Evening star., 1932-12-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| amounted to anyway. when they had
| no power behind them.
Everybody has IN opinion about
almost everything and few ever have
any power over results.
The only result ts that their ideas
never amount to anything more than
thoughts.
The aggresate Of these thoughts, Of
course, Is public opinion, and public
Jones often wondered II 1t really Is.
Here Is city Of half q million per-
sons and scarcely one out Of hundred
thousand Of them has had the slight
est Say" In the physical reconstruc-
ton Of the city.
Most Of US, Jones thought to himself,
might as well be living In London for
all we have to- do with this building
program In Washington.
Properly constituted authorities, con-
stituted by Us, the people, let us never
forget, made the plans, or had the
plans made, solemnly approved them
and voted the money for their carry
Now they are being carried out and
the Post Once Department Building,
with its tall tower and its clock, is On
Jones hoped not. He still Cherished
the hope that this building would be
permitted to remain. He had heard
vague rumors Of . movement to
No doubt, he thought. he suffered,
along with q great many others, from
the European complex.
When the old building Is torn down
there will be nothing but straight
American all along the way.
And Templet0n Jones wondered-he
was always wondering about something,
thing-if America could afford to for
get Europe so completely as it has
done In its Skyscrapers and the like.
Walt Whitman was great old man.
HIS basic idea was right that we
peans afterward.
He could not have meant. however.
that we should divorce ourselves from
European thoughts and forms complete
ly. In the first place. 1t couldn't be
done, and. in the second. there would
be q distinct loss II we did succeed.
Consider that tower on the Post Once
Building.
II you like . tower, no amount OF
talk against 1t will change your opin-
ion, nor ever make you regard the build
Ing as anything but . proper sort Of
edifice.
The building thoughts Of the race are
shot through with towers. with steeples,
with peaks. with various adornments
over and above the rectangular.
Four straight sides, even If broken
with pillars, do not necessarily constt-
tute the ultimate dream In buildings.
There Is room for towers. Jones
thought. He would not give the Tai
Mahal for all the Office buildings In the
world, although he was willing to admit
that the Indian structure would make
poor Office building.
The best of the old should be kept
with the best of the new, that was his
idea, rather than to make a clean sweep
of it.
The artistic blending Of the old and
the new-that was the European idea.
he believed. The old was utilized. and
made use Of. not junked just because
1t was old, or did not fit in with some
body's ideas Of what ought to be.
Every person who. In his home. makes
use Of an old chair, when perhaps he
would rather have q new one. Is follow
ing the old-world model. rather than
the new We are all Europeans at
heart, which Is Just another way OF
saying that we are all human beings.
Templeton Jones, as human being,
finds something highly satisfying about
the old Post Office Department Build
ing. Even its ancient clock, which
often tells q different time on every
face, Is likable, he says.