Evening star., 1932-02-23
CAPITAL IS LAUDED
BY BRUCE BARTON
Author Traces Development
of Washington in Radio
Address.

Bruce Barton, author and advertising
executive, does not believe any one can
really know America until he has seen
its Capital
This tribute was paid Washington
last night during the program Parade
of the States" sponsored by General
Motors Corporation and broadcast over
the coast forecast hook-up of the Ma
tional Broadcasting Co. The entire
program was dedicated to the District
of Columbia and the George Washing
ton Bicentennial.
District Survey Yesterday"
Measured against the background Of
human history. it was only yesterday
that George Washington and Pierre
lEnfant, the young French engineer,
tramped the 10 miles square beside the
Potomac, seeing visions, shaping the
plan of a noble capital" Mr.. Barton
said.
"Ten years later, in 1900. the gov
ernment staff of l3l clerks moved
down from Philadelphia and found only
few boarding houses and temporary
Shacks- along the rutted muddy cart
track. now Pennsylvania avenue. All
else was wilderness.
I'm the east room of the White House,
then not even plastered, Abigail Adams,
wife of the second President, hung out
her washing. To fence rail in front
of the Capitol Building Thomas Jeffer-
son tied his horse and, stalking into the
Senate chamber, took the oath of Office.
This was yesterday. Today from the
gallery of that same Senate chamber
one can in imagination picture the
whole panorama of our national life.
One hears the thunder Of Webster S
voice, the persuasive eloquence of Cal
houn and Clay. Every chair has held
its great man. History comes near.
All Have Memories.
"No street or avenue but has its hal
lowed memories; no building is without
some treasure which alone would repay
pilgrimage.
In the Library of Congress you can
see the Declaration of Independence in
JefersonS handwriting, with the cor
rections of Adams and Benjamin Frank
| lin between the lines. There, too, is the
engrossed original of the Constitution.
At the State Department you can see
the emancipation proclamation, in the
hand Of Abraham Lincoln, and in the
National Museum Washington's sword
| and the desk at which jefferson penned
the Declaration.
hliClC III Tic NdILOIldl MuSeuIIl hTc
parts OF the FIRST American steam en-
gine, the Benjamin Franklin printing
press, the More telegraph, Howes sew
ing machine, Edison's first tinfoil
phonograph and Lindbergh's plane, the
Spirit Of st. Louis The whole thrill
ing record Of Yankee ingenuity unfolds
itself thGe-America' stupendous con-
tr1bution to the making Of the modern
world
View From Monument.
From the top of Washington Monu-
ment you can see far down the Poto-
mac, toward Mount Vernon Across
the river in Arlington rest the heroes
of six wars. To the northwest lies his
| toric Georgetown. And almost at your
very feet that sacred shrine wherein
sits the tragic, lonely, marble form of
Llncoln-the noblest Memorial ever
erected by a people to a leader whom
| 1t loved.
"All this is Washington-a vast
! cathedral, housing the Nations monu-
ments, typifying its ideals. And today,
along historic Pennsylvania avenue, you
can see with your own eyes the begin
ming OF the colossal enterprise in capi-
tai building which, when completed,
will bring to realization the exalted
dream of our first President Not until
you have seen your country's Capital
| do you really know America See it,
| feel 1t. The traditions of the past will
grip your heart. The actualities of the
present will thrill you to the center of
your being. Prouder than ever you will
be TO say, Il, too, am an American"