The bill introduced by Senator Moses embodies part of a resolution or bill which Senator Gallinger had previously introduced, and Senator Williams informs me he thinks the Senate passed it, although he is not sure. At any rate the committee reported it favorably.

The object of this hearing is to hear what the Fine Arts Commission, and witnesses whom they have asked to be here, have to say upon the general subject of a botanic garden in Washington and for making a record of what the recommendations and plans of the Fine Arts Commission are, and ascertaining what the proposal of the authorities is for the development of the Mall, whether the development of the Mall and the erection of the statue of Gen. Grant at the east end of it is going to necessitate the removal of the present Botanic Garden, and if so, what is best to do about getting another botanic garden, if anything can be done at the present time. The purpose of the hearing is to hear these gentlemen. There are landscape architects and others, who are skilled in such questions, from other parts of the country here to-day, so I think it better that we should take their testimony. Whether Congress intends to take final action upon this question at this session or not, it will be of some avail to have collected this information. Mr. Moore, I will ask you, please, to call your witnesses in such order as you choose, for I do not know who they are.

Senator WILLIAMS. I would like to have each witness when he testifies give us some idea of what he thinks the scheme recommended by him would cost.

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Senator WILLIAMS. The Treasury is not in very good condition right now.

The CHAIRMAN. I would suggest to Mr. Moore-and it is only a suggestion, as he is more familiar with this whole question than I am-that in the first place he outline what the proposals of the governmental authorities are who give any attention to this matter, and how they accord with or differ from the general plan for the development of the park system of Washington and of the Mall, then afterwards bunch your witnesses, when it comes to talking about a particular kind of botanic garden or a particular place at which they think it should be located.

STATEMENT OF MR. CHARLES MOORE, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS.

Mr. MOORE. Mr. Chairman, Senator Williams is correct. Senator Gallinger introduced a bill for the extension of the Botanic Gardens into East and West Seaton Parks. That bill passed the Senate and went to the House. Mr. Slayden, the chairman of the House Committee on the Library, referred the bill to the Commission of Fine Arts. The commission made a report to the House Committee on the Library. That is the way in which the Commission of Fine Arts came into this matter.

The Commission of Fine Arts at that time called attention to the fact that Congress had located the Grant Statue in the Botanical Garden in accordance with the plans of 1901 for the development of the Mall. Subsequently, Congress also authorized the State of

Pennsylvania to erect a memorial to Gen. Meade, and the Meade Memorial Commission, consisting of the Secretary of War, the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Library, and the chairman of the House Committee on the Library, located that memorial in the Botanical Garden area. Congress located both of those memorials in the Botanical Garden area, with the idea that ultimately the plan of L'Enfant for an approach to the Capitol from the west would be restored, and that the garden should become such an approach to the Capitol. It would also become the head of the Mall system.

The House did not act on the Gallinger Bill, and no action by Congress has been taken subsequently. Senator Moses introduced a bill similar to the Gallinger bill, but with fewer restrictions than were in the Gallinger bill. The Gallinger bill provided that the roads and walks as laid down in the plan of Washington should be maintained in any enlargement of the Botanical Garden. When the Commission of Fine Arts came to study the question, they found that the area was insufficent for a botanical garden of the kind which the United States ought to support.

Senator WILLIAMS. Allow me to say here that Senator Gallinger's intention, and the intention of the Senate committee, was not to make this a great botanical garden. It was merely to preserve here at the foot of the Capitol this little flower garden, which was a source of great instruction and profit and pleasure to the school children and people and laboring men of Washington, and whether they put a botanical garden out at Rock Creek Park or elsewhere, still to preserve this little flower garden. There was no idea in his mind, and none in mine, of substituting this for what would finally be the great Washington Botanical Garden, either in Rock Creek Park or somewhere else.

Mr. MOORE. That is the way I understood it generally. The question came up as to whether the time has not arrived now when changes must be made so as to get an adequate botanical garden.

Senator WILLIAMS. He and I were both very emphatically of the opinion that whether we established a botanical garden or not, this little flower garden ought not to be interferred with except to the extent necessary to put the roads through contemplated in the great plan in connection with the Mall.

