Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-02
Completing the Job.


It's representatives in conference with
the Senate having been persuaded that
there is neither graft, scandal nor
hokum in the pending bill to appropri-
ate the additional $2,700,Q0O necessary
to complete the Mount Vernon Memorial
Boulevard, 1t Is to be presumed that the
House will as quickly approve the ap-
preparation and not hold the Federal
Government up to ridicule by leaving
this fine project half way finished, q
temporary monument to the fiurries
that beset the last days Of a congress
sional session.
Much Of the same doubt expressed in
the House on Friday, when the bill was
sent to conference, was expressed by
Senator Howell Of Nebraska when the
bill WIS before the Senate. The doubt
as to the justification for additional
FUNDS over former estimated cost may
have been well founded. But with ex-
plantations for the greater cost Of the
highway available to everybody, moth
ing much was or is to be gained by
wild and heated conjectureS, some OF
them implying that heinous scandal
ts being perpetrated in the name OF
George Washington under the very
dome Of the Capitol.
As the Bureau Of Public Roads ex-
plains, the Mount Vernon Memorial
Boulevard Is more than q mere road
building project. Representative Sim
mons of Nebraska shocked the House
trat1on Of the cost Of the road. Placing
the dollars In q row, he commended that
q line Of them stretching the fifteen
and q fraction miles traversed by the
highway would actually represent less
money than the cost Of the road. But
b make the illustration complete the
dollars should have been piled high,
one on top Of the other In places to
represent the expensive fills that have
been necessary; they should have been
spread out on each side, to indicate
the purchase Of park land that has
become an integral part Of the me-
mortal boulevard, and there should
have been an extra pile Of dollars at
one end Of the line to show the re-
construction work on the Virginia side
Of the Highway Bridge, with dredging
and filing operations near that point.
All Of the work done on the high
Way has been authorized by Congress
and total Of three and half millions
has been spent, with another million,
already appropriated, contracted for.
The additional money asked In the
pending bill is necessary to finish the
Job.
It should, of course, be finished. The
cost Of the project was originally based
on Q preliminary estimate which did
not take into consideration the ma
taxre Of the fills afterward shown, to be
necessary, the separation Of grades ct
the Highway Bridge or the purchase Of
some land that was cheaper to buy in
its entirety than to condemn In small
parcels. It may have been misleading
and confusing to estimate for one thing
IN the beginning and to enlarge the
plan al the work progressed. But the
plan was enlarged only upon permis-
Gion Of the Congress and its agent, the
Rtcentennial Commission.
Congress VIII be guilty Of . tragic
error II the pending appropriation Is
allowed 70 fail. It will have proved
nothing except that twelve bridges and
graded right Of way do not make q
memorial boulevard. Proof Of that fact,
o. q cost Of $4,000, 900 now spent or be-
ing spent, would be rather expensive.