Evening star., 1950-05-31
Continued From First Page. }


McGarraghy. chairman; Commis-
sioner John Russell Young, Robert
v. Fleming, Mrs. Mary T. Norton
of New Jersey and the commits
sion's executive vice chairman
Carter T. Barron-began to feel
there was something unreal, per-
haps even phony, about this
Freedom Fair.
They froze everything having to
do with Freedom Fair at a meet
ing on December 30, 1949. and
voted to postpone the fair, if 1t
was to be held at all, until 1851
A week or so later counsel was re-
tanned to examine what was going
on. Now they have recommended
that Freedom Fair be dropped.
The story behind all this is a
complicated one. The only way
to make it understandable is to
begin at the beginning, and the
beginning was three and q half
years ago. In attempting to tell
it The Star is conscious OF many
omissions of detail. It is not at
tempting to place the blame for
the debacle that has occurred. AS
a newspaper 1t shares some. of
this. blame for not asking more
questions about 1t much earlier in
the game.
Led Into q Fairyland.
AS it was. the members Of the
commission, the public and the
newspapers seem to have been
led step by step into a sort Of
fairyland, without knowing pre-
cisely at any one moment how
they got there or where they
were going. And the fairyland
really never existed at all.
It is only in fairyland that one
expects to create great exhibit
ton. with buildings Of concrete
and steel, costing nearly $18 mil
lion. and from it reap a profit of
$2.9 million-and do all this on
an original prestige" loan Of So
million from the Government,
most of which would be sent hap
PLY back to the Treasury.
But that was the scheme, and
here is how it developed:
In December of 1916 a meeting
arranged by the Washington
Building Congress and attended
by representatives of local organi-
cations was held in the United
States Chamber of Commerce
Building. Behind the meeting
was the thought that something
should be done to celebrate the
150th anniversary in 1850 of the
Governments coming to Wash
ington and the plan was that this
celebration would be modelled gen.
orally along the lines of the SIM
pie and dignif1ed observances of
the Tooth anniversary which oc-
CURED in 1900.
Good Things From Centennial.
Out Of the centennial in 1900
there had come some good things,
including the revival of the Len
FAINT plan, its revision and stimu-
lation anew throughout the
country Of interest in develop
ment Of the American Capital.
Some idea of the proportions of
the celebration that would be held
in 1850 may be gained from the
fact-that Maj. Gen. ~. s. Grant
III, then chairman of the National
Capital Park and Planning COM
mission. mentioned $50.000 in
1946 as the amount of public
funds that reasonably might be
sought.
On December 27. 1946. another
meeting was held of a small COM
mittee which had been set up by
the first meeting. It's job was to
find out what legislation would be
necessary to give the observance
an official tone. Bills were drawn
up. revised in discussion, and late
in January of 1947 there were con-
ferences at the District Building
with the Commissioners out of
which grew the idea of naming
the President of the United States
as chairman ex-officio of a COM
mission with an executive head
under the title of executive vice
chairman.
Sponsorship Obtained.
Committee representatives went
to the Capitol and obtained spon-
sorship of the bill-merely a skel-
etonized piece of legislation set
ting up the National Capital Ses-
quicentennial Commission, to be
composed of the President of the
United States, as chairman and
the President pro-tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the
House, all ex-officio; three Sen
ators and three Representatives,
to be appointed by the President
protein Of the Senate and the
Speaker; three residents of the
District to be appointed by the
President on the advise of the
Commissioners and three residents
lat large"-to be appointed by
the President. This resolution
was approved by Congress and the
President July 1S, 1947.
Up to this time there had never
been any thought of anything
like Freedom Fair. Those working
for the legislation still had in
mind q simple series of events
which would recall incidents in
connection with bringing the Gov
ernment here and which might
inspire a rededication of the
Washington Plan-with thought
of the next half century of de-
velopment.
Appointments Announced.
In October of 1947 the appoint
ments to the commission were
announced. It consisted of the
President. Senator Vandenberg
Speaker Martin, ex officio: Sen
ators Buck of Delaware, Capper
oflKansas and Holland of Florida
Representatives Dirksen of Illinois,