Evening star., 1932-07-10
Fifty Years Ago
I'm the Star

Hope for the early undertaking of
the work of improving the Potomac
River at Washington
Potomac River was set back Sc
Improvement. fusai H Of of tRe He Sc: Senate
Committee on Commerce to incorporate
the pending measure to that effect in
the annual river and harbor bill as a
means of insuring its enactment at the
current session. The Star of July 6,
1882, says.
THE Senate Committee on Com
merce seem to have excluded the Poto-
mac River front and the flats from the
river and harbor bill on purely techni-
cal grounds, for the reason, no doubt,
that they could find no better excuse.
The committee did not consider the
proposition upon its merits. Had they
done SO it would probably have ap-
pealed so strongly to their better judg-
ment that they would have endeavored
to find place in the bill for the ap-
preparation, even perhaps at the ex-
pense Of the Hennepin Canal or some
Of the insignificant inland streams
which Nature intended should never
float q craft larger than four-oared
barge. The reclamation Of the flats,
the committee considered, was not en-
tirely designed for the benefit or in
terest of commerce; therefore it could
not properly have place in the river
and harbor bill
IF the committee had glanced at the
bill, which has occupied their attention
for days, they would have discovered
an appropriation of millions OF dol
lars, which Is open to precisely the
same objection that was made TO the
fats appropriation. That enormous
appropriation is not intended exclu-
siyely for the benefit of commerce. One
of its purposes is to protect an exten-
sive and fertile area from injury by
overflow. That Is not q commercial
object.
"The reclamation Of the fats would
protect the Capital OF the Nation from
the rayages of insidious malaria and
greatly improve the sanitary condition
of the city. 1t would remove the only
plaeue spot in the vicinity OF the seat
of government and would beneft the
hundreds of thousands OF non-res1-
dents whose business or pleasure calls
them here annually, just as much as IL
would benefit the residents. 1t would
convert the unsightly and pestlentlal
bottoms into a beautiful park that
a credit to the Nation and source OF
pleasure to millions. All this, to say
nothing Of the deeper channel and bet
ter harbor which the Improvement
would provide, thereby beneflting COM
merce sufficiently to entitle the matter
to consideration in connection With the
river and harbor bill.
cit is not too late yet for the COM
mittee to do itself the credit ana the
Nations Capital the justice OF prov1d-
ing for this all-important work. The
members of the Commerce Committee
themselves, certainly majority OF
them. concede the paramount impor-
tance of reclaiming the flats and beau
tifying the river front and are willing
to vote money for that purpose. Then
why, at this late day, when there is
not time enough left to present the
subject as a separate measure and have
it receive consideration in both houses,
permit the appropriation to fail be-
cause it is not altogether for CONNER
cial purposes or because another COM
mittee ought more properly to report
it? If the committee are unwilling to
increase the total Of the river and har-
bor bill by the whole amount estimated
as necessary for the fats improvement,
let them appropriate a part, sufficient
to inaugurate the work this Summer
and carry it on until the next session
of Congress can provide for its con-
tinuance."
4 X
An autopsy was performed on the
body Of Guiteau, the executed assassin
- of President Garfield,
Gulteau and the report of 1t was
Autonsv printed in The Star,
nuIoPSy' which in its issue Of July
7, 1882, said editorially:
"Dr. Lambs report Of the Guiteau
autopsy consists merely of technical
terms, which are probably ineligible
enough to the medical fraternity, but
which contain little information to the
average professional reader. In
order to describe the exact condition
of the assassin's brain and othef or
gans and define what was discovered
in minutest detail, anatomical terms
had necessarily to be employed. The
public, however. comprehends enough
Of the report to understand that moth
ing was found tending to controvert
the settled opinion that the assassin
was not insane. The editor of the
medical journals to which the report
was sent for publication-in the opin-
lon Of the profession very high author
lty-asserts that 1t presents nothing to |
lvsAirafa an rfuSnaifd mind