360 ads. If you estimate it very conservatively that each one would take care of one and one-half persons there would be enough to take care of half the people who are in these hotels. Mr. KOPP. Is that not the result of people coming and going? When the city is crowded you have those same ads. in there? Mr. FRANTZ. The city is rather crowded, I should judge. Mr. WALTERS. Of course you have not investigated the nature and quality of those rooms? Mr. FRANTZ. No, sir. I am just trying to show that apparently there is no need for continuing them longer. Mr. Kopp. You would find those ads. in the paper if the city was absolutely crowded to the limit, because there are changes being made all the time. When one roomer goes out they put an ad. in the paper for another. Mr. LANHAM. Is the land held by the people whom you represent vacant land? Mr. FRANTZ. I do not represent any people, except the residents of the territory directly east of this section of the city. Mr. LANHAM. Is it a company? Mr. FRANTZ. The citizens residing there. Mr. LANHAM. You are not here then for any company? Mr. LANHAM. Simply for the citizens? Mr. FRANTZ. The citizens residing in the section bordering on this portion. Mr. LANHAM. Then this territory is built up where you reside? Mr. FRANTZ. Yes, sir. Mr. LANHAM. Solidly, all along there? Mr. FRANTZ. Practically so; yes, sir. Mr. ALMON. Will you indicate on this map the real estate that you are speaking for the location of it? What lots and squares are interested in having this Plaza opened up? Mr. FRANTZ. From here east [indicating]. Our territory runs from the Capitol Building Grounds, the Union Station grounds, east to Ninth Street, and from East Capitol Street to H Street NE. Mr. ALMON. You mean the property owners and residents of that section of the town? Mr. FRANTZ. Yes, sir. Mr. ALMON. Not any real estate company? Mr. FRANTZ. Oh, no, sir. Mr. ALMON. Individual owners? Mr. FRANTZ. Individual owners. Mr. LANHAM. You have authority from a lot of those owners? Mr. FRANTZ. Yes, sir. Mr. ALMON. On the idea that it would make this property more valuable and more desirable locations for business and residence if this were opened up? Mr. FRANTZ. Our interest is the same, probably, as the general public's interest. It will be considered a vast improvement to the city as a whole, and a desirable thing from the viewpoint of the Nation, to have the front door of the Union Station presentable when people visit the city. Mr. KOPP. And property values in that section would be increased, would they not, if this is made a Park Plaza? Mr. FRANTZ. Probably so. Mr. LANHAM. Is the territory that you represent made up of private residences, or are rooms available in some of those placesboarding houses, or anything like that-apartments? Mr. FRANTZ. Almost wholly private residences. Mr. LAGUARDIA. What is the name of your organization? Mr. LAGUARDIA. What is its membership? Mr. FRANTZ. About 350, I believe. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Is it a permanent organization? Mr. FRANTZ. Yes, sir. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Who is its president? Mr. FRANTZ. Hugh M. Stowe is the present president. Mr. LAGUARDIA. What is his business? Mr. FRANTZ. He is employed with the Court of Claims. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Does he own a private house, or is he a tenant? Mr. FRANTZ. He is an owner. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Has he any rooms to let in his house? Mr. FRANTZ. No, sir. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Is this a due-paying organization? Do they pay dues? Mr. FRANTZ. Nominal; $1 a year. Mr. LAGUARDIA. What is its purpose? Mr. FRANTZ. The general welfare of the citizens of the community and the improvement of the community. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Following up the question asked by Mr. Lanham, how many of these private houses rent rooms in that vicinity? Mr. FRANTZ. Comparatively few. It is really a residence sec tion. Mr. LAGUARDIA. You have made no investigation of the sanitary facilities of the places mentioned in the advertisements to which you have referred in the paper before you? Mr. FRANTZ. Nothing whatever. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Don't know anything about them whatever? Mr. LAGUARDIA. Whether they would be suitable to the young ladies or not? Mr. FRANTZ. I would like to say that they are the same as would be required and as the other Government employees would have to use if they were looking for accommodations, naturally so. Mr. LAGUARDIA. Why have you come to that conclusion? Mr. FRANTZ. Naturally so. Mr. LAGUARDIA. On what do you base that conclusion? Mr. LAGUARDIA. Do you mean to say that without investigating, or without making a personal inspection, you can tell whether a room offered in an ad. of a daily paper has surroundings, sanitation, and cheerfulness that a human being would require? Mr. FRANTZ. Oh, not at all. I am just saying that this is what the general public, including Government employees, would use as a means of looking for accommodations. Mr. LAGUARDIA. You know there are many rooms offered to let that are not suitable for anybody? Mr. FRANTZ. Well, I would not say that they are not suitable for anybody, but they are the general run. Mr. ALMON. It was all they had before the war, was it not? The Government Hotels were a war measure? Mr. FRANTZ. Yes, sir. May I just suggest a few words additional? In addition to the rooms for rent there are more than a full page of houses and apartments for rent contained in this section, so that there are more than two full pages. That is all. Thank you gentlemen. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Tucker, we will hear you just briefly. Mr. ALMON. Mr. Chairman, I would suggest before the hearings are closed, that we have a representative of the housing corporation here. The CHAIRMAN. Well, we are not closing the hearings to-day. Mr. ALMON. In order to ascertain how many rooms there are in the Government Hotels and how many are occupied and how many vacant and what the revenue is to the Government. Mr. LAGUARDIA, Mr. Chairman, we will not encumber the record with these ads., will we? The CHAIRMAN. Oh, no. STATEMENT OF EVAN H. TUCKER, PRESIDENT NORTHEAST WASHINGTON CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION The CHAIRMAN. Just state your name for the record, please. Mr. TUCKER. Evan H. Tucker, president Northeast Washington Citizens' Association. Mr. Chairman, I am representing the northeast section of the city, radiating from this Capitol Building out East Capitol Street and North Capitol Street, taking in the whole northeast Washington. It is one of the oldest organizations in the city. At the time it was proposed to enlarge the Capitol Grounds by taking in these squares I was working with Senator Wetmore, whose idea it was to carry out this plan for the reason that conditions were very ugly down there, and we needed something of that sort to make the proper entrance to the city of Washington, the gateway to the National Capital. You, who are more