Chapter XIX

BUSINESS PROCEEDINGS

THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Washington, D. C., November 8-11, 1926.

The first session of the Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the American Society for Municipal Improvements was called to order at 8:00 o'clock Monday evening, November 8, 1926, at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C., by President T. Chalkley Hatton.

PRESIDENT HATTON: The Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the American Society for Municipal Improvements will now please come to order.

We are meeting tonight, gentlemen, in a city that is rather unique in the cities of the world. It is our own city, and all of us have a special pride in our capital city. It is far different from any other city in that the people here have no political affiliations particularly, and have a government all their own.

We have with us tonight one of the distinguished members of the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army who has also the unique position of Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia; and it gives me great pleasure indeed to introduce Colonel James Franklin Bell, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, who will welcome us to this city. Colonel Bell. (Applause.)

ADDRESS OF WELCOME

By Col. J. F. Bell, Washington, D. C.

GENTLEMEN: It is a real pleasure to welcome people of my kind who come to Washington. In my official capacity as a Commissioner of the District of Columbia I have to welcome many people. I told Commissioner Rudolph when I first came here that when there were conventions meeting in Washington composed of people of my kind I would be delighted to welcome them. He seems to think that there are many people of my kind. (Laughter.)

It is my privilege to offer you the keys of the city-whatever that may mean. Not long ago I offered the keys of the city to a convention of ladies and told them how welcome they were to our city. They took me literally, for that afternoon they called up from the Police Court, where the officer had taken them, and wanted to know about that key to the city I had given them. I had to tell them that

it did not open the Police Court. (Laughter.) (Laughter.) That is a caution and to remind you that the District of Columbia has not gone wet. We might if we had a vote. In spite of those cautions I have given, I want to assure you that our hearts are in the right place. I can illustrate some of our disadvantages, though, by telling you a story of a member of a convention that recently visited Washington. He had forgotten that Washington had not gone wet and he got on a street car one night and said to the conductor, "Conductor, I want to go to Georgetown," and the conductor, looking at him, said, "This car does not go to Georgetown-you are on the wrong car. He said, "Why tell me about it; tell the motorman about it, for I am a stranger in town." (Laughter.) However, we are really delighted. to have you with us. We are sorry we cannot do more by way of entertaining guests in Washington. It is truly a regrettable matter that we cannot, on account of lack of resources, take care of the strangers within our gates, but I hope something may be done about it in the not distant future. We here are limited in the authority to spend money to appropriations made by Congress absolutely, and for a specific purpose, and this city does not have the opportunity to entertain and take the proper care of visitors that it ought to have.

I intended to make an address this evening and tell you all about the District of Columbia and its government, but I find that your President is going to tell you about that, so that part of my speech is gone. I also contemplated telling you about the National Park and Planning Commission, but I now find that Major Brown is going to tell you about that. Therefore, I do not have much to talk about. However, I do want to emphasize this fact--you have two cities, your home city and this national capital of yours. We are trying to make the national capital worthy of the American nation, and we need your help. We need your help all the time, because control here is in Congress and, of course, the people who control Congress are back home, and you back home can do more to help promote the welfare of your capital city than we who are here can. I am not appealing for charity in any way. The people here pay taxes. They pay their share of taxes. The national government contributes a lump sum to an amount deemed proper by Congress, considering the national interests here in the District of Columbia. With an annual budget of nearly $40,000,000, the lump sum contribution by the government of the United States is approximately $9,000,000. That takes care of our governmental benefits, such as water and sewer service, roads, parks, etc. People will contend that that is a great amount, and others will contend that it is too small, but it is what Congress, after considering the subject, deems proper.

I will say that practically all of the people here in the District of Columbia are willing and anxious to do their share to make this national capital everything that it should be. It is rather odd that the capital of the greatest nation in the world has been and con

tinues to be a rather small city, relatively speaking, among the nations of the world, and it is manifest, I think, that such will not continue indefinitely.

The first pavement was laid in the District of Columbia in 1872. Governor Shepherd then started paving the streets and grading. He also started the policy of planting trees along the streets, and we have made some progress since that, but we have not made anything like the progress this city should have made.

Now having had both of my speeches taken away from me, I am going to mention merely a few things in this city that I think you ought to see, even if you have to play hookey from some of these meetings. I shall start at the top. Look at our trees. I think we have the finest tree system in the world, but I am sorry we are not keeping it up and promoting it more. If we did not have our tree system, nobody would talk about this being a beautiful city. If you are especially interested in our tree system, I might mention that there is a pamphlet in the hall that gives a full description of it, including the planting of our trees. I do not think we have to apologize to any city for our trees, even though we may have to apologize for the lack of attention they are receiving. During our street-widening activities we have destroyed some trees, but it is the policy of the District Government to replace trees wherever it can both on residential and business streets. I do hope that policy is continued forever. Another thing that is going on at present is street widening. You can see an example of it in front of this hotel on Connecticut avenue. Last year Connecticut avenue was fifty feet wide between curbs and the sidewalks were forty feet wide, each one of themone hundred thirty feet between buildings-eighty feet of which was devoted to sidewalk. It is manifest that that is not an economical use of public space in these days when automobiles are being used so much, therefore, the street has been widened for about three squares, so that it is eighty feet between curbs and the sidewalks are twenty-five feet wide. Probably the sidewalk is excessively wide, but we wanted to plant oak trees along the curbs and the narrower sidewalk would cramp the development of trees. Some other streets that have been widened are M street, 13th street, E street and 11th street. These have been widened in the last year or two. I think it is interesting to look at what is being done in that way. You will find many of our streets very rough. Last spring we had more than 800,000 square yards of pavement in the city of Washington more than thirty years old. It was laid when it was not expected that it would be subjected to such heavy traffic, and one may observe how it has been knocked to pieces, resulting in rough streets. We have done a great deal of work this summer getting the more important thoroughfares in the heart of the city in better shape. The suburban roads have been in poor shape this summer due to the fact that we have had excessive heavy rains, and we have had an unprecedented amount of building construction, which has resulted in heavy hauling.

