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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NO&TH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES Hr. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
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It contains news from all over the world, brought
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of special value to the home and the farm.
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD
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Rural Credits.
The science of American agriculture has mark
edly progressed within recent years, but the business
of agriculture is still at a faltering, if not chaotic,
stage. Our farmers are learning the value of accu
rate knowledge in the cultivation and harvesting of
their crops, but they are yet without any adequate
means of marketing their products or financing their
great interests. Advantages of this character which
have been enjoyed in the rural districts of Europe
for decades are practically unknown in the Unitd
States. We have neglected the question of farm
credits, of agricultural finance and kindred issues
until every spherj of our economic fife is begin
ning to suffer as a consequence; for, after all, the
needs of the farm are the beginning and the end of
the country’s common, needs.
Of unusual importance, therefore, is the Rural
Credits Commission, which is to sail for Europe the
latter part of this month for the purpose of study
ing these problems as they have been worked in the
prosperous countries of the Old World. This Com
mission is composed of representative men from all
parts of the nation. They have been appointed in
part by President Wilson and in part through the
Southern Commercia.1 Congress, which has been es
pecially active Tn this enterprise.
These delegates, representing the government
and the Southern organization jointly, will visit
Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, England and
Ireland, aqd sub-committees will go to Russia and
the Balkan States. They will make a first-hand
study of the co-operative systems through which the
farmers of these countries are enabled to secure
loans on liberal terms and to place their Interests
on a businesslike basis. They will also investigate
agricultural methods by which the productive
power of the soil is increased and conserved. The
information thus gathered will be carefully compiled
and adapted, in so far as is possible, to American
needs and conditions.
The importance of providing an, adequate sys
tem of rural credits for the United States has been
recognized by each of the national parties. The
Democrats considered this matter of equal impor
tance with currency reform and in their platform
recommended “that an investigation of agricultural
credit societies in foreign countries be made, so that
it may be ascertained whether a system of rural
credits 'may be devised suitable to conditions in the
United States.’ ; Furthermore, the party’s platform
favored “legislation permitting national banks to
loan a reasonable proportion of their funds on real
estate security.”
It is interesting to note that the first practical
step toward carrying this constructive policy into
effect was due largely to the efforts of two South
ern senators, Senator Fletcher, of Florida, and Sen
ator Hoke Smith, of Georgia. Upon their insistence,
a provision was made, in the agricultural appro-
praition bill, for the appointment of the Rural
Credits Commission that is soon to Begin its work.
There is perhaps no part of the'country which
has such vital reason to be interested in this move
ment as has the South. In order that the .7011-
drously rich and varied resources of this section
may be duly developed, its agricultural affairs must
have the advantage of businesslike as well as sci
entific methods. Especially do they require the aid
and stimulus of an elastic system of credits. The
task which the Commission has begun will doubt
less be well performed and result in a larger and
freer era of Southern and national prosperity.
Mexico’s Fateful Presidency.
If the latest reports from Mexico are true, Presi-"
dent Huerta has realized the fatefulness of his office
and is preparing to withdraw while he may do so
with a measure of grace and security. He is said to
have agreed to surrender the provisional presidency
to Pedro Lascurian who shall be permitted to serve
out the unexpired term of the late President Madero.
Lascurain was minister of foreign relations in the
Madero cabinet, a post which constitutionally entitled
him to act as President after the death of both Ma
dero and Vice President Suarez.
This arrangement, it appears, would satisfy the rebel
leaders in northern Mexico who oppose Huerta on the
ground that he has usurped authority and has over
ridden the constitution. Whether it would restore
peace among all factions, however, is doubtful; for,
there is a spirit of rebellion in Mexico that attacks
any established government, regardless of who its
head may be.
Zapata is on the war path in the South, followed;
by bands of adventurers whose chief purpose to keep
the country in a state of turmoil in order that’ they
1 may drive their personal fortunes. It was the fact that
he was caught between these two fires of rebellion—
the Zapata forces in the south and the so-called “Con
stitutionalists” in the north—that is said to have
disposed Huerta to resign. If he does retire, his suc
cessor will doubtles become the object of new enmity
and conspiracies. ,
t'
Encouraging Truck Farms.
