632 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
purpose here to urge them, or even endorse what is said in these papers on either 
subject. It is for a different purpose. 
I want to say to our people that there is no city in this country, nor do I 
think there is one in any other, where the problem of paving can be so advantag- 
eously studied as in Washington. And the reasons lie upon the surface. In 
almost all cities the situation is alike — the kind of pavement and its quality is, 
from the form of city government, more or less dependent on the wants of con- 
tractors — here it is not the case. Where the city council has any control their 
election generally governs their votes, and contractors elect or defeat in many 
cases as they choose. In this city the engineer is detailed from the engineer 
corps of the army and is perfectly independent. The executive authority is a 
commission appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and is 
independent of ward politics and contractors. Congress appropriates part of the 
money and exercises supervision through the district committee — the Govern- 
ment paying for its frontage the same as private individuals. 
It will thus be seen that the highest skill i? available ; discretion is lodged in 
a perfectly independent executive, and the dangers of corruption reduced to 
almost absolute immunity. To do bad work or defraud the taxpayer requires 
both a dishonest engineer and board of commissioners. 
The result of all these guards is that Washington is the best paved city in the 
world. Then, again, men who have patents are anxious to have a sample laid 
in this city and it has been the practice to afford opportunity for all valuable im- 
provements to be so laid. You can thus find all sorts of wood pavements tested 
here; all kinds of stone pavements; all varieties of concretes; all patents of 
asphalt, both sheet and block, — in fact there is hardly a known variety of paving 
material or method of laying that has not been tested and results attainable. 
And under the admirable engineering system, the city is under the eye con- 
stantly of the highest skill, and is also seen by the leading engineers of the world, 
who are visitors to the capital. In this way the very best workmanship and the 
most thorough methods have been employed, and when you find a piece of pave- 
ment it is always the best of its class, whatever may be the material used. 
Now what ought the people of a city like Kansas City, just entering upon a 
system of street improvement that is to cost a great deal of money, to do ? It 
seems to me that they should investigate the matter for themselves. Not to see 
whether the stone men or the wood men shall lay their pavements, but to study 
the whole question, and determine what is the best for Main Street, what will 
answer for Walnut, what will best supply the needs of Twelfth, and so on. 
If an engineer like Mr. Chanute, able and conscientious, with two or three 
practical men of high character, were to come here and spend a week or two 
making a personal examination of the streets of Washington, and consulting with 
the engineer department and the District commissioners as to cost, methods of 
construction, durability and desirability of the various kinds of pavements in use 
here, they would be able to give our people practical advice, that would ensure 
first-class streets at the lowest possible cost. 
