292 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC T^IAGAZINE 



pensive scale, from which the ordinary 

 revenues derived from commerce and 

 manufactures are excluded; that in such 

 a case the burden of maintaining- the ex- 

 penses of the Capital City should fall en- 

 tirely upon the resident population." 



How truly Washington is a national 

 city is revealed by the place of bh-th of 

 its inhabitants. More than two-thirds of 

 all of the people residing in the District 

 of Columbia in 1910 were born elsewhere. 

 No other city in the country has such a 

 large proportion of people who were not 

 born within its boundaries. Every State 

 in the Union is represented by a consid- 

 erable cpota of people who have come to 

 ^^'ashington with their families. In the 

 District government, as it is constituted 

 today, none of the higher officials are 

 native-born. Both civilian commission- 

 ers, the engineer commissioner, the su])- 

 erintendent of police, and the health offi- 

 cer were all born outside of the Capital. 

 The same is true of a majority of the 

 members of the Board of Assessors, the 

 Excise Board, and the other principal 

 organizations of the city. 



bklie;ve; in a bi^autifui. capital 



That the citizens of AA^ashington have 

 a disinterested enthusiasm for the beau- 

 tification of the city and for its improve- 

 ment in every way I can personally tes- 

 tify. Alan}^ of the measures for the en- 

 largement of the public facilities in Wash- 

 ington or for the purchase of parking, 

 which ought to have gone through, have 



either been delayed or defeated through 

 suspicions of the good faith of those who 

 have been active in recommending them. 



As I look back now with my knowledge 

 of A\'ashington, covering nearly a quarter 

 of a century, I am bound to say that sev- 

 eral gentlemen who have been very prom- 

 inent in urging congressional action for 

 the government acquisition of greatly 

 needed land, that could be had at a rea- 

 sonable price for government- purposes, 

 have been grossly maligned. j\Iore than 

 that, they have been sadly vindicated in 

 the disappointment that all lovers of 

 Washington must feel now that their ad- 

 vice was not followed. 



The fact that the residents of Wash- 

 ington, now grown to 350,000 in number, 

 are deprived of local self-government im- 

 poses a sacred obligation on Congress to 

 see to it that they do not suffer from 

 such deprivation. 



The people of the United States love 

 Washington. They are proud of the city. 

 When they visit the city they walk upon 

 her streets with a consciousness that she 

 belongs to them, and that her dignity and 

 beauty and the grandeur of her buildings 

 are an expression of her sovereignty and 

 her greatness. 



The educational effect that the archi- 

 tectural development of Washington along 

 proper lines will have upon our people 

 will be most elevating. It will show it- 

 self in the plans for the improvement of 

 other cities and it will cultivate a love of 

 the beautiful that will make for the hap- 

 piness of all. 