An interesting plan to encourage truck-growing
and to aid the farmers in marketirtg their crops to
the best advantage has been inaugurated by the
Southern Railway Company and its affiliated lines.
The road has employed four market agents, sta
tioned respectively at Atlanta, Washington, Cincin
nati and St. Louis, whose duty it is to study mar
ket conditions in the East and Went and to furnish
the truck growers in the Southern’s territory with
the helpful information thus acquired.
The agents will find, for instance, what products
are in demand at particular points and what prices
are current. They .vill then report to the Southern’s
Farm Improvement Department which is directly
in touch with the planters. The shipper is thus pro
tected against many risks to which ignorance of
market conditions would expose him; and further
more he is instructed as to the best methods of pack
ing his products.
This is a broadly constructive enterprise for
which the Southerr. Railway is to be commended,
and in which all the railroads of this section would
do well to join. In Georgia, as in other Southern
States, it is of the utmost importance that a greater
variety of food crops he grown. A soil and a climate
that are capable of producing practically everything
needed for man’s sustenance should not he monop
olized by cotton. The tyranny of the one-crop idea
has long been a hindrance to agricultural progress
and to economic interests in general. Georgia can
continue to be a great cotton-producing State with
out sacrificing its other manifold and fertilfe oppor
tunities. V
There is cheering evidence that the truck grow
ing industry is at last taking root. Within the past
year or so, numbers of farmers, notably in South
Georgia, have recognized the profit that lies in this
new field and are devoting their land and energy to
raising food products. In some counties, they have
organized for greater efficiency and economy, and
they are meeting with marked success. A truck
farm to be profitable must be conducted with busi
nesslike methods. The farmer must know the mar
kets to which he snips. It is at this juncture that
such an enterprise as the Southern Railway has es
tablished becomes especially valuable. The road
will be well repaid, for the progress of the truca
industry will develop a continually larger and more
lucrative volume of traffic.
The railroads of this section have awakened
within recent years to the importance of developing
the territory they traverse. It is to be hoped that
the good work they have begun will be continued
and multiplied.
Where the Office Seeks the Man.
No feature of the Wilson administration is more
distinctive than its policy of thorough independence
in the filling of important federal offices. It has
supplanted the old regime of patronage and devious
politics with simple standards of efficiency and
merit. It listens with interest to the recommenda
tions of party leaders and gives due weight to them
all but its final test and purposes in each instance
is to secure the mai. who will render the best service
to the. Government.
Tills policy Is rather disconcerting to the habitual
office seeker but to the public it is altogether re
freshing and satisfactory. The average citizen knows
little and cares less as to how federal patronage is
allotted, so long as the"Government’s business is en
trusted to honest and competent hands. The Presi
dent and the cabinet heads could never satisfy every
one who happened to be interested either directly or
indirectly in a particular office; and so the wisest
course they can pursue is to satisfy their own judg
ment and their own sense of responsibility. When
they have done that, the country will be content.
A noteworthy instance of the administration’s
method in this regard is the offer of the Indian com-
: missionership to Mr. Fuller E. Callaway, of Georgia.
Mr. Callaway was in no sense an applicant for this
post nor had he the remotest idea that it would be
tendeffed him. None of his friends had urged him
for the office and it is said that neither of the Geor
gia senators nor any of the Georgia congressmen
knew that his name was being considered. Secretary
of the Interior Lane was simply in quest of an able
man tp head the Indian bureau and, knowing Mr.
Callaway’s qualifications, he commended him to the
President. And, so, without wire-pulling, without
any effort or intimation on Mr. Callaway’s part, he
was selected for the place; though It now seems im
probable that he w.ll accept it.