Mr. MOORE. That simplifies the matter very much. This morning we are going to ask the committee to consider the question first as to what a botanical garden corresponding to the needs of the present day should be, and if the United States is going to maintain a botanical garden, where an adequate botanic garden may be located. This garden was begun in 1820. It has developed very slowly. Some relocation for it must be found, because the greenhouses are overcrowded, and the space is insufficient to accommodate the Grant Memorial and the Meade Memorial and the Botanical Garden.

I ask the chairman first to call Dr. N. L. Britton, director of the New York Botanical Garden.

Senator KNOX. Before you sit down, Mr. Moore, will you tell me what became of the project of erecting a monument to Gen. Meade in the Botanical Garden?

Mr. MOORE. It is progressing very favorably indeed. The Commission of Fine Arts has approved the model which was made by

Mr. Charles Grafly, of Philadelphia. He has designed a memorial that will stand with the Grant Memorial, and will be an adequate monument to Gen. Meade.

Senator KNOx. Has its site been determined?

Mr. MOORE. Its site has been determined and fixed by the commission created by Congress.

Senator KNOX. Where is it to be located?

Mr. MOORE. In the Botanical Garden area, near the Grant Memorial, so that Meade and Grant shall stand together.

Senator KNOX. It will be within the garden?

Mr. MOORE. Within the garden; yes.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the map to which you just pointed when you showed us the location of the statue?

Mr. MOORE. That is the plan of 1901 for the development of the Mall in accordance with the L'Enfant plan of 1792.

The CHAIRMAN. The plan of 1901 adopted by what, or whom? Mr. MOORE. Never adopted by anybody.

The CHAIRMAN. Proposed by whom?

Mr. MOORE. It was a report made to the Senate by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia for the development of the park system of the District of Columbia; never adopted at all by Congress, but Congress has never gone contrary to the plan during the 19 years which have elapsed since it was submitted.

Senator KNOX. By whom was it prepared?

Mr. MOORE. It was prepared by Mr. Burnham, Mr. McKim, Mr. Saint-Gaudens, and Mr. Olmsted, the latter of whom is here this morning. He is the last surviving member of the park commission of 1901.

Senator KNOX. That was my recollection. I was in Mr. Roosevelt's Cabinet at the time that report was made.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there a report now in print which describes the locations shown on this map? If so, will you not identify it so that we can have a reference to it in the record?

Mr. MOORE. The report is Report No. 166, on the improvement of the park system of the District of Columbia, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session.

The CHAIRMAN. Was it printed as a Senate document?

Mr. MOORE. Yes; the document consists, first, of the report of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, prepared by a subcommittee made up of Senator McMillan, Senator Gallinger, and Senator Martin, and, second, the report of the park commission; that is, of Daniel H. Burnham, Charles F. McKim, Augustus SaintGaudens, and Frederick Law Olmsted.

Both reports proposed, in the first place, the development of the Mall according to the L'Enfant plan adopted to the new area reclaimed from the Potomac marshes. In carrying out that plan they drew a line from the dome of the Capitol to the Washington Monument, and prolonged it to the Potomac River, and there located the memorial to Abraham Lincoln; they also made a general recommendation as to the design of that monument.

The first trouble came over the location of the Agricultural Department buildings, and eventually they were located according to the new axis of the Mall. Next the National Museum was located according to the new plan of the Mall, and the development has gone

on steadily step by step, in conformity with the plan of 1901. It was not expected that Congress would adopt the plan; it was not necessary to adopt the plan. All that was necessary was that as each individual proposition came up, each location, the buildings should be located according to the plan, and that has been done.

The plan of 1901 called not only for the development of the Mall and for certain changes in the interior of the city, but it also provided for park connections throughout the District of Columbia, for the taking of those particular areas of land which were adapted for park purposes primarily, and for park connections, so as to develop an entire park system for the District of Columbia, just as the other cities are having their park developments made according to a regular, well-defined plan. In the plan of 1901 it was proposed to take Mount Hamilton as a park, and therefore Mount Hamilton came into our

survey.

Senator KNOx. Where is Mount Hamilton?

