USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 26
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The period from 1890 to 1900 was characterized by a steady development and improvement of the District through the able administration of the several Boards of Commissioners who served during that period. Commissioner Ross perpetuated his memory by his untiring efforts to secure Congressional sanction, together with suitable appropriations, for the erection of a municipal building. His labors toward this end were recognized by the placing of a bronze tablet to his honor in the vestibule entrance to the present municipal office structure.
Of vital consequence to the District during this period was the action of Congress on two occasions in disregarding the half- and-half principle of the Act of June 11, 1878.
The first instance was the authorization by act of September 26, 1890, of the construction and maintenance of a bathing beach
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on the Tidal Reservoir near the Washington Monument, for which the sum of $3,000 was appropriated to be payable entirely out of the District revenues.
This proceeding was of little consequence, however, except as a precedent, as compared with the action of Congress taken during the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897, in directing the repayment to the United States Treasury out of the general revenues of the District, of the unpaid balance of the amount advanced to pay the District's half of the expense incurred under the Act of Congress of July 15, 1882, and other acts for the extension of the water supply system of the District, under which the Lydecker Tunnel and Howard University reservoir had been constructed. This act had made the money so advanced repayable in twenty-five annual instalments, entirely out of the revenues of the Water Department. In 1894, thirteen instal- ments of this loan had been so paid, leaving twelve instalments or $735,364.73 unpaid. The entire interest on this debt, amounting to $254,135.39 was also paid out of the general revenues of the District. Congress by the Acts of August 7, 1894, March 2, 1895, June 11, 1896, and March 3, 1897, required the repayment of this entire sum in four years instead of in twelve years as had been intended when the loan was made, and required it to be paid out of the general revenues of the District instead of out of the revenues of the Water Department as originally pre- scribed. This, in addition to working an extreme immediate hardship upon the District, constituted a distinct violation of the half and half principle in withdrawing this large amount from the general revenues of the District to which as part of the so- called "appropriation fund," if it had not been withdrawn, Congress under the half and half principle would have been required to add an equal sum for defraying the expenses of the District. The amount, therefore, of which the financial resources of the District for general purposes were thus deprived was twice the sum of that principal and interest, or $1,978,980.84.
Commissioner Macfarland was twice re-appointed, his term of service covering the period of practically ten years from May 9, 1900, to January 24, 1910. On October 16, 1902, Henry L.
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West took oath as successor to Commissioner Ross. Commis- sioner West served two terms, his service terminating with that of Commissioner Macfarland on January 24, 1910.
Commissioner Macfarland was born in Philadelphia, Feb- ruary 11, 1861. Coming to Washington shortly after the Civil War he was educated in the public schools and in Rittenhouse Academy, Washington. Thereafter he read law in the office of the Honorable W. B. Webb. In 1879 he entered the Wash- ington bureau of the Boston Herald, and engaging otherwise as a correspondent and general writer. He was appointed Com- missioner of the District by President Mckinley. He delivered many addresses in the interest of the District, notably the Capital Centennial Address at the White House, on December 12, 1900, the District of Columbia Address at the Pan American Exposition September 3, 1901, and an address at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition on October 1, 1904.
Commissioner West was born at Factoryville, Staten Island, N. Y., August 20, 1859. Coming to Washington at an early age he began working for the Georgetown Courier when thirteen years old and later became in turn reporter and managing editor on the Washington Post. He was a contributor to several period- icals, writing the political articles in the Forum. He was honored by election to the Presidency of the Gridiron Club. A paragraph which he prepared for the Commissioners' annual report for the fiscal year 1908, was the first official recommenda- tion of the Commissioners for the establishment of a public utilities commission in the District.
Colonel Biddle was succeeded in office by Major Jay J. Morrow, who served from May 2, 1907, to December 21, 1908; Major Spencer Cosby, who served from December 21, 1908, to March 15, 1909; and Major William V. Judson, who served from March 15, 1909, to February 28, 1913.
Commissioner Biddle was born at Detroit February 2, 1859. He was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1881, and commissioned Captain in 1892. From 1891 to 1898 he was in charge of the river and harbor work at Nashville, Tenn. During the Spanish-American War he served as Lieut.
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Colonel and Chief Engineer of Volunteers, afterwards serving in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands from 1899 to 1901.
Commissioner Morrow was born in West Virginia and appointed from Pennsylvania to the Military Academy from which he was graduated June 12, 1891. He was commissioned Major of U. S. Volunteer Engineers on September 15, 1898, receiving an honorable discharge from the Volunteers on Octo- ber 6, 1898.
