Evening star., 1933-11-20
D. C. Center and National Relief.

Hope persists that an allotment OF
funds from the $4,000 900 public
works appropriation may be given for
the construction of the first unit of the
projected Municipal Center for the
judicial establishment of the District of
Columbia. An analysis of proposed ex-
penditures for this unit Of the Center
has been submitted by District officials,
showing that more than four-f1fths OF
the money allotted would go outside
OF the Capital.
This demonstration of division of
the benefits of the expenditures for the
Municipal Center Is made in recogni-
ton of the unwillingness of the Public
Works Administration to grant further
allOtrnents Of the fund for constructions
in Washington. on the ground that the
primary purpose of the great grant of
Federal money is for the stimulation OF
employment and relief Of distress
throughout the country. The District
engineers estimate that of the total of
IS 100000 which the first Municipal
Center unit will cost, s4,O65 900 will
actually be spent in twenty-eight States.
However the division of benefits may
work out as an equation, the fact re-
mains that the projected Municipal
Center unit is urgently needed and
should be placed in the list of works to
be speedily undertaken as necessity as
we'll as. incidentally a contribution to
national recovery.
Nothing will be gained by delay of
this project. On the contrary, much
will be lost, in administrative efficiency,
and, furthermore, in delayed CO. ordina-
ton of the Governments own building
plans. While it is not proposed to
erect Immediately on the site acquired
the administrative unit of the Mu-
nicipal Center, the fact remains that
the whole plan Of District government
housing links into the Federal plan of
constructions, inasmuch as the present
District Building is destined to be
worked into the great unit now in con-
struction on the area between Twelfth
and Fourteenth streets, Constitution
avenue and E street, by either archi-
tectural amalgamation or reconstruction
Until the Districts administrative quar-
ters are housed on the Center" site,
that unit cannot be developed in ac-
cordance with its original plan.
Delay in this matter is disadvan-
tageeus both to the District, which ur-
gently needs the equipment to be af-
forded by the constructions now sought
on the Municipal Center site. and to
the Federal Government, which as ur-
gently needs to bring its own housing
the Mall-Avenue Triangle project.
The distribution of the Federal allot-
ment for structure in the District of
Columbia over wide area and among
q multitude Of workers in the States, as
demonstrated in the showing just made |
to the Public Works Administration in
the case Of the first Municipal Center |
unit, is characteristic Of all construc-
ton enterprises in Washington. Every |
large building erected IN the District,
public or private, Federal or municipal,
1s fabricated Of materials produced
elsewhere. These materials must be
brought to the site as freight. The
labor for their production and prepare
ton Is provided by other communities,
mostly at considerable distance. When
more than eighty cents out of every dol
lar expended for a District municipal
building goes to craftsmen and laborers
md their employers in twenty-eight OF
the States, there can be no valid OBJ
lection 10 immediate application 0l this
emergency fund for a necessary con-
struction enterprise in the District on
the score that this fund is designed to
be spread as broadly as possible for
the stimulation of employment.