Evening star., 1938-10-16

to the local institutions which conflne
others in sickness or in need.
The "rubber-neck" buses pass along
tree-lined streets and some OF the
finest residential sections to be found
anywhere to reach their destinations.
They see a Washington garbed in
fine outer raiment but fail to see
its shabby undergarments.
Stepchild of the National Govern
ment, the District needs the demands
OF Congress and spends a major por-
ton of the taxpayers money to
maintain its share Of the National
CAPITAL In a style to which it has
become accustomed Too frequently
it has been forced to sacrifice the
essential needs of its own public
institutions for externals to keep up
with the Joneses.'
A visit to the District Building and
a knowledge of the years OF campaign
ing necessary before Congress Woulo
authorize an expenditure to start the
first unit of a new Municipal Center
to house adequately all the activities
of the local government might prove
an education of another kind to the
average sightseer why, the city hall
back home would put the District
Building to shame" most OF them could
say truthfully,
Some of them may have read in the
newspapers several years ago the caus-
tic comment of Attorney General
Cummings about the manifest made
ouacies" of the District Jail, to put
1t mildly. Perhaps the news leaked out
of Washington that conditions in the
iail had been the subject OF spasmodlc
congressional Investigations. But they
wouldn't know that out of these public
INQUIRIES next to nothing came in the
form of relief.
Crowding in Cells.
They might visit the jail on typical
busy day and see hundreds of prisoners
crowded into cells designed to accom-
modate only third of that number.
They would be impressed unfavorably
with the sanitary arrangements that
have given District health officers
cause for alarm. In 1873, when the
svo existing wings were built, the jail
was a source of new civic pride. In
1888 it is ready for the scrap-heap.
Adjacent to the Jail is another great
public institution that has Jared bet
ter in the way of Improvements, but
whose physical needs are far frqH
satisfactory and also are outmoded.
It is Gallinger Municipal Hospital
long the subject of criticism and oc-
easionally the subject of public in
ruiries.
Like the prisoners in the Jail, the
patients at Gallinger have been the
hapless victims of overcrowded wards
some Of them stignatized as fire
traps" by public investigators and the
press. New scientific equipment is
needed, more adequate medical build
inRs are essential, and better quarters
are equally desirable for the staff and
nurses.
Gallinger is one of the many local
institutions that have suffered because
the District must spend more and
more of the taxpayers money to join
its main thoroughfares with the ever
expanding suburbs, whose mushroom
growth is. due largely to the influx
of nearly $4,000 Federal employees
under the New Deal.
The District boasts as fine a public
school course of instruction as can be
found anywhere for its 100000 pupils,
and to general appearances its physical
equipment is all that can be desired
But new high schools and elementary
school buildings spotting the city are
apt to camoufage the real needs OF
the public school system.
With scores of buildings outdated
and some of them pronounced unsafe,
the Board of Education had drawn up
a $4,000, 900 school program based on
projected enrollments through 1912
and needs for replacing obsolete build
ings Some of the buildings are 10
years old or more. and many of them
currently in use have had upper floors
condemned as unsafe for class use.
School Funds Cut.
The board had asked for more than
s4,5O0O00 to provide new buildings
and additions for the 1889 fiscal year.
Congress cut this amount more than
tvo-thirds, appropriating Sl,568,650.
This was sufficient only to complete
the Calvin Coolidge Senior High School
for white children, provide for senior
colored high school, new white ele-
mentary school and few small ad-
ditions which could be put of an
other year
The Board of Education could suf-
fer only in silence but the unoff1clal
voices of the District-its neighbor-
hood citizens aSsociations-have been
loud in registering their kicks over
the neglect of the schools.
Among the most popular sightSee-
ing trips are along WaShington's beau
tiful George Washington Memorial
highway to Mount Vernon, across the
bridge to Arlington National Gene
terry and through the new parkway
connecting Rock Creek Park with
West Potomac Park Few world
capitals can equal such splendors of
scenery
Strangely enough one often hears
remarks about the absence of bath
ers in the river within convenient dis
tances of Washington. Even Rock
Greek in midsummer is free Of chill
dren wading in its cool waters The
reason is known well enough to all
Washingtonians The Health Depart
ment has issued warnings for years
against the risk of bathing in either
waters
Visitors are unaware Of the muck
from city sewers that flow into the
Potomac from Rock Creek and the
Anacostia Rivers. On hot murky days
they could smell the odors along the
Rock Creek and Potomac driveways
but they little dream Of the pollution
problem as being real menace to
health and recreational use of the
waters.
The step-child District Government
too frequently is forced to sit at the
foot of the table while choice servings
OF Federal consideration are doled out