Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/383

WASHINGTON. settlement methods are not lacking. Organized charitable work on an extensive scale is carried on by the Associated Charities, which is supplied in large part with funds raised by the Citizens' Relief Committee. An incorporated company is engaged in erecting sanitary homes for the poor.

. Some of the leading theatres are the Columbia, the National, and the Lafayette. The principal clubs are the Metropolitan, Cosmos, and Army and Navy, which are all in commodious homes. There is perhaps no city in the world where the flood of visitors is so continuous as at the national capital. It is probably true that more conventions and annual gatherings are held in Washington than in any other place. The facilities for the comfort and care of the stranger are extensive and thoroughly modern. Among the prominent hotels are the New Willard, Arlington, Shoreham, Raleigh, Metropolitan, Ebbitt, Riggs, Gordon, Cochran, Hamilton, and Grafton.

. Washington is not a manufacturing city, but still a large sum of money is invested in manufacturing enterprises, and the value of the yearly output is considerable. The product is made up principally of articles for home consumption. In the census year 1900 the District had 2754 manufacturing establishments, with a total capital of $41,981,245. They employed 24,693 hands and paid in wages $14,643,714. The raw materials used were valued at $10,369,571. The product was valued at $47,667,622. Twenty per cent. of the total value of the manufacturing and mechanical industry of the District was the product of Government establishments.

. Since 1874 the government has been under the control of three commissioners appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The citizens have no direct voice in the appointments to office within the District, having no vote in District or national affairs.

Estimates of the money needed for municipal purposes are sent to Congress by the District Commissioners and an appropriation bill is framed, based on these estimates. In the year 1903 the total amount carried in the District bill was $9,354,287. The principal items were as follows: schools, $1,378,909; interest on debt and sinking fund provision, $925,408; improvements and repairs of streets, $791,000; sewers, $897,000; police, $800,325; fire department, $372,180. Half of the amount appropriated is paid by the United States and the other half is raised by taxation from the citizens of the District. This division of the municipal burden is based upon the large ownership by the United States of property in the District, which, of course, is untaxed and which is estimated, counting the streets, to be one-half of the entire area. All the expenditures of money thus appropriated, made under the direction of the Commissioners, must pass the scrutiny of the auditing officers of the Treasury Department, just as in the case of all Federal expenditures. With these safeguards about municipal disbursements and the practical elimination of local politics, the affairs of the District are managed with a degree of economy and efficiency that is believed to be without a parallel in the history of municipal government. The tax rate on both real and personal property is $1.50 per hundred. In the case of real estate

it is upon the assessed valuation, which is not less than two-thirds the actual value. The funded debt of the District in 1902 was $14,198,330. The assessed value of real estate in 1903 was $208,519,436, and of personal property $22,249,935.

The water supply is brought from the Great Falls of the Potomac by means of an aqueduct 12 miles long. The water-works are owned by the Government. The fund from the water tax is kept separate from the general fund. A sand filtration plant is a new feature that is to be added to the system.

. In 1900 the population of the District was 278,718, of whom 191,532 were white and 86,702 were colored.

. For a number of years after the Revolutionary War the country had no permanent capital, and there was great rivalry among the principal cities to secure the seat of government. At last, in 1790, partly as the result of a compromise and partly in deference to Washington's judgment, the Potomac country was chosen and Virginia and Maryland each offered to cede a tract to the General Government. By act of March 30, 1791, Washington was authorized to select the site and mark the boundaries, and this he did early in the year, the cornerstone of the Federal territory being laid on April 15th. On the spot chosen an Englishman named Francis Pope had settled in 1663 and had called the place Rome. Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer who had served in the Continental Army, was chosen to lay out the town, and, though dismissed in March, 1792, he drew up a plan which was adopted by the commissioners in charge and in accordance with which Andrew Ellicott laid out the city. In September, 1791, the name Columbia was adopted for the District and the name Washington for the city. The District was originally ten miles square, but in 1846 the Virginia portion was retroceded, leaving a land area of 60 square miles. The land within the area of Washington laid out in lots was divided by agreement equally between the United States and the proprietors, except certain portions which were purchased by the Government. By the sale of land thus obtained a part of the money used in the erection of the public buildings was secured. In order to facilitate this division, the land-owners deeded their entire holdings to the Government, receiving from the latter title deeds. For this reason the land records within the original urban limits start from the Government's title to the whole acquired in 1791. During the first few years the large scale on which the plans were drawn was in such striking contrast to the actual size of the place that by travelers and others Washington was derisively called ‘The City of Magnificent Distances,’ ‘The City of Streets Without Houses,’ ‘The Wilderness City,’ and ‘The Capital of Miserable Huts.’ In 1800 the north section of the Capitol, the cornerstone of which had been laid in 1793, was finished, and Congress held its first session there in November, the archives having been transferred from Philadelphia somewhat earlier. A letter-writer in this year said: “The Capitol is on an eminence near the centre of the immense country called here the city. There is one good tavern and several other houses are finished or being built.” The