484 
Pi\RK i\ND CEMETERT 
house and senate on sites facing the Capitol grounds ; the 
placing of the National Museum on the north side of the 
Mall, and the Agricultural Department on its appropriate 
spot; selection of sites for such semi-public buildings as the 
Continental Hall and the Washington University structures 
on a line with the Corcoran Gallery of Art — these achieve- 
ments are noteworthy victories for the improvement plans. 
There comes a time, however, when b}" reason of over- 
confidence or carelessness, good beginnings result in bad 
endings. So long as Washington, Adams and Jefferson main- 
tained personal oversight over the development of the na- 
tion’s capital, L’Enfant’s plan was adhered to ; but from the 
reign of Andrew Jackson to the administration of William 
McKinley the fundamental principles of the original design 
were lost sight of and lands were sold for a song which must 
now be repurchased at a great price. 
Among the critical questions in the immediate future is 
the determination of the site for the Lincoln memorial. Feb- 
ruary 12 , 1909, will be the centenary of Abraham Lincoln’s 
birth. The times are ripe for such a memorial as shall sig- 
nify the appreciation in which the American people hold the 
great president. Senator. Cullom of Illinois conceives it to 
be a pious duty, owed both to the friend of his young man- 
hood and to his state, to see that before he retires from the 
senate a suitable memorial to Lincoln shall be provided for ; 
and Speaker Cannon is of similar mind. 
Perhaps no one feature of the Park Commission’s plans 
received more thought or evoked more discussion than did 
the location of the Lincoln memorial. In the end questions 
of expediency gave way to the larger conception, and the 
location assigned to Lincoln recognized him as standing in 
the public estimation in the same category with Washington. 
There is in the whole p^lan of the District of Columbia, but 
one site on which the Lincoln memorial can be located so as 
to place the savior of the country next in honor to its 
founder, and that is on the axis of the Capitol and the Wash- 
ington monument, on the banks of the Potomac. This posi- 
tion, terminating the great Mall composition, was deliberately 
selected by Messrs. Burnham, McKim, Saint Gaudens and 
Olmsted, and the choice had the cordial approval of Mr. 
Hay, who recognized to the full the force of the reasoning 
by which the choice was arrived at. 
The only objection that has ever been urged publicly to 
this site came from Mr. Cannon, who, with his peculiar 
humor, insisted that the location was absurd ; first, because 
nobody would visit it, and secondly, because the place was 
so malarial that the structure would shake to pieces with 
ague. It is true that the site is now a part of that unde- 
veloped park area which was reclaimed from the Potomac in 
order to improve the health of the city. Yet when but a few 
years ago the portio.n of Potomac flats directl}^ south of the 
White House was laid out with good roads, it speedily be- 
came one of the most frequented drives in the district. The 
truth is that these once malarial marshes when planted will 
provide the most accessible and the most beautiful portion of 
the entire park system. The Lincoln memorial site would 
thus become a great assembly point for the driveways lead- 
ing up the river to the Rock Creek boulevard, down the 
river to the island park, and across the Potomac to Arlington. 
Only less important than the site is the form which the 
memorial shall take. The park commission put forth a tenta- 
tive plan of a marble portico, simple, dignified, imposing. 
Mr. McClear}^ the chairman of the house committee on 
the library, and by virtue of that position a member of the 
Lincoln -Memorial Commission, visited Europe recently on a 
tour of investigation. Without endeavoring to anticipate his 
findings, it may be doubted whether any other form of 
memorial than the one devised by the park commission is so 
well fitted to stand on the axis of those two superb creations, 
the Capitol and the Lincoln monument. At least, no word of 
competent criticism has called in question the design of the 
portico, while on the other hand this plan, adopted by the 
men who achieved the unsurpassed beauty of the Court of 
Honor at the Chicago Fair, has been approved by the thou- 
sands to whom the AVashington plans have been an inspira- 
tion. Before any change shall be made in the design, the 
American people should be certain that no less careful con- 
sideration be given to the subject and no less competent 
hands be intrusted with the work. 
Another important and timely subject is the location of 
the Grant statue, now approaching completion in the Brook- 
lyn studio of the sculptor, Shrady. The park commission 
planned to create a broad thoroughfare on the western front 
of the Capitol in the space now occupied by the obsolete 
Botanical Garden. This space, adorned by the statues of 
Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, and enriched with fountains, 
should give a fitting approach to the Capitol, and at the same 
time act as the connecting link between the Capitol grounds 
and the Mall system proper. The best illustration of just 
what was intended is to be found in the Place de la Concorde, 
which forms the cross-axis of the great Paris composition. 
The Shrady statue was designed for this location, and to 
place it in the rear of the White House, as has been proposed, 
would simply belittle both the monument and the hero it com- 
memorates, while to give it the site intended would result in 
providing an essential element in the great scheme. 
The most serious menace to the carrying out of the Wash- 
ington plans during the years that necessarily must elapse 
before they can be brought anywhere near completion is the 
divided and often conflicting responsibility under which the 
parks and public grounds of the District of Columbia now 
rest. Experience forbids the hope that succeeding adminis- 
trations will contain men of cultivation and taste sufficient 
to overcome the diverse independent views which in the past 
have prevented systematic effort to accomplish a single great 
harmonious effect. Indeed, the struggles that were necessary 
before the present administration came to realize the desira- 
bility of adhering to the plans proposed at a time when public 
interest in civic improvement was fresh and keen, make it 
certain that unless the entire park system of the District of 
Columbia shall be placed under the jurisdiction of a single 
park board, the perversion of the present plans is as unavoid- 
able as was the distortion of the origina.1 plans devised by 
L’Enfant under the supervision of Washington and Jefferson. 
President Roosevelt, recognizing the foregoing facts, has 
attempted to remedy the difficulty, in so fat as he was able to 
do so, by re-establishing the Senate Park Commission with 
an additional member in the person of Mr. Bernard R. Green, 
the superintendent ')f the Library of Congress, a man in 
whom Congress has great confidence. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, the law prevents the employment of persons without 
the direct sanction of legislation, and also forbids the accept- 
ance of service without pay. While a way has been found 
to evade in part the prohibitions provided to check abuses of 
a different kind, still the present arrangement is at best but 
temporary and partial. The need is a permanent board of 
control, such as is usual in other cities; and this can be ac- 
complished only by Congressional legislation. In order to 
bring about legislation there must be a strong realization of 
the necessity of such a board and a willingness on the part of 
thdse in authority to relinquish their control for the further- 
ahce of the general good. Congress must be made to realize 
the situation and must be induced to provide the remedy. 
Here, then, are the tasks most nearly at hand and most 
necessary to be accomplished. 
