively sim
pie. President John Adams could battle
IN the waters of the Potomac in the
back yard Of the White House and
Southern Congressman guided their
mounts between ash heaps and around
mud holes on Pennsylvania avenue to
the Capitol.
After Boss Shepherd" took the town
by the nape of the neck and shook 1t
down for a few millions of needed i'm
provementS, it was a much healthier
place to live in and had what every
well regulated town today has-a good
sized mortgage to pay of. The town
soon outgrew its L'Enfant clothes and
stretched its legs and arms out into
the lovely hills and wales of the District.
Unguided, misguided, it grew, for the
time being misshapen and diSorderly
until sheer necessity brought forth the
Mcmillan plan of Encouragement in
1901. AS so often occurs, the plan
seems to have allayed discomfort and
nothing much happened to put 1t into
effect Many years passed and the big,
overgrown village, the stepchild Of Con-
gresS, needing its streets Strengthened,
connected and paved, its sewers enlarged
and heightened, new water supply,
more parks and bathing facilities, found
itself all at once the Capital of world
ct war.
Awakening Then Came.
Thousands on thousands of patriotic
young men and women and "dallor-a-
year" men came and camped out It
was an era of five or six girls in g.
room, cooking their own meals on a
small stove in the basement, boys
bunked in two and three storied cots
and grub stalking themselves at chain
store groceries with food at war prices
and mo meat" and mo heat" days
every week, and then the flu. Who can
forget It? Two or three Of the i've
girls in the one room were gone in
day or two; the boys, mostly those
winnowed out of the draft as unfit for
military service, fell one by one. All that
IL Ar1S - od
Cross could do did not alleviate condi-
tiuns much, and the slaughter behind
the lines" right in the world Capital
went ON until the dread malady spent
itself with an appalling death toll.
It Is not pleasant to think about, but
q helped to awaken the people of Wash
tngton and Congress to the physical
needs Of the overgrown village that had
SO quickly become great city. Full
speed ahead was ordered, temporary
housing was provided, and civil and
military authorities co-operated to i'm
prove sanitary conditions And Just
as some order was evolving from the
chaos Of neglect, Armistice day came,
the pressure Of great necessity was
withdrawn, and the camp began to
demobilize.
Held by the charm Of washington,
many of its war workers stayed, adding
materially to its permanent population.
Temporary governmental control and
regulation of business instituted under
war conditions was to some extent made
permanent, and commissions and de-
partments, created hurriedly, were re-
organized and housed for peace time
service in the temporary buildings
erected, for the most part, on park
lands.
Measures and methods in effect to
care for the health Of the people in
the war growth had now to be recon-
sidered and made operative for great
~ increased permanent population and
an enlarged business community. Pub
lie utilities, which before the war had
reached their maximum Of usefulness,
demanded immediate extension and en-
1argement. The overgrown village had
become in two short, hectic years q
great throbbing center with new hopes
and ambitions, and the people de-
manded physical and spiritual improve
meuts commensurate with their new
life. Above all, the health-giving and
Notwithstanding utilities which had been
overworked had to be Immediately en-
1arged to meet the new needs.
Planning Is Revived.
Realization that washington needed
more and better parks led to the crea-
ton, in 1924, of the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission, which
two years later was given power to
acquire additional lands and was
charged with the duty of supervising the
Mcmillan highway plan Of the District
and the preparation of complete and
co-ordinated plan of the Nations Cap
itsl and the region surrounding 1t
through cooperation with the adjoining
States of Maryland and Virginia. A
subcommittee of the commission, known
rs the "Co-ordinating Committee" made
I'D Of District and Federal officers and
q representative of organized citizen
ship, devoted itself to the modification
Of the highway plan to provide better
traffic facilities and adjustment OF the
street system to natural topography and
park boundaries.
Col. U. S. Grant, Sd, in describing
the work Of the commission Tor the
suitable and proper development Of the
city's facilities. says: THE natural adj
vantages Of the site and location Sc
lected by the President to whom 1t is
q living memorial are such that TO the
unitarian features may be added, at
relatively reasonable cost, the embel-
Ishment which, with the preservation
and suitable development Of its natural
beauties, viii make 1t express the SOUL
of America and when viewed by an
American citizen will arouse his mag
anation and stir his patriotic pride"
For rs years after Maj. bEnfan'
conceived his plan in 1871. the city
beyond the ek square miles encom'
passed by Boundary street (now Florida
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