Evening star., 1938-08-28
BY JESSE C. SUTER.
= HE time is rapidly approach
ing when the organized civ

ic forces of the District
a will resume their activities.
The announcement by Commission
er Melvin c. Hazen on Thursday
that public hearings on the 1910
District budget will be held Sep
tember - and l3 indicates that
there is immediate need for rep
resentatives of the various groups
to get ready.
Daily press releases have for
several weeks given in elaborate
detail the budget recommendation
of the various branches of the
District government 1t is expect
ed that many Of these will have
the hearty endorsement of the Of
fetal spokesmen for organized civic
Washington.
There were several interesting
civic developments during the past
week. The District of Columbia
Flag Commission, after examining
the various designs submitted for
District Of Columbia flag, were
unable to finally reach a decision
between the two which they con-
slider the best. These two designs
the commission voted to submit
to the Fine Arts Commission for
final selection. The indications
are that it is only a question of
short while before the District of
Columbia will be the proud pos
SCISSOR of flag of its own.
1t is expected that the Fine Arts
Commission will base it's final Sc
lection alone upon the artistic
merit of the design. The problem
of the selection of a District flag,
it thus appears, is to be solved by
groups of Federal officers and that
the Eank and file of the vote
less and unrepresented Americans
of the National Capital will have
no choice in the matter whatever.
Another event of the week was
the announcement of the COM
pletion of the survey OF the wa
ter system authorized under the
District appropriation act for 1898.
According to this report the Dis
trict taxpayer has paid for the
building Of this plant about three
times as much as the exclusively
controlling Federal Government
and a careful analysis will probably
show that some of the plant for
which the United States paid has
become obsolete and is no longer
in use.
The Public Works Administration
has approved another loan and
grant to the District of $1.6O0.000
for the enlargement and remodel
ing of the District Jail The erec-
ton of additions and remodeling of
the jail is humanitarian project
of urgent necessity. The civic
groups and the welfare officials
have long called attention to the
deplorable crowdine and unsani-
tary conditions prevailing at this
institution. 1t has been pointed
out from time to time that the hu-
man beings forcibly detained at
this institution did not enjoy near
the wholesome accommodations
provided for the animals at the
Zoo.
The allotment of the above
amount for the Jail construction
brings the total p w. A. approved
amount for the District to $7.83l,-
600. This leaves a balance of slO,-
2l9,O00 yet to be allotted of the en-
tire amount of $l8,l5O,000 author
lied by Congress.
Among the items not vet passed
upon by P w. A. include $500. 900
for a 2o0-bed addition to the Glenn
Dale tuberculosis Hospital, an ad-
vance to start the Municipal Gen.
ter, and funds to construct at least
one new branch of the Public Ii
hrary, To these pending requests
the District Commissioners have
added S240.000 to build a health
center, sl,080.o0o to build the first
half of the Fort Drive and a third
item submitted for approval Is
S55,0O0 for an addition to the
municipal highway garage at Sec
ond and Bryant streets NV.
Plans are going forward at the
District Building for additional
projects which are expected to be
announced from time to time by
the Commissioners before the dead
line is reached for such P. w. A.
allotmentS.