Another recent development is our new street lights. You can see them on Connecticut Avenue and on 16th Street. People argued previous to their installation that it would not be practicable to place the lights on high posts on account of the trees. There is nothing in that. When driving, these high lights do not shine in one's eyes. The illumination is good and the lights shining through the trees give a beautiful effect. The glassware is worthy of special note. gives a high percentage of illumination and is very satisfactory in appearance.

We are just about to complete an addition to the water supply of the District of Columbia at a cost of about $9,000,000. Some of you gentlemen may be interested in the new filtration plant located near the western edge of the District. We have a $20,000,000 schoolbuilding program under way and are in the second year of it now. These are the major projects that I believe a visitor would care to see. We have some good-looking bridges and some of the worstlooking bridges in the world. Therefore, I do not suggest any extensive examination or inspection of our bridges. We have the Connecticut Avenue bridge, which used to be called "The Million-Dollar Bridge" when a million dollars meant a lot of money. We have the new Francis Scott Key Bridge in Georgetown, for which I desire to enter an apology. The idea of building a bridge in honor of a man without having any plaza or illumination at the end of it to mark it is regrettable. There should be at the end of that bridge a plaza with a flag-pole, emblematic of the Star Spangled Banner, always flying and illuminated. Here in America we build bridges across streams and do not construct any ends to them. In Europe they make ends to the bridges, but we do not here.

Repeating, we are very glad indeed to have you with us in Washington. We should be glad to have you see what we are doing right and the many things we are doing wrong, and I know we have been doing many of them wrong. We want you to be interested in your capital. That is a part of patriotism, and I hope that this organization before it adjourns will, by the adoption of a resolution or other means, support and give voice to sentiments that may improve this national capital and make it what I know you people want to have it.

PRESIDENT HATTON: Colonel Bell, we are very grateful to you, indeed, for your kind welcome. I do regret that we have taken your speeches from you. I had no idea that the Colonel had in mind when he came here to tell us about the government of Washington and the District of Columbia, therefore, I got in touch with the Secretary of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, knowing that this government of the District is unique and the only type of government of its kind in the world and the Secretary, Mr. Daniel E. Garges,

gave me a synopsis of the District Government, which I knew would be interesting to the members of our society because of its uniqueness, and with your kind patience I shall now read it to you.

This paper will be found on page 295.

PRESIDENT HATTON: You can readily see what a job the Colonel has trying to get his appropriations through Congress.

I submit to you that here is a body which has the duty of imposing taxes upon the citizens of Washington and yet they are not elective they are not responsible to the citizens of Washington in any way, so that their position can not be affected by raising taxes higher than the average citizen thinks they should be. Isn't that an ideal job? Think of it! Wouldn't you like to have that kind of jobraising taxes without representation?

COLONEL BELL: Let me add one postscript so as to complete the picture and tie you in with the lecture that will come from Major Brown. The last session of Congress created a National Park and Planning Commission, which is the body which makes the highway plans. It has the duty of acquiring all playgrounds and parks. This commission consists of eleven members, seven of whom are federal officers and four civilians appointed by the President of the United States. Major Brown will tell you all about that when he comes here and he will give you their names.

PRESIDENT HATTON: Thank you, Colonel. While we are on this subject I want to say to the members of this convention that the authorities have very kindly placed in this hotel for our information. a very excellent exhibit of the National Park and Planning Commission. You can see that exhibit in the precept of the lobby and I want all of you to examine it because of its interest to every engineer here. It gives a rather excellent opportunity to observe what Washington. is trying to do with its parking system. Washington possibly has the longest continuous park boulevard of any city that I know of in the United States. It is shown there not only by maps, but by actual models, therefore, please do not leave the convention without making a careful study of that exhibit in the precept of the lobby.

Mr. Poole, our Vice-President, is booked to respond to Colonel Bell's welcome address. Let us now hear from Mr. Poole. (Applause.)

RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME

MR. POOLE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Colonel Bell, it is a great pleasure and a privilege to have been selected to respond to the cordial greeting you, as the official representative of the City of Washington, have tendered us; and on behalf of the American Society for Municipal Improvement I want to thank you for your hearty words of welcome and to assure you of our deep appreciation of the spirit of hospitality that your words imply.