In the asme manner, President Wilson selected
his cabinet and thus, too, the entire administration
is being organized. Patronage for the sake of patron
age alone receives no consideration. Fitness has
been* placed above partisanship. The Democratic
regime'has found a mission vastly higher than that
of parceling out party spoils; it has set forth to
serve the people and to that end it takes merit and
capacity as its guides.
China’s Constructive Program.
The liberal outlook and constructive purpose of
the new Chinese government are attested by the em
phasis it is placing on agricultural development. The
present administration proposes to gather from all
parts of the world knowledge concerning the meth
ods and results of farming and then to disseminate
it through China’s rural districts. In addition to
this agricultural schools will be established and the
adoption of up-to-date means of cultivation and
harvesting and marketing will be encouraged.
The vice-minister of agriculture and forestry in
the republic is a Chinese graduate of an American
college and he 'ia:; as his assistants men who have
been liberally educated abroad. This department
will issue a magazine on farming and will conduct a
systematic, far-reacaing campaign of education in
the interest of scientific agriculture.
Such enterprise indicates the breadth and fore
sight of the men who are leaders in the new era that
has dawned for the Chinese people. Having over
thrown the tyranny of the old empire, they are now
laboring to build freedom upon an enduring founda
tion. They realize that the security of the republic
rests in the enlightenment and progress of its citi
zens. They know that there cannot be political lib
erty without economic liberty, that the new govern
ment must be judged by the measure of prosperity
and contentment it .vouchsafes the people; that the
principles on which the republic has been reared
must be wrought into practical benefits.
And, so, as one of its earliest tasks the adminis
tration seeks to foster and develop the natural re
sources of the land. The new China has many ob
stacles yet to overcome, but so long as it adheres to
such constructive methods its future is promising.
Placing the Postal Department
On a Businesslike Basis.
The announcement by Postmaster General Burle
son that appointees to offices of the presidential
grade will hereafter be expected to give their entire
business time to the duties of, their position is
typical of the purpose and the methods of the Wil
son administration. Public office is to.be made in
•reality a public trust. The lolling days of sinecures
in the postal service are at an end. Postmasters,
high as well as low, are to he paid not for political
favors they have done in the past or may do In the
future, but for the work they perform. In short,
the Government’s business is to be placed upon the
same basis of efficiency and faithfulness that private
business requires.
It is said that if Mr. Burelson’s order had been
operative under the last administration, it would
have disqualified a majority of the postmasters who
held office under President Taft and it will doubt-
• .4
less lead many who are now applying for these posi
tions to withdraw. It has not heretofore been the
custom of postmasters appointed by the President to
devote themselves exclusively to the duties of their of
fice or to perform its tasks. They have, in many in
stances, relied upon assistant^ to shoulder the major
portion of the work, while they themselves enjoyed
the distinction and the emoluments of the post. This,
to be sure, has not been invariably the case, but It has
been frequent enough to warrant the new policy that
has been established.
Postmaster General Burleson contends that if
clerks and carriers are required by law to serve
eight hours daily, the postmaster, who is the highest
paid employe of the office "should give at least an
equivalent in time and effort.” Hence his declara
tion:
“In making new appointments to offices of
the presidential grade, the postoffice department
will require hereafter, in addition to the qualifi
cations with respect to ability, character and ex
perience, an assurance from the appoir ee that
his whole business time will be devoted to the
duties of the position to which he is appointed."
This policy will go far toward taking the postal
department out of politics and toward placing it
upon its logical basis of merit and efficiency. That
is the purpose of the new administration with refer
ence to all branches of federal service; and as sin
ecures and favoritism are supplanted by thorough
going tests of capacity and results in the officials
appointed, the public’s business will be carried on
as it should be and public interests will be duly pro
tected.
The Eagles and the Sparrow.,
There is something very droll in the spectacle
of six great Powers blustering vainly about the
coast of little Montenegro. It is somewhat as if
a swarm of eagles were sent to overawe a belliger
ent sparrow and the sparrow refused to he im
pressed. Four Austrian warships, three British
cruisers and a vessel each from Italy and France
have blockaded the Montenegrin port of Antlvari,
while a brigade of Austrian troops swagger along
the northern boundary of the tiny kingdom. The
purpose of this huge demonstration, is to frighten
Montenegro out of its campaign to win the Trukish
stronghold of Scutari, the group of great nations
having agreed, chiefly in deference to Austria’s
wishes, that Scutari shall be part of a neutral ter
ritory.
