ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 25 



garden in that same locality we could make an entrance to the city 

 of Washington which would be thoroughly worthy of the Capitol 

 City of a country like ours. 



Mr. Gould. May I interrupt you a second, please ? I notice in the 

 Sixty-fourth Congress there was a special subcommittee of the Joint 

 Committee on the Library to look into this question. Was that the 

 report to which you referred, the report made to the Committee on 

 the Library of the Senate? 



Gen. Harts. Yes, sir. 



The Chairman. What is the date of the report ? 



Gen. Harts. It was in 1916. 



Mr. Luce. Did the commission ever make a report on Mount 

 Hamilton site? 



Gen. Harts. Just once, sir. 



Mr. Luce. Did they recommend it? 



Gen. Harts. Yes, sir ; yes, sir. I had the pleasure of taking a num- 

 ber of the members of the Library Committee out to visit the site so 

 that they would be familiar with the points as they came up in the 

 hearings, the questions of locality for buildings and the exposure 

 either to the sun or the elements; and so you would see how it joined 

 in with the other pieces of Government property in the localit}^ and 

 how it all fitted in with the general plans for the development of 

 the city of Washington. I do not see that there could be any very 

 serious objections to it if we are going to develop at all in that line 

 and I was at that time extraordinarily interested, and am still, as 

 a matter of fact in the development of Washington so that we will 

 not permit too much that is not desirable to take place before we 

 get a system which is going to be satisfactory for a long time ahead, 

 because now is the time to acquire lands if you are going to make 

 parks. We had a magnificient groundwork 150 years ago and 

 since then we have been negligent in maintaining that fine standard. 



In developing the city we have also to keep in mind the other 

 capitals of the world. Rio de Janeiro is an extraordinarily beau- 

 tiful place and is a rival of Washington. Paris, we all know, is a 

 remarkable city and its beauty has been fostered and cared for. I 

 feel that we should do everything we could to see that Washington 

 is not encroached upon for commercial purposes, for business alone, 

 because Washington has always got to be the Capital of the country 

 and it always must be an enjoyable place and must always be a place 

 of which the whole of our country will be proud and desire to be 

 developed along proper lines. The Fine Arts Commission of which 

 Mr. Moore was chairman and myself as secretary tried various 

 things that would be creditable in the future so that we would not, 

 as I say, close the door to the proper development of the city. 



The Chairman. You spoke about having more creditable ap- 

 proaches to the city; what is the present condition as to approaches 

 to the city? 



Gen. Harts. The approach from the north 



The Chairman. Give the names of the highways, if you please, 

 which are the approaches. 



Gen. Harts. I do not believe I can give you very definitely the 

 names ; but coming through that little village to the north, Bladens- 

 burg. you strike a turnpike that comes into the city along a street- 

 car line which divides the highway, making a narrow street on 

 each side with real estate development in the shape of greenhouses 



