Evening star., 1960-05-29
Case for the BeIosco
As Our Opera House

At o meeting Of the Senate Sub
committee on Public Buildings ond
Grounds lost Monday q settlement for
the preservation Of the historic build
inss wos mode by Carl Levin, choirmon
OF the Citizens Committe TO Soye
Lafayette Square. The settlement
gives q ssumoY Of current cultural
activities in Washington and shows
how public support Of such activities
is for less thon in other cities. A
partial text Of it is given here.
The Citizens Committee to Save
Lafayette Square is an organiza-
ton established recently to spear
head and coordinate the efforts
of many national and local groups
interested in saving the buildings
fronting on the east side of La
fayette Square. These organiza-
tions represent millions of citizens
nationally as well as locally
Our concern regarding these
buildings stems from several con-
siderationS. We do not feel that
it is either wise or necessary to
raze these buildings under any
circumstances because of the de-
STABILITY Of retaining around the
White House, so far as is possible,
an island of tranquility in this
troubled period of international
tensions and recriminations.
However, we have still other and
more commanding reasons why
the buildings in question should
be saved. The principal of these
reasons is the important public
purposes to which they can be put.
The Belasco Theater, once a
fine opera house and theater, is
ideally located once again to serve
the Nations Capital in this ca
pacity. I call the subcommittee
attention to the fact that while
the United States has supplied
funds to restore opera houses and
other Government buildings and
facilities in foreign countries, our
own Nations Capital has no opera
house nor any facility which can
adequately serve as one.
I might add parenthetically,
however, at the outset that what
we ask you here today does not
involve any large expenditure of
Federal funds-rather it is an
alternative for the use of these
buildings which by far is the least
expensive of the proposals which
you have heard for this area.
Need for Opero House
The Opera Society of Washing
ton and other nonproflt organi-
cations which present opera,
ballet, and other forms of the arts
in our city find it necessary to
use a privately owned, inadequate
auditorium for which they pay a
fee of $500 a night plus other
charges as we'll as $100 a day for
rehearsals. These facilities not
only are lacking in accommoda-
tions, but the cost to these non
profit cultural organizations is far
beyond their ability to pay.
wish, if may, to call the sub
committees attention to the fact
that these groups give our Nations
Capital an increasingly enriched
cultural fare of which it can well
be proud. 1t is partaken of en-
Enthusiastically by diplomatic and
other foreign residents and visitors
to our capital. Yet these non
profit cultural organizations re-
ceive not one penny Of assistance
from our Government.
A study made by the Library
of Congress at the request of Rep
resentative Harris B. Mcdowell
jr., of Delaware. disclosed that the
municipal government of Wash
ington spends less money on the
fine arts than any other major
city in the United States. The
Library of Congress reported that
while our Government and oul
District Commissioners relied on
private benefactors to support the
arts in our Nations Capital, Bal
timore, for instance, supported
fine arts to the extent of $448, ,986
from appropriated funds; Phila-
delphia allocated $789.760: st
Louis, $320,007, Los Angeles. $780,
998; Kansas City, $115,769; Sar
Francisco, $817,256; and New York
City, $4,718,824. The study showed
that Washington, D. c., which is
larger and richer per capita thar
San Francisco, gave only $4,000
to the fine arts. 1t is true that thi;
sum compares well with the S12,.
500 which Hagerstown, Nd, pro.
vided from appropriated funds fol
its fine arts.
The non-profit organizations art
not alone in feeling the terrible