On Saturday the British admiral in command of
this six-Power naval display sent word to the pre
mier of Montenegro in this wise: "I have the honor
to inform you that the international fleet is assem
bled in Montenegrin waters as a protest of the non
fulfillment of the wishes of the great Powers. Please
inform me immediately that your government is
ready to carry out the wishes of the great Powers.”
When it is reflected that Montenegro is only about
half as large as Georgia, with a population of a few
hundred thousand, it seems rather remarkable that
the international fleet should have to call attention
to its presence after it had arrived. Any one of the
nations represented, if given free action, would be
capable of wiping Montenegro from the map.
But the little State simply replied that it re
gretted the bad taste displayed by the big Powers
and would continue fighting to its heart’s content.
Wherefore arises the interesting question, what will
the Powers do next? What can they do, if Monte
negro persists in its present attitude?
It Is not improbable that if they should proceed
with actual force against Montenegro, they would
provoke the very crisis they are now seeking to
avert. It has been thought wise for the sake of
international balance that the particular strip of
Turkish territory in which Scutari lies should be
made into a neutral State. But this policy would
be costly, indeed, if its execution called for inter
national war; and it is by no means impossible that
such a war would follow, If the Powers ventured
upon an invasion of Montenegro. Russia is now
asquiescing in the plans of her big neighbors, but
the Russian people are feverishly sympathetic with
their Slav kindred of Montenegro, so that the Czar’s
government could scarcely support a campaign of
actual force against the little mountain kingdom.
If Russia withdraws from the international plan, as
it is now proceeding, the other nations will hesi
tate to follow Austria’s lead and the whole scheme
will be ready to topple. Perhaps Montenegro’s in
sight into these probabilities accounts for her pluck.
The National Drainage Congress.
The third annual meeting of the National Drain
age Congress, which is to be held at St. Louis, April
the tenth to the twelfth, should be of particular in
terest to the South. There is no part of the Union
to which the reclamation of, swamp and overflow
lands will mean so muoh in agricultural development
and public welfare. The Drainage Congress repre
sents a great organized movement to carry forward
this important task and to seeurfe the co-operation
of the federal government. It is therefore entitled
to the hearty support of every Southern State.
There are thousands of acres in this section
which through proper engineering methods and a
comparatively small outlay of money could be con
verted from worthless and disease-breeding bogs into
wondrously productive farms. Georgia is awaken
ing to its own possibilities in this regard. Encourag
ing progress in reclaiming the State’s swamp lands
has already been made, but in order that the work
may continue and accomplish due results, the aid of
the National Drainage Congress should be sought and
utilized. It is to be hoped that Georgia will be well
represented at the meeting in St. Louis, and that
the State Legislature will respond to the plans which
may be launched at that convention.
THE BEST ROOM
By Dr. Frank Crane
When I was a boy in Illinois every house had its
“best room.” It was where “company” sat, ladies who
came to call dressed up in their best Sunday clothes,
and the preacher when he made his regular visit and
prayed with the family, and the lawyer when i.e came
to get mother to . ign papers, and the book agent
who sold : ‘‘^Mother, Home and Heaven.”
The children were not allowed in there. And real
ly they never wanted to go in, for the shades were al
ways closely drawn at the windows, the air was
stuffy, and the hair cloth sofa and chairs were most
uncomfortable. •
There was an album on the marble topped center
table, and in it were Uncle Milt’s and Aunt Hallie’s
photographs. An engraving of Lincoln and his cabi
net, presented as a prize with two years’ subscription
V
for Godeyks Ladies Book, adorned the wall, and by its
side hung glass covered hair wreath. A beautiful
ingrain carpet covered the floor; twice a year it was
taken up and the hired man hung it over the clothes
line in the back yard and pounded it, making a tre
mendous whirl of dust, and then having put new
straw on the floor, relaid it.
