Evening star., 1937-09-03
PARK BOARD SEEN
VICTOR ON AIRPORT
Presidents Veto Believed
to ACCentuate Camp
Springs Site.

OF the bill to enlarge Washington
Airport was looked upon here today
as victory for the stand of the
National Capital Park and Planning
Commission. Significantly enough,
the commissions chairman is the
Presidents uncle, Frederic A. Delano,
and the Chief Executive largely fol-
lowed the planners thought on the
subject. -" ---' -----S71''-.-s' &C.
The veto action is believed to ac-
centuate the Camp Springs, Md, site
for Washington's major airport,
which will likely be considered in
the coming session of Congress-spe-
cial or regular. But the Navy De-
partment's fight against erecting an
airport in the vicinity of its almost
completed radio station at Chelten-
ham, Md. is an obstacle which that
measure will have to hurdle.
Scientists Gratified.
Department of Agriculture scientists
we're particularly gratified over the
Presidents action in saving for them
their So acres of rich bottom land at
the Arlington Experimental Farm,
which they have laboriously built
up through the years and which
would have been affected by the ex-
pansion plan. Officials at the de-
partment point out that it is par
ticularly desirous of having the ex-
perimental station convenient to their
Offices. Many scientists can go across
the Highway Bridge from lower Four
teenth street and conduct expert
mental work at the Arlington farm
and be back at their desks in the
Agriculture Department in COM
paratively short time.
The future of the Washington Air
port now remains in doubt, with
aviation interests demanding that it
be modernized. The National Capt.
tai Park and Planning Commission
has been insistent that if Military
road, which now bisects the airport,
were closed, compensating highway
should be constructed. The vetoed
measure would have provided for this.
Manager Has No Comment.
Sam ]. Solomon, manager of the
Washington Airport, said he had no
comment to make at this time on the
situation, but might have a statement
later.
The Bureau of Air Commerce is
trying to work out plan for eliminat-
ing landing hazards until permanent
measures can be carried out. These
include wind and runway restriction
at the airport and possible use of
Boiling Field as an emergency when it
is unsafe for transport planes to land
at the Washington Hoover Airport.
The commission based its obiec-
tion to the enlarging of the Wash
ington Airport on the grounds that
1t would bring the runways and the
big planes too near the Mount Ver-
non Memorial Highway, creating a
dangerous condition for motorists.
Under the Copeland-May measure,
which has now fallen under the ban
Of the Chief Executive, the southern
part Of Boundary Channel Bay would
have been filed in to permit the ex-
tension of the vunways.
Gravelly Point Long Favored.
For many years the commission
contended for an airport at Gravelly
Point, declaring that this could be
extended by filling in with hydraulic
f1lls-pumping up sand and gravel
from the bottom OF the Potomac
River-such as was done to create
the sections of the Mount Vernon
Memorial Highway that traverse
Reaches Run, Hunting Creek, Four
Mile Run and other points. Lately,
however, the commission has been
won over to the Camp Springs site
with the argument that the. size of
the new planes is such that greater
runways are demanded than could
be built at Gravelly Point.
Delano Is out of the city, spending
the Summer at Newburgh, N. Y, at
his home there. He Is expected back
In the National Capital when the
commission next meets on September
16 and II. At that session the air
port question will in all probability
b discussed, and the commission will
lay its plans for the coming session
Of Congress.