WASHINGTON'S BEGINNING, GROWTH, AND FUTURE 285 



SUJSTKl^N GARDIvXS IN THIi ^lALI, 



It was intended by U'Enfant that the 

 Washington Monument should be at the 

 intersection of a Hne from the center of 

 the Capitol and at right angles to its axis, 

 with another line from the center of the 

 White House and at right angles to its 

 axis ; but the geometrical symmetry 

 planned was not maintained and the Mon- 

 ument was not rightly placed. The line 

 from the center of the White House in- 

 tersects the line from the Capitol some 

 rods nearer the river than the Monument. 

 The Commission proposed a most in- 

 genious method of avoiding the unfortu- 

 nate effect of this error by a sunken gar- 

 den, with a noble terrace and steps lead- 

 ing up the ]\Ionument fsee page 248). 

 The sunken garden as planned extends 

 along the axis from the Monument in the 

 direction of and opens a vista toward the 

 Lincoln Memorial. There is no reason 

 Avhy this should not be carried out in the 

 future. 



The transverse line from the ^^^^^te 

 House crosses this sunken garden, in the 

 imaginative sketch of the Commission, 

 to a Pantheon at the intersection of the 

 AA'hite House axis with the axis of Mary- 

 land avenue in a center of buildings and 

 grounds for the encouragement and prac- 

 tice of athletics by the people of Wash- 

 ington, called Washington Common, 

 which is at the same distance from the 

 sunken garden and the ]\Ionument as the 

 AMiite House, and completes an axis sec- 

 ondary to that of the Mall (see pano- 

 rama of the ultimate AA^ashington, fron- 

 tispiece) . The beaut}^ of the arrangement 

 must impress every one who reads care- 

 fully the report of the Commission and 

 studies the designs, wliich have been 

 worked out with the utmost skill and at- 

 tention to detail and adherence to the 

 symmetry of the general plan. 



POPULATION OP" WASHINGTON AND OTHER 

 CAPITALS 



If the Nation's Capital continues to 

 grow during the remainder of the pres- 

 ent century as rapidly as it grew between 

 19 10 and 19 14, it will have a population 

 of more than 800,000 at the beginning of 

 the next century. Even then, however, 



it will be very much smaller than any of 

 the leading capitals of the world. Eon- 

 don, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Vienna, and 

 Petrograd all have populations exceeding 

 two million, while Buenos Aires, Con- 

 stantinople, and Rio de Janeiro have 

 populations exceeding a million. Other 

 capitals which now have a population of 

 more than half a million are Brussels, 

 Budapest, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Madrid, 

 ]\Ielbourne, Mexico City, Peking, and 

 Rome. It follows that" even a touch of 

 the wisdom and foresight of Washington 

 M'ill lead us to provide for the Capital's 

 future. 



In many quarters there seems to be an 

 erroneous impression that the United 

 States government pays the entire ex- 

 pense of maintaining the Capital City, 

 and, further, that the people of Wash- 

 ington have their municipal government 

 handed to them on a silver platter. Such, 

 however, is far from the truth. In any 

 study of the National Capital and the 

 relation of its inhabitants to the govern- 

 ment the principal fact must alwa3^s be 

 kept in mind that the city is in no sense 

 supported by the government for the 

 people's benefit. 



AVhile they have to pay but half of the 

 expense of the city government, that half 

 is greater than most cities of AA^ashing- 

 ton's class impose upon their people. 

 There are two reasons for this. The 

 first of these is that no other city of its 

 class has so many unusual expenses to 

 meet. For instance, no other city of its 

 size has as many square feet of street 

 surface to maintain ; its expenditures for 

 police protection are $2.96 per capita, 

 where the expenditures of the nine cities 

 with populations ranging between 295,000 

 and 408,000 average only $1.86. Its fire 

 department expenditures are $1.92 per 

 capita, where those of these nine cities 

 are $1.66 per capita. Its per capita ex- 

 penditures for highways are $3.12, as 

 compared wdth $2.16 for the nine cities of 

 its class. Its per capita expenditures for 

 charities, hospitals, and corrections are 

 $3.62, as compared with $1.24 for the 

 nine cities. In every department of its 

 activities expenses are somewhat unusual, 

 this being due to the fact that the city is 

 the home of the Federal o-overnment and 



