Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-26
Every Citizen
Should Visit
The Capital
Modern Wonder
Of World by Runyon
BY DAMON RUNYON

MO AMERICANS should go
\ anywhere else until they
have seen Washington, d. 1T
should be required visit before
a railroad ticket is sold or
passport issued to any OF our
citizens for any other city or
country in the world. That is,
barring strictly business trips, OF
course.
We are quite serious. If we
were running things we would
endeavor to figure out a way to
transport every boy and girl in
the country at the impression
able age to Washington for a
stay of at least a week.
We would take there every
adult who has never seen the
city or has not been there OF
late years.
Our reason for the seeming
extravaganza would be TO let
them acquire through this mu-
nicipal symbol a better under
standing of the power and the
glory of the United States of
America.
WE CAN remember-and il
w was not so many years ago,
at that-when Washington was
our idea of no place to be. We
thought it sprawly. ugly and
dull city, frightfully hot in Sum-
mer and terribly cold in Win
ter. with a population that had
a curious air of impermanence.
We would not have advised
our worst enemy to 60 there.
even for its historic interest as
the nations capital. We just did
not like Washington.
But today we find it the mod
ern wonder of the world. beauti-
full beyond compare. 1t is
mining camp in activity with
population that has jumped per-
haps a quarter of a million IN
the past few years with the
biggest increase IN the latter
mart of 1910 due to the defense
b activities.
That is a phase that will pass,
but there will always remain
the architectural marvels that
have sprung up out of the boil
tom lands of the Potomac River
to make Washington the gor-
geous, glowing sensation TO the
mind and eye that II has sud
denly become.
IT is impossible for any one
L who recalls the homely, stodgy
Washington of another day ana
who has not been back there
recently to realize the transfor-
nation that has been wrought.
We doubt that the residents
of the city are fully aware of
what has happened and Is still
! happening around them. They
remark casually on the growth
of the population but they do
not swell up and almost bust
with pride talking about the
boulevards and the buildings
that excel anything like them
anywhere else on the face oil
/ the earth.
Washington never had mucn
of what you might call the CIVIC
/ booster spirit. anyway. We sup
pose this is because the city Is
under the government and It's
citizens do not have much to
say about its operation.
YOU seldom read bids for tour
i ist traffic such as other
cities indulge in. tn gu gh IT
should be drawing 100000, 900
visitors a year just looking
around.
The city does not seem to
offer inducements for industries
and commercial enterprises as
/ is the custom elsewhere.
f. Even the newspapers appar-
entity make no great point OF
the genius of civilization that
/ is on every hand on scale
never before known.
Well, it is a national political
center, today the battle front of
the world, so perhaps the mar
wells that impressed us are of
lesser consideration to the resi-
dents. though they seem much
livelier- than in the old drowsy
i days.
We have no idea how history
will evaluate the New Deal,
which is partly responsible for
the Transformation of Washing
ton.
WE RAN into some peSsimiStic
w citizens who viewed the
progress around them with jaun-
diced gaze and who seemed TO
regard the various wonders as
just monuments to unbridied
prodigality. In short. they
seemed peeved about the whole
business.
We suppose Athens and Rome
had their pessimists. too, in the
days when the builders were
spreading mortar and marble
with lavish hands. to leave their
efforts TO the ages.
But hundred years from