The room was the pride and (|lory of the house,
and nearly useless.
I remember well'the time I went over to stay all
night with Ralph Matheny, and how amazed I was to
see’ the whole family s.tting in the “parlor,” the father
reading the newspaper and the boys playjng checkers—
right in the company room! v
The explanation of the best room is this: It is an
expression of the desire that the world should know
us, not as we are, but as what we are supposed to be.
The whole struggle for ‘‘respectability’* may be
summed up as an instinctive effort to cohceal our
real selves.
Most of what is known as “society” is but a rattle
and mixture of respectabilities, a parade of masks, a
game in which by a mutual understanding each plays
a part. •
To be genuine, frank and real is to be coarse, ill-
bred or crude.
The “best room” idea pervades us. What is the re
ligion of moFt of us but a “best room” affair, to‘be
used upon occasions and not for the daily warmth
of living?
With how many of your acquaintances have you
ever gotten farther than their “best room?” With
how few men or women do you talk with whom you
feel that you are entering freely into the sitting
room, dining room and kitchen of their mind!
In other words, we are acquainted with many and
know very few.
We move about, suspicious of one another, fencing
against one another, interposing conventional artificial
ities between our real selves and others.
And what a comfort to meet one of those persons
who impress you as genuine through and through,
with no dignity to defend, no fortress of respectability
to guard, one who is just a real man!
The Balkans and Turks are slow to anger, slow
to make peace.
There are two kinds of officeholders—the kind
that seeks, the kind that is sought.
It is being demonstrated that there is a fine
opening for college professors in politics.
Life is at conundrum that everybody gives up
sooner or later.
. .1 '• r 7
But a man isn’t necessarily self-made because
his mistakes are.
There is no hope for the misanthrope who would
rather believe a lie than the truth.
At the End of the Rainbow
IN PRAISE OF LIARS.
“I’d hate to have Ganderson’s reputation,” re
marked the retired merchant. “‘Everybody knows
that you can’t believe a word he says.”
“Well, such a reputation has its** redeeming fea
tures,” replied the hotel keeper. “You always know
where to find Ganderson. If he says one thing, you
know the other thing is true. If he came into this
hotel and said it was a fine, sunny day, I’d know it
was raining outdoors. There is some pleasure in con
versing with such a man. He admits that he hates
to tell the truth except on such special occasions as
Washington’s birthday, and so you never expect to
find him anything but a fountain of falsehood and he
doesn’t fool you.
“If Ganderson went into a grocery and Said he
wanted a bushel of potatoes or a few yards of New
Orleans molasses and that he would pay for them on
the first of the month, the grocer would laugh him
to scorn. Then th© grocer would give credit to some
majestic citizen of severely moral aspect, and when
the time cam e for payment the majestic citizen would
be invisible. Half the bad bills in- this country are
run up by men who look as though they simply
couldn't tell a lie and who have worked up a reputa
tion for uncompromising integrity. Mighty few of
the bad bills are run up by men who ;*rc generally
known as liars for obvious reasons.
“I get stuck every now and then and generally by
men who pride themselves on their reputation for
veracity. One evening Tom Gasaway was in here
telling stories about fish he had caught and wild ani
mals he ^had killed. Tom had a wide reputation as
an expert extemporaneous liar. It is said that he told
th© truth once several years ago and suffered from
nervous prostration. Well, a stranger of saintly ap
pearance sat here for a while listening to Tom’s in
teresting and instructive anecdotes and then that
stranger rose, with a look of intense scorn upon his
face, and said he co.uldn’t stand it to hear such false
hoods. They made his blood run cold.
“Then the stranger got his key and went upstairs
to his room and Tom was so abashed and humiliated
that he went away, probably with a determination to
reform. Next morning that virtuous stranger didn’t
loom up for breakkfast and when an investigation
was made it was fo\md that he had departed by way
of the fire escape, and he owed for three days’ board
and lodging, doggone him.
