PARK AND CEMRTERY 
483 
ing a commission, consisting of the board of control (the gov- 
ernor, the treasurer and the comptroller) and two members 
to be appointed by the governor, to purchase the railroad 
property and private residences necessary to carry the capitol 
grounds to Broad street. This commission got to work in 
earnest and had the deeds passed for a part of the property 
required, before any hearings had been held by the military 
committee on the armory question. When .these hearings 
came, the roundhouse site advocates had a tremendous ad- 
vantage. With nearly $75,000 already expended for about 
two acres of private property, and good prospects for. a satis- 
factory agreement with the railroad company over an addi- 
tional ioj 4 acres, why should the state buy the Main street 
site for $150,000 more? 
After the hearings were completed, the military committee, 
by a vote of 7 to 4, reported against the recommendations of 
the armory commission, which had expended nearly $20,000 
in options for the site and plans and specifications for the 
building, and in favor- of the “roundhouse site.” But the 
end was not yet. The negotiations between the new purchase 
commission and the railroad company were dragging, and one 
member of the General Assembly had a resolution all pre- 
pared and ready to introduce repealing the act creating the 
purchase commission and throwing overboard the whole 
plan. It is easy to imagine the instigators behind this move, 
for it was growing more apparent each day that the round- 
house site fight was really won with the passage of the bill, 
creating the purchase commission, as this bill was so framed 
that the commission could actually pass the deeds without 
coming back to the Legislature for further instructions. By 
clever work the member who was to present the repeal bill 
was persuaded to wait for two days, and during that time the 
purchase commission closed the deal with the railroad com- 
pany and secured their property for $185,000. 
It is easy to imagine what happened from now on. When 
the report of the military commission came up for action, the 
roundhouse site project won by the overwhelming vote of 
272 to 18, three votes of the minority being members of the 
armory commission. Subsequently a bill was passed provid- 
ing for a commission, “to consist of the governor, the ad- 
jutant general and three members to be appointed by the 
governor, to take charge of the land acquired by the state as 
an addition to the capitol grounds, grade and lay out the 
same, and secure plans for an arsenal and armory adapted 
for location on said lands, and which can be erected at a cost 
not exceeding $400,000.” 
On August 8, 1905, the governor appointed the following 
persons to serve upon this commission : Frederick L. Ford, 
Hartford, Conn.; Hon. Alexander T. Pattison, Simsbury, 
and Hon. Charles M. Jarvis, Berlin. 
This commission has been organized, and is busily at work 
under its instructions. At the present time practically all of 
the buildings upon the railroad property have been removed 
and work is progressing rapidly upon the removal of the six 
apartment houses secured as a part of this site. By Decem- 
ber I, 1905, the entire tract of 12)4 acres will be cleared, and 
a nuisance of many years’ standing will be obliterated. As 
the tract is being cleared, people are beginning to realize the 
magnitude of these grounds and what this accomplishment 
really means to the state of Connecticut and to the city of 
Hartford. As an asset to both it will be second only in im- 
portance to the acquisition and development of our famous 
Bushnell Park. 
I have told this story in some detail to show how victories 
which mean much for the civic advancement of our American 
cities can be won against overwhelming odds, if the cause is 
just and the fight is waged in the open, by means of per- 
sistent, organized and well directed effort. 
THe Improvement of WasKin^ton. 
BY CHARLES MOORE, OF DETROIT, FORMERLY SECRETARY OF THE U. S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
When the plans for the improvement of the District of 
Columbia were placed on exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery 
of Art in Washington, in December, 1901, a chorus of ap- 
proval went up all over the land. The scheme was magnifi- 
cent; the dream was glorious; what a pity that it was too 
stupendous ever to be realized! The chairman of the com- 
mittee on appropriations of the House of Representatives 
brought up the seemingly conclusive objection that no less a 
sum than $200,000,000 would be the cost of carrying out the 
work projected; an^ then he added, not without a tinge of 
malice, that the park commission, being the creature of the 
senate, was born out of wedlock, and therefore was not en- 
titled to consideration by so respectable a body as the Con- 
gress of the United States. And because he held the purse 
strings, many of those who needed appropriations fell in with 
his way of thinking. So that instantly there was arrayed 
against the plans and against the commission personally an 
amount of open and secret antagonism which for a time 
seemed overwhelming. To make matters still worse, the 
senator who was responsible for the creation of the commis- 
sion, and who had taken upon himself the task of scuring the 
legislation necessary to lay the foundations of the project, 
suddenly died, apparently leaving no successor. Fortunately, 
however. Senator McMillan’s life was spared until he could 
frame the bill for the removal of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
from the Mall, and carry it through the senate. This legisla- 
tion, as events have proved, was the solid rock on which the 
now assured success of the plans has been built. For, it has 
been argued again and again, having spent the millions neces- 
sary to restore the Mall to the public, why permit the purpose 
of this great expenditure to be thwarted by the perversity of 
individuals, either through ignorance or through wrong- 
headedness ? 
Moreover, there were in President Roosevelt’s cabinet men 
who keenly appreciated the largeness, simplicity, effectiveness, 
real eebnomy and historic value of the new scheme, which 
was in reality the Eighteenth century plan of Washington 
projected to its legitimate conclusion in the Twentieth cen- 
tury. To John Hay, Elihu Root and William H. Taft belongs 
the credit of standin,g steadfastly by the commission’s work 
when it was threatened by executive officers, and af the most 
critical juncture the president himself came to the rescue and 
with firmness and decision put an end to the subtle intrigue 
that had for its object to defeat the whole project by project- 
ing the Agricultural Department building into the Mall. 
Nor have the plans been without friends ^ in Congress. 
Senators Newlands and Dryden have proved themselves 
quite the match for the vituperative Senator Hale, whose 
appreciation of architectural effect may readily be measured 
by recalling his prolonged and bitter fight against the so- 
called Olmsted terrace to the Capitol. In the house, Mr. 
Powers, of Massachusetts, came forward at a crisis and pre- 
vented trouble. 
It may be said confidently that today the main features 
of the Mall scheme as laid down by the commission have 
been so fixed that the general plan will be carried out. The 
location of the Union Station for the seven railroads enter- 
ing Washington; the construction of office buildings for the 
