Evening star., 1941-08-20
WeII-Deserved Rebuke

Department building near the front
entrance to Arlington National
Cemetery carries with it Well-de-
served rebuke to an ill-conceived
scheme which constitutes a serious
setback to orderly and intelligent
city planning in the National Capital.
The present plan calls for the erec-
ton of a huge concrete structure
covering thirty-five acres of ground
on the site of the Arlington expert
mental farm. Into this colossus
among office buildings would be
herded a maximum of 10000 workers,
and their transportation to and from
their homes-largely in the District
would present a traffic problem of
staggering proportions. When to
these considerations there is added
the fact that the War Department
scheme was submitted to Congress
without advance notice and without
affording the Fine Arts Commission
or the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission any opportu-
nifty to pass on it, it is easy to under
stand why the President saw fit to
class the project as a eliminating
incident in the history of the desc
Grafton of parks by Government
buildings. There is no doubt, as the
President said, that this plan, if car
ried out, would mar for hundred
years the stately beauty of the Po-
tomac Park setting, from the Lincoln
Memorial across the river to the
slopes of Arlington National Gene
terry and the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier. From an esthetic stand
point, it is unthinkable that this
magnificent vista, the product of
long years of careful planning, should
be destroyed by one hasty, ill-con-
sidered act, and as the President
goes more deeply into this question
he also will discover that formidable
physical obstacles, as well as eSthetic
considerations, were overlooked or
ignored by the sponsors of this War
Department plan.
Mr.. Roosevelt indicated his belief
that there is no reason why the
needs of the War Department for
more space cannot be met within
the scope of the so-called Northwest
Rectangle plan, and this is an atti-
tude which will be highly gratifying
to those public officials who have
labored so long and so carefully in
working out this program for de-
velopment of the Federal establish
ment. After many years of study,
Federal planning authorities recon-
mended, and Congress approved,
extension of the governmental
building program westward from the
White House toward the river. In a
spacious rectangle west of the new
Interior Building were to be placed
two main groups of office buildings
having to do with defense. The first,
a new home for the War Department,
was authorized by Congress by act
of June 25, 1888, and the first unit
of this building has been completed.
Other units were to be added, and a
S24,0OO,OO0 Navy Department group
was to be erected just west of the
Naval Hospital, which was to be
taken down. Sponsors of the Arling-
ton War Department site presumably
were prepared to scrap this carefully
planned program, but, as the PreSi-
dent has pointed out, such reckless
disregard of intelligent planning is
AS he suggested, there
is no reason why the emergency
needs of the War Department cam
not be satisfied by adding new units
to that already built and promptly
going ahead with construction of the
Navy buildings, the latter to be used
by the War Department during the
emergency and turned back to the
Navy when the war is over. If that
were done, there would be no reason
to throw up acres of emergency Office
space in a prospective park area for
the War Department, for which there
would be little if any real need after
peace comes.
Because of the hasty manner in
which this ill-advised project has
taken form, the residents of Wash
ington who are una]terably opposed
to what they believe will be a desc
Grafton of the Capital must look to
the President to intervene. He has
not disclosed what he intends to do,
if he decides finally against the
undertaking, but if he can work out
some arrangement under which the
Arlington plan would be
abandoned in favor of the orderly
and dignified program already
out, he will have made a
contribution to the maintenance of
the National Capital which would
command the gratitude of Americans
today and for hundred years to
come.