“The man who has a reputation for plain and fan
cy prevarication is a safe citizen. The man you have
to look out for is the individual who seems shocked
at the sound of a fish story. The one who is known
to be . related to Ananias by marriage can’t sell you
any mining stock or patent rights. When you see
him coming you tell him at once that there’s nothing
doing. But the eminently respectable gentleman who
wears ministerial whiskers and who refers to truth
as though he had a first mortgage on it is the one
who will sell you $5,000 worth of stock in an aperture
in the ground and then leave town between two days.
“I have quite a local reputation as a liar. I never
was ambitious to do any fancy stunts in falsehood,
but I always let my imagination have free rein and I
can’t see that it has injured me any. I have noticed
that the people of this town always seem to enjoy
my conversation and spend hours in this hotel listen
ing to me, and I sometimes have trouble in getting
rid of them. The man who runs the opposition hotel
has a fanatical fondness for the truth and never tells
a funny story or encourages anybody else to do so,
and th© result is that he has no loafers in his lobby
and his hotel is patronized only by colporteurs and
people with side whiskers.
“When a man gets a reputation for being truthful
he surrounds himself with a cold, clammy atmosphere
that repels warm blooded people.”
WALT MASON.
i
The Capital of Capitals
By Erederic j. Haskin
* . v. ’■
The sixty-third congress was distinguished for the
steps it took to add to the beauty of Washington, al
ready the most beautiful of the world's capitals. It
made an appropriation for the connection of Rock Creek
park, a large Wildwood driving park, with Potomac
park, which lies along the western end of the city’s
river front. This will give a continuous parkway, ex
tending from the capitol, past the Washington monu
ment, to Rock creek which separates the city proper
from old Georgetown. The lower end of this creek
runs through a region once famous for its beauty, but
now desolate in its sordid ugliness, being used as a
dumping -round. The upper end, which is included
in the National Zoological park, lias had its natural
beauty conserved. With the completion of the beauti
fication of lower Rock creek it will then be possible
for one to travel through a park that extends from the
very northernmost confines of the city to the river
front on the south, and thence to the capitol, which
will give to Washington a park system without a su
perior in any quarter of the world.
... •
Congress also voted an appropriation to erect to
the memory of Abraham Lincoln in Potomac park a
monument which will represent the world's most cost
ly pile to the memory of any man. It will be situated
at one end of the Mall, with the capitol at the other,
while between them towers the shaft that commemo
rates the life and work of Washington, and also the
heroic military monument which bespeaks the na
tion's veneration of Grant.
...
Furthermore, congress made the initial apppropria-
tion for the construction of a bridge, which will span
the Potomac from the vicinity of the Lincoln monu
ment to a point below the gates of Arlington, the home
of Robert E. Lee, apd now the country’s most his
toric and famous national cemetery. This bridge will
be memorial in its character, typifying the reunion of
the north and the south, and promises to be the great
est of its kind in the world.
...
Still another step in the realization of the cream
of the ultimate Washington was taken in the author
ization of a magnificent new department building west
of the new National museum, to be a fit companion
to that structure and of .he new department of agri
culture. When these plans and others previously laid
out are completed there wil! be a group of magnifi
cent government buildings south of Pennsylvania ave
nue and east of Fifteenth street that will be among
the most imposing in the world. There is a narrow
strip of land south of Pennsylvania avenue and extend
ing to the. world famous Mall that connects the capi
tol and the Washington monument. This strip of
land, for the most part, is covered with cheap hotels,
restaurants, rooming houses, ti e city’s leading market,
the wholesale provision and lumber districts, and the
red light district. It is th- plan of the government to
remove all of this, and to make it the site of new fed
eral buildings the expansion of the government makes
necessary.
...
In addition to all these things, congress has pro
vided for the creation of a small park on what is
known as Meridian Hill, which marks the horizon from
the north front of the White House. There the peo-
' pie may come to get a glimpse of the city second only
to that which may be enjoyed from the dome of the
capitol or from the top of the Washington monument.
