Evening star., 1936-11-06
.|CKES AND DELANO
TO ASK PRESIDENT
To BAR AbATT0|R
Both Announce Plans to
Garry Fight on Plant
to White House.
SOME DELAY LIKELY 4
IN PRESENTING DATA
P. W. A. Housing Director Pre-.
pares Memorandum Hitting
Proposed Project.

Two prominent Federal officials, It
was learned today, are awaiting their
first opportunity to ask President
Roosevelt to intercede in behalf of the
public of Washington by blocking the
issuance of permit for Adolf Gobel,
Inc, to erect huge slaughter house
and rendering plant in close proximity
to present and planned park develop
ments in the Anacostia River area.
Both Secretary of Interior Ickes and
Frederic A. Delano, chairman of the
National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, announced they are pre-
pairing to carry the fight to the White
House Immediately.
De.ano wrote the District Commits
sioners today asking them to defer
Issuance Of the permit until he has
had an opportunity to lay the facts
before the President. Since Mr..
Roosevelt returned to the Capital only
today and is under business pressure
Of the highest importance, it is doubt
ful whether the two officials will be
able to take up the packing house
problem with him until tomorrow at
the earliest.
Meanwhile, Howard Gray, director
OF the P. w. A. housing division, had
prepared memorandum for Secretary
Ickes to place before the President.
This was done at the request of Ickes,
who is personally very much aroused
over the projected maintenance of a
public nuisance" In an area of Wash
ington in which the Park Service has
| q tremendous interest.
The site of the proposed packing
house, at Benning road and Kenilworth
avenue, both officials contended, would
have an odoriferous effect on large
section of Washington. They do not
believe there is any place in Washing
ton suitable for packing house.
Delano, the Presidents uncle, told
The Star today that he will leave no
stone unturned" in his efforts to keep
the packing plant and its offensive
smells" out of Washington. He ex-
planned he regrets very much the first
steps already taken to permit the
foundations to be dug for the Gobel
plant, especially as he had so much to
do with keeping a packing plant out
of Alexandria and Arlington County.
Project Site in Area.
Secretary Ickes recently started an
| investigation of the matter pending
| the Presidents return to Washington.
He is concerned not only on account
of the park area, but also because the
Housing Division plans at some future
time to erect a large housing project
near the site. Then, too, it was
learned, a cooperative group of navy
yard workers also is proposing to build
low-cost homes in the neighborhood.
A report on the plans of the Gobel
company. as submitted to the District
Commissioners, has been prepared for
Ickes by an engineer of the Housing
Division, H. S. Stoker, who is an ex-
pert on packing plants. These plans,
it was said, call for operations on
huge scale, requiring as many as so
carloads of animals day.
Delano is particularly concerned be-
cause of plans for the development
of the Anacostia park area. He
pointed out that the large park areas
in that section had been provided so
as to give the park system a proper
balance, most of the parks now being
located in the Northwest section. His
experiences with packing house con-
ditions in Chicago, st. Louis, Cincin.
natl and other cities, Delano ex-
planned, are enough to convince him
that no packing house should be op-
Grated in a city like Washington.
1t would be bad enough to operate
even a small packing house anywhere
within the city limits, he said, but the
fact that the Gobel plans call for
casing and rendering plants in addi-
ton make it more than ever pub
lie nuisance.
| Sewer Damages Feared.
Delano also pointed out the dam
aging effects which waste from these
plants would have on the sewer sys-
tenn of the city.
Such operations, in the opinion of
| Director Gray OF the Housing Division,
would seriously harm the section Of
the city along the Anacostia.
"Any one going through a modern
packing house, even an inspector, be-
comes saturated with the odors," he
said. THAT means that all the buses
and street cars which the workers use
on leaving the plant will be reeking
with SMELLS"
| There is also to be considered, he
claimed. the lowering Of property VAL
ues in residential areas.
Federal officials are in communica.
tion with the city authorities of Lynch.
burg, Va, who recently forbade the
establishment Of a second packing
house. in the city. This investigation
was being done by F. H. Walton,
specialist in packing house plants for
the Indian Bureau of the Interior De-
partment. Secretary Ickes, it was be-
lieved, probably would lay all the facts
in his possession before President
Roosevelt within the next few days.