Mr. MOORE. Mount Hamilton is at the end of Maryland Avenue, 2 miles from the Capitol.'

Senator KNOX. East?

Mr. MOORE. East and north. It is the highest point of land, I think, in the District of Columbia.

Senator KNOX. Is it on the way to Bladensburg?

Mr. MOORE. It is on the way to Bladensburg, yes; and on the way to Baltimore. There are, according to the claims, at least six highest points in the District of Columbia, and this is one of them. As a matter of fact it is next to the highest point in the District, Fort Reno being the highest.

Senator KNOX. Is Mount Hamilton between the city and the reform school?

Mr. MOORE. Yes, adjoining the reform school. It also adjoins the new Anacostia park, so that if Mount Hamilton shall finally be decided upon, and the 400 acres available at Mount Hamilton shall be taken, another 400 acres would be available in the upper portion of Anacostia Park, for the purpose of a botanical garden. So that at least 800 acres would be available.

The CHAIRMAN. From this high point to which you refer, the Mount Hamilton site, one overlooks not only the Anacostia River, but the land on the other side of it, and also the District generally? You get a fine view?

Mr. MOORE. You overlook the District generally. You get a fine view of the entire Anacostia Park development, and you also get a view into the superb Maryland hills which are beyond.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the tract of land to which you took me once, and which we walked over together, is it not?

Mr. MOORE. Yes.

Senator KNOX. Does the view take in the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial as well?

Mr. MOORE. I am not so sure about the Lincoln Memorial, but it takes in the Capitol and the Monument.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there any estimate made of the probable cost of the plan of 1901 as recommended by the commission? It did not. get that far, did it?

1 See map facing p. 64, vol. 2.

Mr. MOORE. No. We did not get that far, because the development was to be done piecemeal. Mr. Cannon, in objecting to the plan of 1901, said that it would cost $200,000,000 to carry it out. Before he left the chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations of the House, $50,000,000 had already been spent in accordance with the plan. So I think his estimate was far too low.

The CHAIRMAN. Too low?

Mr. MOORE. Yes. He himself within five years after the plan was suggested passed on appropriations amounting to $50,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. For the purchase of part of these lands?

Mr. MOORE. For the building of the National Museum, for the building of the Agricultural Department, for the building of the Lincoln Memorial-for all of those things. They all come into the plan.

The CHAIRMAN. I did not refer to buildings which were to be put upon the land recommended to be acquired, but to the expense of purchasing the land only.

Mr. MOORE. The expense of the land would come up as an incident. to the buildings or parks, as those projects should come up. It was impossible to make estimates, because the price of land would depend on the date of taking.

The CHAIRMAN. The people who recommended the plan of 1901 did not even make a guess at the expense of acquiring the land which they recommended should be acquired, did they?

Mr. MOORE. No, Senator; because the plan was made for 50 years in the future, to be developed during 50 years; and it was impossible to make any estimate. Chicago has made an estimate that its plans (known as the Burnham plan) are going to cost two hundred and sixty millions, and of that amount Chicago has appropriated during the past 10 years $61,510,000. Chicago railway companies have agreed to spend $162,091,000, and the forest reserve commission $5,316,000. Senator KNOX. Have you ever made an estimate as to the cost of the 400 acres included in the Mount Hamilton tract?

Mr. MOORE. We always take the assessed valuation and add onethird to that.

Senator KNOX. What is the assessed valuation of that tract?
Mr. MOORE. Mr. Langdon has that.

Senator KNOX. Approximately, is all I care for.

Mr. MOORE. About $250,000.

The CHAIRMAN. For 400 acres?

Mr. MOORE. Yes.

Dr. Britton will proceed.

STATEMENT OF DR. N. L. BRITTON, DIRECTOR IN CHIEF, NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN.

The CHAIRMAN. State your name and place of residence.

Dr. BRITTON. N. L. Britton; I reside in New York City, and am director in chief of the New York Botanic Garden. I will say in this connection that over several years I had a very interesting correspondence wtih Senator Wetmore, of this committee, relative to this whole subject, and provided him with a great deal of information and data, which I think have been tabulated, and very likely have been brought into use since. But, of course, the subject was laid