Commissioner Cosby was born in Maryland October 2, 1867. He was graduated at the head of his class from the United States Military Academy in 1891. At the outbreak of the Span- ish-American War he was appointed Major of Engineers in the Volunteer forces. In 1898 he served on the staff of Maj. Gen. Brooke during the operations in Porto Rico and on August 13 was engineer of the column commanded by Gen. Hains to turn the entrenched position of the Spanish on the heights north of Guayamas. From September, 1901, to April, 1903, he was in charge of the river and harbor work near Mobile, Ala., then went to Manila where he served as Engineer Officer of the Depart- ment of Luzon and later in charge of the construction of light houses in the Philippine Islands.
Commissioner Judson was born in Indianapolis on February 16, 1865. He attended Harvard University two years and then entered the Military Academy from which he was graduated in 1888, later attending the U. S. Engineering school at Willets Point, N. Y. He served as Recorder of the Board of Engineers, U. S. A., and as member of the U. S. Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors and as Instructor in the U. S. Engineering School. As a Commissioner he was especially active and influ- ential in securing the enactment of the provision in the District appropriation law approved March 4, 1913, investing the Com- missioners with the duties of a public utilities commission.
Commissioners Macfarland and West were followed by Cuno H. Rudolph and John A. Johnston, whose terms extended from January 24, 1910, to July 19, 1913. Commissioners Ru- dolph and Johnston were followed by Oliver P. Newman and
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Frederick L. Siddons, whose terms commenced July 19, 1913. On February 28, 1913, Colonel Judson was succeeded as Engineer Commissioner by Lieutenant Colonel Chester Harding, who on that date took the oath of office at Gatun Canal Zone, but did not report for duty as Commissioner until March 8, 1913.
Commissioner Rudolph was born at Baltimore, June 26, 1860. He came to Washington about 1891 having purchased an interest in the hardware firm of J. H. Chesley and Company, and later became President of the Rudolph and West Company. He was connected with West Brothers Brick Company and the National Metropolitan Bank, and also with the Washington Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce. He has always taken a strong interest in civic betterment work and has been prominently associated with numerous organizations of that nature, notably the Associated Charities and Washington Play Grounds Association. He is President of the Washington Board of Trade and of the Second National Bank of Washington.
Commissioner Johnston was born in Allegheny, Pa., Febru- ary 22, 1858. He was graduated from the Military Academy in 1879 and from the Ft. Leavenworth Infantry and Cavalry School in 1883. He attained the rank of Brigadier General in 1903. He saw several years of frontier service and was for some time instructor at Ft. Leavenworth and Jefferson Barracks, Mo. He organized the inaugural parades of President Cleve- land in 1893 and President Mckinley in 1897 and 1901; also the Grant Memorial parade in 1897, and the military parade at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. During the Spanish-American War he was in charge of the mustering in and out of the volun- teer forces in the Adjutant General's Office, and was in charge of the reorganization of the General recruiting service incident to the increase of the Army.
Engineer Commissioner Lieutenant Colonel Chester Hard- ing was born in Mississippi December 31, 1866. When five years old his family moved to Alabama where he resided until 1885, when he was appointed to the United States Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1889. He was engaged in the harbor improvement work at Chicago, and St. Louis and in the
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improvement of the Mississippi River. He afterwards was in- structor in civil engineering at the Military Academy. From April 16, 1902, until October 1, 1906, he was assistant to the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and super- intended the construction of the new District Building. He afterwards was assigned to duty on the construction of the Panama Canal. He was detailed as a Commissioner of the Dis- trict of Columbia, while on the latter duty, and took the oath of office as such at Gatun, Canal Zone, on February 28, 1913. He reported for duty as Commissioner on March 8, 1913.
Commissioner Newman was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, April 20, 1877, where he spent his childhood. He is the son of Mr. George C. Newman. He removed to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1884 and attended the public schools and academy there until the spring of 1897 when he was appointed a cadet at West Point. In the fall of 1898, he began to write magazine articles, and has been associated ever since with periodical and journalistic writ- ing. He came to Washington in 1901 and has been, until appointed Commissioner, connected with the Washington Post, Washington Times and other newspaper work. He took the oath of office as a Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and entered upon duty as such, on July 19, 1913.
Commissioner Siddons was born in London, England, No- vember 21, 1864. He is the son of Joachim Heyward Siddons and Mary Agnes Cameron Siddons. His father was an author and journalist and was in London at the time of his son's birth, althoughi he was a citizen of the United States. He was gradu- ated in law from Columbian, now George Washington, University in 1887 and was later employed in the Treasury Department. He was instructor on Constitutional Law, Evidence, and Bills and Notes in the National University Law School. He was also one of the Commissioners from the District of Columbia on Uniform State Laws. He is a member of the American Bar Association and a number of professional and fraternal organi- zations. He took the oath of office as a Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and entered upon duty as such, on July 19, 1913.
