Evening star., 1937-08-27
CHANGE |NNAMES
OF MALL DRIVES
DENIED BY VETO
Roosevelt Suggests Two
Other Plans in Disapprov-
Ing Resolution.
ACTION PRESERVES
POLICY OF JEFFERSON
Bill Authorizing Bridges at Balti-
more Also Vetoed on Advice
Of War Department.

President Roosevelt has vetoed the
House resolution designed to change
the names of the four East-West drives
In the Mall to Ohio, Missouri, Okla
homa and Maine avenues, it was an
nounced today at the White House
In a statement accompanying the
veto, which was recorded last night,
the President suggested that Concord
avenue and Riggs road be renamed
Ohio avenue; that Benning road or
Nichols avenue be renamed Oklahoma
avenue; that Reno road be renamed
Maine avenue, and that Linnean ave-
hue be renamed Missouri avenue. Mr.
Roosevelt remarked:
Under this set-up, the two States
OF Maine and Missouri would be
paired as they were in the Mall, re-
lationship which the congressional
representatives from these States
thought important to perpetuate.
LAS alternatives for Maine and Mis-
souri, avenues, I also suggest that
Water street might be renamed Maine
avenue and that Potomac avenue
could be renamed Missouri avenue
The surveyor of the District of Co.
lumbia has been contacted and sees
no objection to change in these
existing street names"
Would Change Policy.
The reason the President gave for
his veto was that changing the names
OF the East-West Mall drive would
result in complete change in the
policy established by Thomas JefTer-
son when the city was laid out by
LEnfant."
He added:
Jefferson named the diagonal ave-
nues after the l3 original States and
the rectangular streets were lettered
and numbered. Moreover, the Mall
drives are in no sense city streets, but
are park roads, none of which has
ever been given State names
The Mall drives which the vetoed
bill sought to change the name of now
are designated as Washington, Jeffer-
son, Adams and Madison drives In
this connection the Presidents state
'ment continued;
The National Capital Park and
Planning Commission felt that it
would be more appropriate to name
the Mall drives after the first four
Presidents, whose names are so closely
associated with the Constitution and
the Declaration Of Independence, al
ready memorialized in the act of Con-
gress in so naming the two avenues
bounding the MALI
Bay Bridge Bill Vetoed.
At the same time the President We
toed a bill which would have per-
mitted construction of a bridge across
Chesapeake Bay, another bridge across
the Patapsco River between Baltimore
and the bay, as we'll as two other
bridges which the State of Maryland
wished to construct over navigable
waters in Maryland and Virginia
Mr.. Roosevelt's unfavorable action
was prom pied by the War Department.
which contended that building the
Chesapeake and Patapsco bridges
would interfere with the full use of
Baltimore as a port, both from the
standpoint of commerce and of
national defense"
The veto message added that "the
Federal Government has expended
more than $16,000,0OO to improve and
develop the port of Baltimore for
commerce. Commercial statistics re-
veal that the exports and imports,
foreign and domestic, handled through
the port of Baltimore for the year
1885 totaled over 100000 tons with
. value of approximately $615, 1000 900.
This commerce is constantly in
creasing 1t is apparent that the
investment Of the Federal Govern
ment and the heavy commerce must
be adequately safeguarded for the
unobstructed use of the ships from
the oceans of the whole world"