Evening star., 1939-08-27
BY the Associated Press.

endary plight of Gen. Hart L. Stew
art has passed through the alchemy
OF the gag-makers.
Plenty of people in those days
thought Chicago was the rear en-
trance to creation.
Sand Hogs Hard at Work.
Look" they complained, pointing
disgustedly at the goo everywhere,
slime and muck, muck and slime,
and we're supposed to be building
a city out of this"
In goo of not dissimilar kind
men are sweating today. The blue
veins that underlie Chicago's mod
ern Loop" pulse with a strange
new life. They are bringing forth
subway, the troubled dream of
40 years.
Here sand hogs are digging at the
rate OF 80 feet day, working toward
next July l and the end of a Is
mile tunnel system which will cost
100000 900.
But this is more than sand hogs
and subway 1t is an epoch in the
history of the West. The Loop" is a
symbol of the strength that lies in
the backbone of the continent.
Within its less than a dozen blocked
rectangle, framed in the steel and
thunder of elevated train tracks, are
concentrated the wealth, the busi-
ness acumen, the romance and the
fun of the whole Midwest.
The grain of the Nations bread
basket" flows through its grain ex-
changes. The meat for Americas
dinner tables moves through its
cattle markets. With those two surge
the prosperity of the great farm
lands. THE Loop too, holds the
banks and the theaters. Great Lake
traffic brushes it on the Chicago
River and Lake Michigan, each but
block away. 1t is Chicago's Broad
way, Wall Street, North River and
Fifth Avenue all rolled into one
small space. 1t throbs with power
which, once felt, cannot be forgot
ten.
Eventually the new subway will
mean the end of the IL" girders that
gave "the Loop" its name-chris-
tened thus because trains from the
north and the west and south loop
over it to get turned around and
head back home.
"The most pretentious civic un-
dertaking since this city shook of
the ashes of the great fire." was the
way Secretary of the Interior Harold
1ckes, a Chicagoan, described the
ElfhUou urh hA
the P. w. A., first announced P. w. A.
funds would be granted to help
finance the undertaking.
Part of $500, ,oO0, 900 System.
The digging began last December
on two tube lines crossing under
'the Loop and connecting by ramps
to the IL" framework on "the
Loops" fringes.
In the end the subway is to be
only one part of $500 900 900 mod
ern co-ordinated pattern of all rapid
transit lines, surface streetcars and
motor highways.
In a general face-lifting, which
may require several years, the
Loop" will be freed not only of the
L." but of many streetcar lines.
Any old buildings that scar the
famed rectangle now will be replaced
by modern structures.
Subsurface passages for pedes-
trians are visioned as part of the
reconstruction. Safer because they
are divorced from surface traffic
jams, these passageways also will
be more convenient because they
will be lined with attractive shops
and will be closer to the fastest
mode of travel-the underground.
The experts expect many persons
who now drive their automobiles to
and from "the Loop" will use the
improved public facilities instead,
thus reducing traffic hazards.
Busy Intersection.
How great those hazards can be-
come appears in police reports show
ing that at the years shopping
peak-just before Christmas Is, 900
persons an hour shuttle across State
and Madison streets, one of the
worlds busiest intersections.
This amazing urban cross roads is
the very quick of "the Loop" which
less than a hundred years ago was
precariously near to the Indians.
1t rose from dismal frontier
town, pathetically exhibiting a sin
gle-story courthouse boasting
Greek portico as sign of an "artis-
tic" side, to community still be-
set with hardships but catching a
glimmer of its destiny; a central
station of the underground rail-
way of slavery days; a place not
wholly left out of national political
scenes, for at the ''Wigwam," at Lake
and Market streets, Abraham Lin
coin was nominated for the presi-
dency by the newborn Republican
party.
The dreadful fire of 1871, shock
ing the world and moving it to
rousing generosity, destroyed rude
ambitions along with ruder build
tngs.
Actualities outdistanced the an
cient dreams and fancies Of the
more imaginative. Railroads, pack
ing houses, mountains of mail, steel
these came to the new Chicago,
with much of all that Chicago
means to itself and to the rest Of
the world concentrating in the Loop.
The 1000 or so men now work.
ing underground on the subway are
more visible to the Loops ever
shifting population than are the
movements, some elemental and
others subtle and refined, which
form so much of the pattern of the
Loops swift day-to-day pageant.
Doo Euts Watermelon