Evening star., 1932-12-11
RIGGS AND CUMMING HIT PLAN
FOR OUTLYING MEDICAL CENTER
Oppose Moving Naval Hos.
pitaI and Health Serv-
ice Units.
Admiral Holds Present Site
Has Enormous Value
to Nation.

Service are immovably firm in the con-
viction that their properties near the
banks of the Potomac River, along
Twentythird street, at Constitution
avenue, should remain there This is
counter to the suggestion of the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning Com
mission, as revealed In its recently pub
lished annual report, that both the
Naval Hospital and the Public Health
Service group adjacent to it to the
northward be moved south of Walter
Reed Hospital to create great medical
] center there.
| To the commissions suggestion the
Navy and the Public Health Service
vigorously shake their heads in dissent.
| Rear Admiral Charles E. Riggs, U.
S. N, chief of the Bureau of Medicine
and Surgery, Navy Department, and
surgeon general of the Navy, is ada
mant in the belief that the Naval Hos
! pital should stay just where 1t is.
| Equally as firm is Surg. Gen. Hugh S.
| Cumming of the Public Health Service,
| who sees no point to moving his labora-
tory, particularly when Congress has
recently given funds to add to his estab-
| lishment.
Site Valuable to Patients.
| "It would be a shame to turn over
such an important site on the banks
Of the Potomac River, where the Naval
| purposes" said Admiral Riggs. "Such
| q building would be occupied but eight
hours a day--now but f1ve-and-a-half
| days week. With economic stress de-
| manding that there be shorter work
| week, such building would likely be
occupied but four or five days, at most,
| in the near future.
THE Naval Hospital occupies the
| site, housing the sick of the service and
| patients of the Veterans Administra-
| ton, for "a hours a day and seven days
| a week-and will continue to do so as
| long as the President of the United
| States and Congress permit us to stay"
Admiral Riggs called attention to the
fact that plans for the new Naval Hos
| pital, which Congress has authorized to
be constructed on the Potomac River
| bank site, are nearing completion.
These have been produced by the Allied
| Architects, Inc, under an allowance of
| 100000 for plans. These plans could
| not be made to fit any other site, for
| they have been evolved, because Of the
peculiar terrain, the landscaping and
other planning features, to meet this
specific problem, he explained.
100000 Waste Seen.
ITO move the Naval Hospital else
| where would, In effect, be wasting $780,
900 of the peoples hard-earned money
in these times of depression, when every
dollar is needed" Admiral Riggs assert
ed. The plans are now about COM
pleted and require only appropriation OF
funds for the building to proceed"
The chief Of the Bureau of Medicine
and Surgery said that any proposal to
move the Naval Hospital to site south
| Of Walter Reed Hospital-or elsewhere
from the present site-would mean that
additional funds must be expended,
from an already depleted Treasury, to
| say nothing of the cost of producing
entirely new plans.
Why should a sorely-pressed Federal
Government spend funds for an entirely
new site for the Naval Hospital when
! we already have the land. owned by
| the Navy, on the shore of the Potomac
River, and practically completed plans
in our pocket?" Admiral Riggs asked.
Men Paid Part of Cost.
But, he emphasized, there is a more
cogent reason why the Naval Hospital
should not be moved elsewhere. A large
share OF the money that went to build
the Naval Hospital here has come out
of the Naval Hospital fund, to which
each officer and enlisted man of the
Navy and Marine Corps contributes 20
| cents month. This fund is built up
by this 20-cent contribution from each
man in the service; from fines and
forfeitures realized from courts martial;
from the sale of hospital property, when
| authorized by Congress, and from pen
d, sion allowances and other funds paid
men while they are hospitalized. Funds
! for the maintenance and upkeep of the
hospitals and for purchase of scientific
equipment come largely from this Naval
Hospital fund, he said. Admiral Riggs
money is not from the public Treasury,
but is deducted from each months pay
envelopes of the personnel Of the Navy
and Marine Corps.
The Public Buildings Commission,
which rules where public buildings
should go, has already overruled the
proposal to place the Naval Hospital
elsewhere, Admiral Riggs said. He re-
called that both Senator Smoot, Re-
publican, of Utah, chairman of that
| commission, and his colleague, Senator
A swanson, DelllOCIdl, VI lldEC
Joined with the other members in BAN
ming any moving of the Naval Hospital.
The Navy is entitled to the site oc-
cupied by the Naval Hospital by ira
dition and on historical grounds, in the
opinion of Admiarl Riggs Referring to
the site as Humanity HILL" the ad-
miral explained that it contains not
only the Naval Hospital, but the United
States Naval Medical School, the United
States Naval Dental School, as we'll as
the United States Hygienic Laboratory
of the Public Health Service. The naval
institutions coach nurses and Hospital
Corps men, in their duties, as well as
officer personnel.
Cites L'Enfant Plan.
THE present site of the Naval Hos
pital best fulfills LEnfants plan, which
contemplated the eminence as crowned
with scientific and educational build
ings," Admiral Riggs said.
For nearly a century, the admiral as
serted the Navy has occupied the site
on which the Naval Hospital stands. 1t
is rich in tradition, for to this day
Braddock's Rock, on which the famous
British general stood, after sending his
troops across the Potomac River en-
route to Fort Duquesne, is pointed out.
In 1912 Congress authorized the erec-
ton of a naval observatory on the site
There 1t stood, until in 1893, it was
moved to the present location on
Georgetown Heights. The old observa-
tory structure was transferred to the
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in 1894
and served as a Museum of Hygiene
until 1902 From that time 1t has been
used by the United States Naval Medi-
cal School, In 1901 the Navy trans
ferred five acres of the hill to the
Treasury Department as site for the
Hygienic Laboratory of the United
States Public Health Service The ad-
miral said that new structures are now
being erected there for research by the
Public Health Service, and these, under
any reshuffiing, would have to be rede-
| signed for other OCCUPANCY.