familiar with the project of the Union Station, know that at that point there was a fill made of 35 feet which left the property way down in the hollows. It was one of the most ugly situations that could be imagined for the gateway, to a great, national capital. Senator Wetmore saw the situation and he conceived this idea, and one of the principal provisos of this idea is to make the connecting link with Pennsylvania Avenue. We find people coming into the city all the time and saying: "How do I get to Pennsylvania Avenue?" They don't know how to get there. They have to go by a circuitous route to get into the main artery of our city. One of the objects of Senator Wetmore's proposition was to make a direct line from the Union Station into Pennsylvania Avenue, so that there could be no question whatever-a good, wide avenue that would take you right to that point. The land for that is provided for in his original plan. The people of the city took an interest in this matter, like they do in every project for the general improvement of the city, and there is nothing more important than improving the entrance to the citythe first impression that is made on the minds of people when they enter the city. We feel that this is one of the most important projects that could be carried out for the interest of the city, inasmuch as a large percentage of the land has already been acquired, and the part that is needed to make this connecting link with Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the most important parts of it, has not been acquired, and we feel that the Government certainly should carry out the project and finish it and enlarge the Capitol Grounds to that extent and make a proper entrance to the city. The only interest in the world we have in it-I have no real estate around there, or any interest in it whatever. I have a home about a half a mile from it. That is what I own, and I have no rooms to rent. I do not know of any of my people in the association that have rooms to rent. Our section is built up almost entirely with small homes, and people have very few rooms to rent. These little six-room houses do not generally have rooms to rent; so that we have no commercial interest in it whatever.. It is simply just looking with favor on all projects for the improvement of our National Capital and our home. That is all I have to say. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Johnson, we will hear from you. STATEMENT OF HON. BEN. JOHNSON, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, since no member of this committee was a Member of Congress when this matter was started, and since there are about 400 Members of the House who were not Members of the House when it started, I feel that you and they should know the history of this matter. Twenty or 25 years ago some members of "the most august legislative body in the world" conceived the idea of making a trip to Europe. They went on an appropriation made by Congress for the ostensible purpose of seeing the parks of the Old World in order that they might better recommend parks for the Nation's Capital. I have been told that for 75 or 80 years the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad entered the District of Columbia from the south and had a passenger station down on Pennsylvania Avenue across the side street from where the St. James Hotel now is. Mr. ALMON. Between Sixth and Seventh Streets. Mr. JOHNSON. At the same time the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had its freight yards and its tracks on the ground now sought to be purchased. They wanted their passenger station and their freight station approximately near together. They commenced a movement for the erection of the present station. While that junket committee from one branch of Congress was in Europe the Balti more & Ohio Railroad sent a Mr. Burnham, their architect and their employee, to London to meet them. There he presented a plan for the Union Station and the sale of this Plaza ground as a park. They came back here and did recommend the building of the Union Station where it is and the acquisition of the ground that lay between that station and the Capitol. In 1910 the matter was formally brought before Congress. The plan was to appropriate $500,000 a year for a sufficient number of years to acquire this ground; the installment plan being proposed so as not to embarrass the Treasury. Mr. LANHAM. Was the land then owned by the Baltimore & Ohio? Mr. JOHNSON. Yes. I am going to tell you about that. The question of cost arose. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, through its local attorney, Mr. George Hamilton, I believe, went to the appropriations committee, of which Mr. Tawney was chairman, and made the proposition that if the Government would take their then unused land off their hands they could have it for original cost plus 6 per cent interest. With that representation made by Mr. Tawney, as chairman of the appropriations committee, Congress passed a bill, if I remember correctly, by a bare majority of 10 votes, a fight being made on the whole proposition in the House. However, the measure passed, and they proceeded, as Mr. Lynn has just detailed to you, making an appropriation of $500,000 each year, for several years, toward the acquirement of this property. That proposition, like this bill, provided that the property should be acquired by "purchase, condemnation, or otherwise." Now, please remember, that there stood the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's proposition that they would take "original cost plus 6 per cent interest" for their holdings, for which they no longer had any use. The CHAIRMAN. What year was that, Mr. Johnson? Mr. JOHNSON. 1910. That provision of the appropriation bill, like this, provided a commission composed of the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds," the latter position then being held by Mr. Elliott Woods. They went ahead and acquired some of this property, as has been narrated to you by Mr. Lynn, with the annual appropriation of $500,000. Instead of accepting the proposition made by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to take "original cost plus 6 per cent interest," condemnation proceedings were instituted and a condemnation commission appointed by the court, of which Judge Gould was the presiding judge. They fixed values on everybody's property within that zone, including that of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. They awarded to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad $565,000 more than they said they would take for their property. After these awards were filed in court 30 days were allowed by the court within which to file exceptions. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Johnson, right there, do you know the reason why they condemned there at that time? Did the railroad company go back on this agreement? Mr. JOHNSON. There is no intimation anywhere, unless privately done, that they did; and the question remains unanswered to-day, why condemnation proceedings were instituted. The surmise is, of |