The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-08-18
(NEA Service Writer)

 Washington.-The tourist crop here isn't quite what it was last year and visitors are more careful of their pennies, but the effect of depression on the size of incoming summer crowds seems surprisingly small.
 The capital remains America z prize sightseeing spot and at this time 1t presents better show than in any previous summer. A $200,000,O00 building and Identification program for Wash ington. the biggest thing of the sort ever planned by any government, has long since begun and all the way from the White House to the Capitol grounds you can see the vast program in various stages of raging and new construction. Museums Popular There is no means of checking the number of visiting sightseers, but within a year, according to the Smithsonian Institution, some 1.- 500,000 persons have entered it's four national museum buildings. Assuming that each sightseer went through the three principal build- HEB ludI WOulu iuGdu Aidll AhiA- lion individuals. The first half of the year even showed a slight increase | in visitors to these museums and there were 198.000 in June as com pared with 187,000 in June a year ago.
 Sixty-five thousand went up in the Washington monument in July as against 67.0O0 in July, 1880, all though previous months of this year had shown a decline of about 20 per cent.
 Guides at the Capitol estimate a 25 per cent drop in their business. but not in the number of visitors. Many persons, saving money. just won't pay q quarter a head to be guided. The local tourist camp is doing as well as usual because it gets what might formerly have been hotel trade. But 1t doesn't make as many sales. And you don't mo- tice the souvenir trade in Pennsyl- vania avenue shops fiourishing as well as 1t ordinarily does in the peak tourist months of June, July and August.
 Publicity Men Active Nevertheless, the Great National Capital committee of the board of trade Is whooping things up with prodigious efforts to sell Washing tons attraction to the rest of the country. This is the first big or ganized effort to attract the tourist business and conventions here. Booths. providing information and hotel reservations, have been set up on the main incoming highways and reports to demonstrate that summertime Washington is really comfortable despite its reputation for heat. Publicity for Washington Is being showered over the coun- try.
 There's a lot new to be seen since Aunt Hattie was here three years ago. Down by. the Lincoln Memor- ial now. for instance. there is the great Arlington Memorial bridge which will be opened in 1892 10 connect on the Virginia side of the Potomac river with the George Washington Memorial highway to Mount Vernon.
 The new government building is concentrated mostly in the 70-acre Triangle south of Pennsylvania avenue. The department of com merce building. largest office build ing in the world, is completed. It is costing us taxpayers $17.500, ,000, has more than q million square feet of floor space and 6 basement large enough to hold three ocean liners.
 Wrcckers Keep Busy
 The $10,0O0,O00 internal revenue building in the triangle is also fin- ished. Elsewhere you can see more wreckage and excavating than you ever saw before because the tri- angle will also contain the justice, labor, interstate commerce commis- sion. archives, post office, coast guard and independent office buildings.