Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-08
,5DO-M|LE CAPITAL .
AREA PLAN IS TOLD.
Eliot Declares Project Would
Carry Out Idea to Symbolic
Nations History.
Continued From First Page)

is located in the District. Two battles
between whites and Indians are record
ed in this area. These sites are being
acquired for parks in accordance with
which Braddock marched to the West
and others used by George Washington
and his neighbor, George Mason, re-
main integral parts of any regional
highway scheme. Nothing in our civil
lization seems to be as permanent as
street or highway location.
But the most significant part OF
the historical background Of the Wash
ington region lies in the long record Of
its development Washington and JEFF
ferson, the records intimate, expected
the Federal City at the head of tide
water on the Potomac to become the
principal seaport of the Atlantic Coast
and the chief outlet to the sea for the
great Western country. L'Enfant, the
engineer, fully realized the Importance
of historical associations, food to as
suage the human craving for what Is
sentimental at its worst and symbolical
at its best. His reports are replete
with the symbolic meaning of the
various features of his plan.
Provisions for Symbolism.
THE present period is one Of regional
planning involving an area of about
1900 square miles. This is the region
particularly responsive to the influence
of the present city. The plans for the
future of this area cannot but depend
upon all that has gone before"
In the development of the symbolism
of Washington in the past. he pointed
cut allowance has been made for circles
and statues preserving the memory of
various notable figures in American his
tory. But at present, he said. these are
mostly military figures. while the SYM
bolism should be extended to cover the
whole range of American history. es-
pecially the cultural and political. Thus,
he said, appropriate sites have been Sc
lected under the region plan for memo
rails to Jefferson, Monroe, Madison and
Woodrow Wilson. part of whose native
Virginia is included in the area.
The round-table discussion led by
of the District of CO. tmbia was devoted
largely to the possib lity of forecasting
the growth of cities and their adjacent
areas from statistical formulate derived
from the population and building trends
of the past. Previous efforts to do this
have resulted in some grotesque mis-
takes. it was pointed out. Mr.. Brownlow
described letter in the Jefferson COL
lection at the Library of Congress. The
sage of Monticello was accustomed to
90 every Spring to attend the perform
ances of the William and Mary College
players at Petersburg. va. One year
they went to New York /: stead. 1t was
a great mistake Jefferscn wrote, be-
cause it was obvious th,t New York
never could become such a dramatic
center as Petersburg.
Planned Eastward Extension.
The history of Washington itself, Mr..
Eliot said. illustrates Just such a mis-
take where psychology was too much
for well-ordered plans. Both Washing
ton and Jefferson planned for city eX-
tending eastward from the Capitol. But
when the first workers came to build
the public buildings the only place they
could find shelter was at Georgetown,
where there was an inn. From there
they had to ride or walk to work every
morning. They took fancies to various
sites they passed.. and chose these when
they came to build their own homes
rather than explore the unfamiliar
Northeast and Southeast sections.
The necessity of building govern
mental units in the future on the basis
of human regions" rather than on
arbitrary political regions. was stressed
by Lewis Mumford, New York critic.
The great states of the world and
DULL administrative
districts" he said, ARE the products of
political forces and events which have
only accidental relations to the under
lying geographic. economic and social
realities. The human region existed
as fact long before the political state,
as we know it, came into existence.
Regional planning includes cities,
villages and permanent rural areas as
part of the regional complex. Metro
politan planning regards the open sur
rounding country as doomed to be swal-
lowed up in the inevitable increase of
population. The regional planner seeks
to preserve the balance between the
agricultural and primeval background
and the urban environment.
Easy Access Necessary.
Easy access on the part of the city
resident to the country and vice versa
are necessary to their culture and edu-
cation. A type of metropolitan de-
velopment that makes such intercourse
difficult and tiresome must, the region
alist thinks, be deliberately overcome
Metropolitanism is. in fact, another
form of land skinning. In the interest
OF opportunities for financial killings
it ignores the natural capacities of site
and soil and continues to spread a uni
form urban layer over the countryside. ="
The city builders of the past, Mr.
Mumford said, produced an environ
ment that was good for machines and
money making, but was not good for
man. Art. culture, education and
recreation came as an afterthought, If
they came at all, after our one-sided
preoccupation with industry had ruined
o great many of their potentialities."
Thus Mr.. Mumford predicted the de-
velopment in the future not of bigger
cities but of urban areas consisting of
numbers of smaller cities bound by
good communication systems. Each of
these cities in the area-ranging from
5000 to 100000 in population-would
provide all the essential institutions
such as theaterS, stores, churches, etc.
In addition one would be the site Of the
areas university another of one kind
OF hospital, another of the art museum
and another of the science museum.
Will Have All Advantages.
These will provide all the advantages
of masSing populations, he said, and at
the same time relieve the increasing
congestion. Otherwise, he said, con-
gestion can be relieved only by pallia-
tives whose effect is rapidly destroyed
by further city growth.
When the discussion turned to uni
versity cities Mrs. Sarah Lee Fain,
member of the Virginia Legislature,
said that on a recent automobile trip
of approximately 1000 miles she had
inquired of gas station attendants and
girls 18th roadside hot dog stands as
20 their education. The majority of
:he younger ones, she found, were COL
.ege graduates, some holding higher
degrees, who couldn't find any other
way of earning a living. With educa-
ton such a drug on the market, she
intimated, the university city may not
need to plan for further growth.
This, it was suggested. is temporary
condition because college graduates