Evening star., 1941-08-09
Army Testimony
Seen ADVANCING
Arlington Site
Fight in Senate
In Prospect After
Committee Acts
BY J. A. O'LEARY.

Dy D. m " LLANIs
The War Department appeared
today to have made some headway
IN its fight to put all of its employees
under one roof in Arlington County,
Va, but the fate of the $35, 600, 900
project will hang in doubt until next
week.
The first test will come Monday,
when the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee votes on this and
other features of the s7,063 900, 900
supplemental defense bill. Senator
Adams, Democrat, of Colorado is in
charge of the bill
If the subcommittee approves all
or part of the huge three-story Of
flee structure. designed to house 40,-
600 workers, it will still face action
by the entire Appropriations Com
mittee and the Senate
There were some indications today
of fight on the floor regardless of
committee action. With hearings
still in progress today on other
phases of the defense measure, sub
committee members made it clear
they have had no opportunity to
count the number of votes for or
against locating the big war struc-
ture across the Potomac.
Navy Support Seen.
The indications that Army officials
have gained some ground are based
on reports of what developed in
lengthy closed hearing before the
subcommittee yesterday. High lights
of the day are understood to have
included the following:
The Navy, represented by Rear
Admiral Henry Williams, rallied to
the support of the Army in favoring
the Arlington County site, reported
ly for the reason that if all War De-
partment personnel is transferred
across the river, the Navy will get
additional space it needs by taking
over the Munitions Building and
other Offices now used by the Army
in Washington. This will eliminate
the necessity for the Navy to move
some of its activities to nearby Vir-
ginia, it was argued.
Although alternative sites in
Washington were discussed, sub
committee members who are inclined
to consider such an alternative are
said to have had difficulty in OBJ
tanning testimony, from those Of
f1cials who testified. as to the avail
ability of sites in the District ade-
Quate to meet the War Depart
ment's contention that its bureaus
should all be brought under one
roof.
= The Northwest rectangle west of
Nineteenth street, between E street
and the Potomac, authorized by
Congress in 1888 for new public
buildings, was put forward by the
Fine Arts Commission. The teSti-
mony is understood to have been to
the effect, however, that the street
layout would necessitate several
separate units.
Use of the Soldiers Home grounds
Is said to have been frowned on,
partly because Of the hilly topog-
raphy.
County Board in Favor. e
Another deveIopment was the
statement of F. Freeland Chew,
chairman of the board of Arlington
County, that the board members are
standing by the War Department
proposal to move into that county.
The original Army proposal,
adopted by the House, called for
use of the north end of the Arling-
ton Experimental Farm, which drew
the opposition of the Fine Arts
Commission on the ground that area
was intended for expansion of Arl-
ington Cemetery.
The Senate subcommittee also
heard testimony yesterday on an
alternative suggestion that the
building be erected further south
on property along the Columbia
pike which the Army had intended
to use for quartermaster warehouses
not far from a new Navy building
already under construction.
While this change would over
come the objections of the Fine
Arts group to interfering with Arl-
ington National Cemetery, it would
not eliminate the traffic and other
problems cited by the National
Capital Park and Planning Com
mission as likely to flow from the
transfer of SO large a clerical force
across the Potomac at this time
The Park and Planning group did
not oppose entirely the Arlington
County project, but recommended
its dimensions be cut in half at
this time.
Discount Traffic Troubles.
Army officials are said to have
made every effort before the sub
committee to combat the claims that
the necessity for thousands of en-
ployes to cross the Potomac to get
to and from work would create an
obstacle to their project.
They contended the bridges would
carry the traffic load, although ad-
mitting there would be need for
more or wider approaches to the
bridges at both ends. There is un-
derstood to have been testimony to
the effect that, at the Virginia end,
the Federal-aid highway program
would take care of that problem,
while at the District end similar
Improvements would come from Dis
trict appropriations.
President Roosevelt was sustained
by the House Thursday in vetoing
a special Federal highway bill for
defense needs because it sought to
apportion the money according to
the normal formula throughout the
country instead of on the basis of
defense needs in given areas. The
Senate subcommittee was told yes
terday a new bill is to be introduced
to take the place of the vetoed
measure.
Would Approve Approaches.
It was learned that should the
building be erected in nearby Arl-
ington County, the Army will allo-
cate as much as $7,000,000 of defense
highway funds to the improvement
and construction of approach roads
in Virginia.
District taxpayers, however, would
have to foot the bills-aggregating