Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1935-10-18
TODAY AND
TOMORROW
BY
FRANK PARKER STocKBRIDGE

FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE
WASHINGTON Distance
Many years ago someone called
Washington "the city of magnif-
cent distances" and the appellatior
has stuck. l was again reminded Of
it last week, when on a trip to thu
Nations capital l had to call at a
dozen or more Federal offices.
Washington is more like the grea,
European cities than any Other
American municipality. Its growth
has been horizontal instead of YER
teal. About the ~tallest building If
the city is the National Press Club
and that is only 10 stories. Mos,
of the Government buildings are
under six stories high.
1t is not at all uncommon to have
to travel three or four miles, OF
farther, to get from one Govern
ment building to another, and III
the course of a day around Federal
offices the visitor has to walk along
literally miles of corridors.
1t occurred to me than one of
the reasons why Government bust
ness takes so long to transact may
be the time and energy wasted in
getting from one office to another.
Washington is not geared up to
speed and efficiency.
In Marble
Major L'Enfant, the brilliant
Frenchman who planned the Fed
eral city, conceived it as the most
beautiful city in the world. 1t
seems more beautiful every time
visit it-and I've known Washing
ton since 1881. In another fifty
years there will be nothing to COM
pare with it for beauty.
The Supreme Court moved into
the most beautiful of all Washing
ton buildings, last week. 1t is built
all Of white marble. Outside, Yer
mont marble, corridors of Alabama
marble, interior courts of Georgia
marble, floors of Italian, Spanish
and African marble.
Everything about the building is
freshly new and cleaning, except
the Justices chairs. They sit in
the old, comfortable chairs they are
accustomed to. When it was pro-
posed to buy a new chair for JUS
tice Cardozo, he replied that the
old chair that was good enough for
Justice Holmes for 20 years was
good enough for him.
TENANTS Everywhere
In spite of the multitude Of
Government buildings, there isn't
room for all the new Federal Of
fees. Uncle Sam is the biggest
tenant in Washington. After TAX
ing all the available office space
in town, public offices are spread
ing out into hotels, apartments
and private housese.
Some of the Temporary" build
ings put up during the World War
are still in use by Federal oxices.
Uncle Sam is Washington's larg-
est taxpayer. He pays half the cost
of running the District of Colum-
bia. In return for the Federal
Governments assumption of the
tax burden, the people of the Dis
trict, 80 years ago, gave up their
right to vote on local affairs. If
they want to vote on state or
national questions, they can do so
in their old home towns.
HOUSING Problem
I hear a lot about the housing
shortage" but I don't know of
any place where it is as acute as
in Washington. More than 100000
new Federal employees have been
trying to crowd into the city in
the past two years. There just
isn't room for them.
heard of one landlord who had
145 applications on file for his
next vacancy. Another built a
5O-family apartment house and
rented every apartment from the
plans before the foundations were
in! Rents are down most every
where else, but not in Washing
ton.
One result has been the splitting
of population away out into the
Maryland suburbs and across the
Potomac into the beautiful Virgin
ia hills. | met one Federal official
who scommutes" to Washington