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With the incoming of the first decade of the twentieth century, during which Commissioner Macfarland was President of the Board, came a new impulse to the progress of the city so noteworthy in its results that the succeeding period may well be regarded as constituting a distinct era in the history of the District of Columbia. At the beginning of this period the National Capital had no filtration plant; no adequate sewer system ; no proper sewage disposal arrangements, all the sewage emptying into the water front of the city; and no District gov- ernment building. Across the Potomac River, the old Long Bridge over which the troops had marched in the Civil War, caused the lower portion of the city including part of Pennsyl- vania Avenue, to be flooded at every large freshet. Railway crossings at grade were the cause of many serious accidents and two separate, inadequate and inartistic railroad stations, one of them occupying a central position across the principal park within the old city limits, gave rise to unending complaint.
Rock Creek Park and Potomac Park were just beginning to be developed; the Connecticut Avenue Bridge which now spans Rock Creek Park valley had not been planned, and other smaller bridges, for example, that over the Anacostia River, were, like those now spanning the Potomac in place of the removed Long Bridge, yet to be projected.
No provision had been made for a municipal hospital and a home for the aged poor or a reformatory for the minor offend- ers. There was no District of Columbia public library building in 1900; no publicly owned manual training or business high school buildings, and no plan for other high school or normal school buildings.
All of these physical needs of the District were supplied during the first decade of the century.
Besides expenditure by the United States and the District of Columbia of over five millions of dollars in connection with the abolition of railway grade crossings and the alteration of streets and the preparation of the plaza, the railroads expended over twenty-two millions of dollars, abolishing absolutely all grade crossings within the City of Washington and beginning
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the gradual abolition of those outside of the city and within the District; freeing the Mall from the servitude of the railway station and tracks and restoring it to the public park system, and building what was in 1908 the most beautiful railway station in the world, a noble gateway for the National Capital, since surpassed in size but not in beauty by the two new stations in New York City. All this work was done under the direction of the District Commissioners who by law were required to pass upon the plans and to certify to the proper execution of them, before the contribution of the United States and the District of Columbia could be paid over to the railroads.
Some of the largest items of expenditure for these improve- ments in that decade were new city and suburban sewer system and sewage disposal system, $5,136,373; filtration plant, $3,427,- 306 ; extension of high service water system, $2,674,552; District government building, $2,500,000; Highway Bridge across the Potomac River, $1,191,468; extension of 16th Street, $1,000,000; extension of Massachusetts Avenue, $500,000; Massachusetts Avenue Bridge across Rock Creek, $236,847; Connecticut Avenue Bridge and approaches across Rock Creek, $864,499; Anacostia Bridge and approaches, $453,730; Piney Branch Bridge, $125,766; District hospital site and tuberculosis hospital building, $203,259; improving Rock Creek, $100,000; a site and buildings for home for the aged and for a municipal colored industrial school (the first in the country), $265,000.
No account is taken in these figures of the ordinary exten- sion and improvement of avenues and streets nor of the construction of new school buildings large and small, nor of new buildings for the fire and police departments which were all counted in the estimates and appropriations as part of the regular expenses of maintenance, although the cost of these improvements amounted in the aggregate to millions of dollars.
During the decade from 1900 to 1910, the annual appropri- ations increased from $8,725,946.18 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, to $11,405,698.05 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911. These figures illustrate the material progress of the District of Columbia in that decade. There were years during
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the decade, however, in which larger appropriations were made including those for extraordinary municipal improvements, as for example in the years 1905, $12,374,080.10; 1908, $11,444,- 442.89; 1909, $12,154,977.04.
The assessed value of real property increased from $176,- 567,549 in 1900 to $285,153,771 in 1910.
During that period approximately twenty-three millions was expended upon extraordinary municipal improvements.
All these expenditures the taxpayers of the District of Columbia a total population of 278,718 in 1900 and 331,069 in 1910, shared equally with the rest of the population of the United States under the half and half plan of appropriations provided for in the act of June 11, 1878, creating the present form of government of the District of Columbia, just as they shared equally in the annual appropriations for the maintenance of the National Capital. Obviously the local revenues were insufficient to provide currently for such extraordinary expenditures on account of municipal improvements in Washington, or any other city, without unduly curtailing the expenditures necessary for the maintenance of all the ordinary municipal service and insti- tutions. It was necessary, if these extensive municipal improvements were to be executed promptly, that the District of Columbia must borrow money in order to meet its half of the expenditures on that account for the particular year. Congress was, therefore, asked to loan the money from the United States Treasury at two per cent, which was done.
The Commissioners also asked Congress to authorize a grad- ual repayment of the money borrowed by the District of Columbia from the United States Treasury for the extraordinary improve- ments over such a period of years and at such a rate as would not necessitate the cutting of the appropriations for maintenance and development of the different municipal departments. They pointed out that the revenues of the District of Columbia were steadily increasing; that with the power of appropriation in its hands Congress could control the whole matter; and that by adopting the plan of gradual payments the United States Treas- ury would get back its money without any embarrassment to
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the orderly development of the municipal departments. They advocated a separate statement in the estimates of items for extraordinary municipal improvements and separate statements of the appropriations for that purpose; and a separate Capital account kept on the books of the Treasury where the accounts of the District appropriations were kept.