...
But even when all these things have been done the
ultimate Washington still will lie in the future. Those
who want to see it a capital commensurate with the
wealth and dignity of the nation; representative of
the national ideals of beauty and symmetry; embody
ing the national aspirations in landscape gardening,
in architecture, in conservation of natural beauty,
would go even further, between Rock Creek park
and Soldiers' Home park, both situated on the north
ern side o-‘ the city, there is now no park connection.
It has been proposed that they shall be joined together
in the years to come. Plans have been perfected for
a park between the Union station and the capitol. The
completion of these two projects -..’ould mean a park
system around the four sides of the main part of the
city, with only one comparatively short break. It
would start at the Union station and extend nearly a
half mile through the capitol grounds. Then it would
turn at right angles and extend due west until it
reached the water front, and along that to the conflu
ence of Hock creek with the Potomac—a total dis
tance of two and a half miles. From here it would
run north a distance of six miles along Rock creek; in
the event that a connecting link between Rock Creek
park and Soldiers' Home park is established, this
would leave Rock creek at right angles at a point
about four miles above the conflqcAce with the Pot«-
mac, and then would extend eastward for a mile and
a half to ,-cldiers’ home. This, in turn, with the mu
nicipal filtration plant, gives a parkway nearly two
miles long and a half mile or more wide. The only
break" in the great parallelogram,, then, would be the
residence section between the Soldiers' Home park and
the Union station, which is about a mile and a half
long. In other words, in a great line around H Uie best
part of the city some sixteen miles long, all but about
two miles would be a line of green.
* « ...
Very few of the world’s great capitals lend them
selves so well to the builder of the City Beautiful as
the capital of the United States. With the picturesque
Potomac and its Virginian palisades; with Rock Creek
valley filled with beautiful glens and fine drives; with
a gently undulating downtown section; and with high
residential sections, the general conformation of the'
site of the city is more beautiful than that of Rome,
more attractive than that of Paris, far to be preferred
over that cf Berlin, not to be compared with that of
London, Madrid, St. Petersburg or Mexico City.
* • •
Berlin was built on a perfectly flat sandy wast~
and whatever beauty there is in the German capital
has been put there by the hand of the landscape gard
ener and the architect. The trees planted there par
tially atone for what nat re failed to do, but nothing
can remedy the unkindness of nature in omitting hills
and valleys. St. Petersburg is situated on the splen
did river Neva, and has a wonderful water front. The
Neva rushes through it, covered with snow and ice in
winter, but the country upon which it is built is flat
and swampy and, therefore, th ; site is damp and inhos
pitable, resisting the best efforts of an empire’s treas
ury to remedy it.
* * *
It has been suggested that nowhere else could a
national forest be created to better advantage than be
tween Washington and Baltimore and along the Poto
mac. west of "Washington. Here is a great stretch of
counry, worth but little for farming or lumbering,
where a national forest could be established at no un
reasonable cost. The west has its Yellowstone Park,
its Glacier Park, and other ‘ great national reserves,
but the east has none. Why not have one between
Washington and Baltimore, within eight hours’ ride of
perhaps a fourth of the country’s population? This is
the question of the dreamer of today, but there are
those who believe that in a decade congress will come
to give it that same attention which, after years of ef
fort, it gave to the proposed Appalachian National for
ests.
♦ * *
Paris is famed throughout the world for its beau
ty, and it has a share of pleasing landscapes, but non*
of them compares with the river bluffs which enclosf
downtown "Washington and afford the home sites foi
the residential districts and the sites for some of the
capital’s most beautiful parks. The Seine, with all the
treatment that the art of landscape gardening can give
it, yet will lack that beauty which is the Potomac’s by
right of heritage. London is rich in history and the
Thames arouses memories of centuries, but even that
patriot of patriots, Ambassador Bryce, declares that
London is situated ir. a very uninteresting country and
that the Thames cannot be compared in beauty with
the Potomac.
T