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Show U. S. Capitol's Face Lifting Delayed Because of War Historic Building Has Never Been Completed; Com-pleted; an Old Prediction on Soviet-Nazi Soviet-Nazi Outbreak Comes to Light. : ) r1 By BAU: National Farm and Hot WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Hitler has prevented the Capitol from having its face lifted. I sat in the office of the architect of the Capitol, David Lynn, the other day and learned that the historic building which houses our lawmakers lawmak-ers has never been finished. The architect's modest suite is tucked away where few visitors except Cal-ifornians Cal-ifornians seeking out Senator Johnson John-son in his hideaway next door ever find it. On the walls are the solemn portraits of Mr. Lynn's predecessors, predeces-sors, clear back to Dr. Thornton, the Capitol's first architect, in wig and stock, and the handsome Thomas Hugh Walter, with his firm mouth and shock of white hair, who seemed to bow in emphatic agreement when his friendly, gray-haired successor spoke: "The extension and completion of the Capitol," said Mr. Lynn, earnestly, ear-nestly, "has been urged for the past 70 years or more. Legislation to that end has been introduced from time to time but it has never passed. Right now, Senator Connally of Texas Tex-as and Senator Andrews of Florida are very much interested in the undertaking." I had just left the office of the speaker of the house, Sam Rayburn, and I knew that he approved the idea and I had heard that the President Presi-dent had lent a not unsympathetic ear to the project as well. But the war in Europe is interfering, as it is with many other civilian pursuits. Here's the Job. The job that the experts say has to be done, in a nutshell is this: The central portion of the eastern side of the building (which faces the Capitol plaza) must be extended 32 feet. 6 inches. "This extension is recommended for two purposes," said Architect Lynn, "First, in order to correct the architectural defect in the building which exists due to the skirt or base of the dome extending over the east portico in such a manner as to give the appearance of apparent lack of support to the dome. The second reason for this step is to provide additional and needed accommodations accommoda-tions and to replace the existing sandstone exterior with marble." "Few people know it," Mr. Lynn added, "but one reason why we have to paint the building every four years is to make the central part, which is sandstone, match the wings which are marble." Extension of the east front would give 58 much needed extra rooms, provide a passage for members of congress directly from one chamber to the other on all floors. Now when there is a joint session or when members of one house want to pass to the other they have to squeeze through the main corridors, which are frequently packed with visitors. Space Badly Needed. The additional offices are badly needed and now that radio has come to take its place beside the press as a medium for reporting the doings of congress to the people more space would be welcomed by the radio correspondents. cor-respondents. At present the radio newsmen are tucked in between pillars pil-lars in the house and senate wings in offices from which it is very difficult dif-ficult to broadcast. Visitors who call upon their representatives rep-resentatives in the Capitol may be surprised that they have to talk to them right out in the lobby, for members of the house have no public pub-lic waiting room. The addition would make such an accommodation accommoda-tion possible. Many hearings have been held on legislation authorizing the finishing of the Capitol, which would complete the work of the famous Thomas Hugh Walter. This talented architect archi-tect planned the two wings which accommodate the senate and the house, respectively, and the short corridors which connect them to the central portion of the building. He also replaced the wooden dome, erected after the burning of the Capitol, Cap-itol, with a metal one. But, according ac-cording to the experts who have studied his plans and sketches, he never intended to let that massive cone that has become the symbol of the federal city perch precariously on its foundation with its "skirt" hanging over the edge of the roof. Mr. Walter would have extended the east wall if it had not been for the Civil war. which interrupted his activities. Then, just as congress KHAGE ne Hour Commentator. was about ready to order Mr. Lynn to carry on the work of his illustrious illustri-ous predecessor, another war in Europe Eu-rope broke out and the skirt of the dome is once again left hanging on the fate of empires. An Old Prediction Comes to Light A week after the Russo-German war started, one of my listeners called my attention to a fading record rec-ord of the foreign relations of the United States, of July 11, 1919. It is a report of the then vice consul at Viborg, Robert Imbrie, who was later killed in Teheran, Persia. The report describes in detail de-tail the struggle between the White Russians and Bolshevicks (that is the state department spelling at the time.) It urges that the United States give sanction to an attack on Russia by the Finnish forces which represented an army and navy which Vice Consul Imbrie said "is quite capable of taking Petrograd (Leningrad)." Mr. Imbrie concludes: "It has long been apparent that Russia, as an economic factor has, under the Bolshevicks, ceased to exist, ex-ist, at least so far as the United States and the Allied Nations are concerned. Where formerly she produced pro-duced food in such quantities that it formed a large item of her export, ex-port, now she is starving, a condition condi-tion directly attributable to Bolshe-vick Bolshe-vick misrule and terrorism. The world is not only shut off from one of the greatest commercial markets, but it is also deprived of one great source of food supply. The agents of Germany, with an eye to the commercial com-mercial and political future, are taking tak-ing full advantage of the existing conditions. Alrea'dy the feeling of Bolshevick Russia is with Germany." Ger-many." . I never met Mr. Imbrie but his tragedy came back in an oddly personal per-sonal way today when I received the letter containing the above reference. refer-ence. Some 10 years after Imbrie was killed I was on a hiking trip in the Green mountains and a friend of mine loaned me an army canteen, can-teen, my own faithful container having hav-ing outlived its usefulness. Later I learned that the flagon which had cooled my lips with the waters of Vermont's mountain springs had once belonged to the murdered consul. con-sul. Now, his ghost comes back with a prediction he made in 1923, at the time of the Lausanne conference. con-ference. "Within a decade," my informant quotes Imbrie as saying, privately, then, "hell will break loose with more fury than ever. Bessarabian oil will be the decisive factor." National Indian Day Is Being Planned A National Indian day for America! Amer-ica! That is what J. A. Youngren of Pocatello, Idaho, proposes. He tells me that 18 state governors are ready to co-operate in such an undertaking. undertak-ing. Washington has heard about it, too. I remember my first Indian day. I did not know what it was then. It was in western Washington. There was a knock at the door of our home. My mother, who, like the rest of the family, was fresh from "the East" (Illinois), answered an-swered the knock. I was frightened. Maybe she was, for all her pioneer blood. For there silhouetted against the afternoon was the tallest man I ever saw and wrapped in a blanket. blan-ket. He wanted my father, who was justice of the peace. And when the brave learned he wasn't there he went away peacefully, leaving only a faint odor of salmon behind himi I have known a few Indians myself. my-self. Jim Thorpe whom I once interviewed, in-terviewed, football star of Carlisle, and young Afraid-of-a-Bear who served with me in France in the artillery. I am not mentioning the 100 per cent Americans with Indian blood like my fraternity brother in the university, Freeman Morgan. So I am for this Indian day tepee, tomahawk, papoose and all. And I'll bet that Skeeter Vogt, editor edi-tor of the Gallup (N. M.) Gazette, when he reads this in his own paper will agree with me. So ought the rest of the paler faces who might not be here now if the Red Men had had a couple of panzer divisions divi-sions and a few less pipes of peace. |