Congress, however, did not adopt this latter recommenda- tion but made numerous advances aggregating about $10,000,- 000, at two per cent interest, making it repayable out of the District revenues at a rate so rapid that the entire amount was repaid by 1913.
Meanwhile Congress kept down the expenditures for the municipal services and after 1910 making no large appropria- tions for extraordinary improvements. If the Commissioners' plan had been followed, the improvements would have continued regularly, year after year, and with the increasing revenues of the District the amounts advanced by the United States Treasury would have been gradually repaid.
On the non-physical side, the District of Columbia advanced quite as remarkably as on the physical side. Its public school system was re-organized. Important improvements were made in the school laws, in the salaries of teachers, in the extension of manual training throughout the schools, as well as in the steady increase in school facilities.
In 1900 also began the re-organization of the public charities system, both with respect to governmental institutions and pri- vate institutions, utilized by the District government. The Board of Charities appointed in 1900 upon the recommendation of the Commissioners, took the most modern and enlightened view of public charity work and, supported by the Commission- ers, presented recommendations to Congress, which at first, bitterly opposed by private interests and not well received by the Committees, finally prevailed in large measure. The Board of Children's Guardians, founded in 1885, was the only modern institution in the District charities system and while its work was known throughout the country and its example followed in many jurisdictions.
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There were no municipal playgrounds in the District of Columbia in 1900. But they were soon recommended to Con- gress by the Commissioners after their usefulness had been shown by experience by philanthropic citizens in private associations. By the close of the decade the District was well equipped with such playgrounds. The National Playground Association was organized in Washington through the encouragement of Com- missioner Macfarland, who especially advocated this form of public education.
The only municipal hospital, the so-called Alms House, was in 1900 between the District work house and the District jail on a tract of ground on the Anacostia at the eastern end of the city. The honest aged, and sick poor were associated with criminals and misdemeanants and inadequate provision was made at best in makeshift structures for the sick poor. The Commissioners obtained from Congress authority and money to buy a municipal hospital site and in 1901 bought for $73,639.40 a thirty-three acre tract on what is now Georgia Avenue, on high ground north of the city, upon which the beginnings of the municipal hospital in the shape of a tuberculosis hospital build- ing, stands. They also obtained the authority and appropriation of Congress to have plans prepared for a general municipal hospital. The Commissioners also obtained from Congress au- thority and appropriation to purchase a large tract of land at the southeast corner of the District opposite Alexandria on the Potomac River.
Subsequently, Congress acting upon the report of a special penal commission approved by the Commissioners, authorized the Commissioners to provide for a work house and reformatory project on a farm purchased by the Commissioners near Occoquan in Virginia, at which the work of the former work house is carried on according to modern ideas.
All the other public charitable institutions were reorganized and improved, the work of the Board of Children's Guardians was supported and strengthened, and the auxiliary service fur- nished by private charitable institutions was put on a modern business basis under the supervision of the Board of Charities.
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In 1900 there was in the District of Columbia no compulsory education law, no child labor law, no Juvenile Court and pro- bation law, no law for the condemnation of insanitary buildings or widening of alleys into minor streets, no law for the regula- tion of employment agencies, no effective law for the regulation of the sale of poisons and the pharmacy business, no law for the examination and registration of nurses, no law for the examina- tion of veterinary surgeons, no law for the regulation of savings banks or building associations, no law for the removal of nui- sances from the property of non-resident owners, no law for the registration of tuberculosis cases or the free examination of sputum, no effective law against racetrack gambling. In 1910 laws covering all these subjects recommended by the Commis- sioners had been enacted and are being effectively enforced. There was no provision for the supervision of insurance com- panies in the District of Columbia in 1900 and the insurance business, without regulation, furnished opportunity to wildcat concerns which damaged the business of reputable companies while imperilling the interests of the insured. In 1902 a Depart- ment of Insurance was established which has improved the conditions of the insurance business in the District of Columbia.
Most of the departments of the District government, not already mentioned, were re-organized and put on a modern basis. Special action of Congress was obtained for the re-organization of the police, fire, and electrical departments, with better salaries and better facilities for the men. In 1900 there was no fire prevention inspection and no inspection of electrical installation both of which have been secured, resulting in a great reduction of fire loss.
Especial efforts were made to improve the Health Depart- ment with particular emphasis upon the protection of the milk supply and all that the Commissioners could do by calling a "milk conference" of experts in 1905 and using their executive power to carry out its recommendations, was done.
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