Evening star., 1961-03-24
SHRUBS
Stiffness AppoIIs
Presidential Aide

Continued From First Page
San Francisco the reputation
Of being a first-class news
paperman. Mr.. Salingef is rela-
lively new in Washington and
is not yet considered to be an
expert on the degrees Of silli-
ness that can be attained in
this city. So his views on silli-
ness were not considered by The
Star to be authoritative, al
though The Star included them
In its story about the rhodo-
dendrons.
A bit later The Stars efforts
to let the people know about
the rhododend ran into an
other difficulty. There is now
in the White House a President
who actually reads the news
papers. When the President
read The Stars account Of the
rhodod odendrons 1t is learned, on
reliable authority, that he hit
the ceiling. He was apparently
not so much concerned about
the rhododendrons as he was
about the suggestion that he
was trying to shield the White
House from public view.
At any rate, Mr.. Salinger again
called The Star reporter into
his office and began to amplify
THE word silly" with such de-
scriptives as wrong" "incred-
ible." "prepostrous." He said
that all the White House was
doing was ordering q few
shrubs.
But he had by this time OBJ
tanned a memorandum, from
which he read that back in
1885 the Oimsted Bros. at
Brookiine, Mass. had made a
comprehensive report on land
scaping the White House
grounds, and that the National
Park Service sufficient in
teryal having paSSed-was now
anxious to do something about
it and finally had been given
permission by the White House
to make a start on the plan.
The start, however, would be
merely q modest start. The
plain implication was that it
would not be an immodest start.
1885 Plan Sought
The Star then undertook q
search for the 1885 plan. Eff
forts were made to reach vari-
Gus officials Of the National
Park Service and the National
Capital Parks. They appar-
emily were in conference, or
their whereabouts unknown. A
telephone call was made to
Olmsted Bros. in Brookline, and
one man was located who dimly
remembered the 1885 plan but
was not sure he could find it.
He added that it was sometimes
embarrassing to resurrect a
plan that some one may have
wanted to keep quiet.
The National Capital Plan
ming Commission was asked If
it had a copy of the 1885 plan.
No, it didn't. The Fine Arts
Commission was asked about
1.-THE 1885 plan, and The Star
was informed it was in the
National Archives. At the Ma
ltional Archives The Star was
told that it might require q
24-hour search to locate the
lplan.
The Star was finally able to
reach Conrad Wirth. chief Of
1.-THE National Park Service.
~ Wirth Remembers
Mr.. Wirth said the landscap-
ling plan now being discussed
WAS based on one completed in
l1935, and it involved putting
lin some material on the east
land west gates along the fence,
with a bank Of rhododendrons
10 give some screening to the
upper grounds. All that is in
TENDED is to dress UP the
lgrounds and give a little more
lseclusion from the sides, but
there had never been any plan
to enclose or shield the South
view, and that he had never
heard anything about trying to
protect Caroline from the pub
lie and that the plan did not
originate with Mrs. Kennedy.
Mr.. Wirth said that detailed
information should come from
1.-THE White House, not his Of
lfice, and that all he was trying
to do was to be helpful.
From Mrs. Kennedy's press
: secretary, Pamela Turnure, The
| Star learned that "the National
! Park Service has been trying
to get this thing off the ground
lsince 1885. Finally they got