Evening Star Newspaper, January 29, 1925, Page 4

s THE EVENING C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 1925. District Appropriation Bill Recommends Total of $31,016,957 for Next Year _. Change Made in D. C. Streets ' Listed for Im provemenis STAR, WASHINGTON, D. 29; committee personally 'Inspected and found conditions such as to warrant immediate appropriations. Budge: Is $1,844,803 Larger “Under the regular annual appro- Than That of Current Year|:: s wuoime o, 2 the budget estimates amount to $298,750, or $306,900 less than was appropriatud for the cuv- rent fiscal year. The committee has not disturbed these items and is pro- posing the budget estimate. repairs of streets, urban and thers was appropriated current fiscul year $875,000. t estimate for 1926 totals Increase of $22,500, all int of suburban roads. The committee recommends that this sum be allowed. This is used for ordi- nary repairs and is not intended to et any abnormad condition such as has bLeen occasioned by the recent snows, It is understood that a defi- ciency estimate will be pr ted to tuke care of that situation “The committes is proposing, in ac- lance with the budget estimate, tion of $15,000 for a new nce station to be sit D. C. APPROPRIATION BILL SUMMARY I'he increases in the District appropriation bill reported today over the current appropriations ($1,604,803.79) and the increases over the budget recommendations ($6,486) are made up of a number of specific increases and decreases, summarized as follows: Commitiee Recommends Coniinuance of Lump-Sum Appropriation by U. S Praises D. C, Financial Condition. Amonnt ded Inere Increase (+) or decrea compared with I appropriation (+) or Two Grading Jobs, Estimated at $70,000. Omitted and Others Substituted, Pay- able Out of Gasoline Tax. Object budget estimat Salaries, including for 1925 $45,000 in second deficier ntingent and miscellaneous. ......... .. Street and road improvement and repair.. Sewers Collection and disposal Public playgrounds .. Flec' rical dep: rtment . ‘ g Public schools, including for 1925 $1,151970 in deficiency act, 1924 e e Metropolitan police, including for 1925 §75 ond deficiency act, 1924...... ... 3 Policemen and firemen's relief fund . ... ... and F streets northwest Fire Department, including for 1925 $533,120 in lieu of the station previ- deficiency act, 1924. : ously authorized to be situated in| | Health Department ................. e Eighth street northwest south of F[ | Courts and prisons, including for 1925 $267% scparately oo il yeailen CUAL e wb. carried on account of ficld service classification. . Propriation ou sccount of the latten| | Carities: and corrections: ... .. :--o ) ; atation also shall be avatlable for the | | N7iClfianeous, including for 1925 $23460 separately car ried on account of field service classification...... Public buildings and grounds, inéluding for 1925 §9.6 separately carried on account of field service clas- sification and $39.042.21 in second deficiency act, 1924 Buildings and grounds in and around Washington, in cluding for 1925 §89.700 separately cargied on account of field service classification .. e Rock Creek and Potom Parkway Commission... National Capital Park Commission.. National Zoological Park .............. Increasing water supply, including for 19 arately carried on account of field service classifica $1,367,330.00 220,564.00 2,499,738.00 1,239,230.00 1,427,140.00 147 600.00 765,628.00 +$71,194.00 -241,058.00 —494.532.00 +67.250.00 ~15,250.00 +61,940.00 —9,860.00 —17,970.00 s ons P nea +68,768.00 ~$7,680.00 +6,500.00 -10,500.00 of refuse rount for the anc es within their respectiv Two large srading jobs, one at a| R street, Thirtiet cost of $40,000 on Sixteenth street|consin avenue, from Alaska avenue to Kalmia street, | M street, Twenty-r and the other at a cost of $30,000. on | fifih $57,400. Webster street from Massachusetts | R &treet, Thirty-seventh to Thirts avenus to Forty-first street, both of | eighth street, $5,200. which would be pald out of the gaso-| S Hirty-seventh to Thirty line tax fund, have been stricken |elghth streat, $5.2 from the list of street improvements [ T street, Thirts recommended by the Bureau of the |sighth Budget and several new items have| U streot, P been included, all payable from the [non placé gasoline tax fund, ad follows U street The biggest job of all s widening | teenth str -8,110.00 B ;vrr‘r'l from Fifth to Thirtee; o V street 2 55 feet, at a _cost of §100,000. teenth s 51 @i A street, Fifteenth street to Eight- eenth street southeast, $16,000; U street, Nichols avenue to Fourteenth street southeast, $10,000; North Caro- lina avenus, Fifteenth street to B street northeast, $6,500, and Franklin street, Rhode Island avenue to Twen- tieth street (grading) northeast, $17,500 Arranged in numerical order in the case of numbered streets and in al- phabetical order in the case of let red amed strects unless otherwise indicated) - plo Lo ainment of a proper T by.reg ot s | “The is providing for 38 employments outside of school = and teache 1 policemen n The distributed | e distinet ‘activities and in- | an_«ppropr stal addftional outlay public conve: ch has bee ated at Ni reased work This s In standard Second 9,130,517.00 in sec +-545,302.00 street, 2,964,180.00 450,000.00 +308,303.00 -400,000.00 venth to Thirty second enus to Ehar Southeast, $5,200. 2,023,100.00 245,930.00 -35,230.00 ,590.00 -60.00 -420.00 Bave ta Four 080, to Fou 000 ) 665.414.00 2,828,920.00 +14,370.00 ey = +-214,030.00 INGER-CARRYING MOTOR : = 'tet VEHICLES. n the 217,450.00 1,550.00. —3,000.00 Allison street, Georgla avenue, Bladenshurg r of pr t as (x | recalled that in former S {n | vears appropriation aets for the muet | District have had ruanicg all through the | them provisions for the purchs intenance, operation and exchang motor-prop d, passenger-carry-| For this purpose the appropria- and for allowances to|tlons proposed total §1,427,140. This employes for providing s $61,940 In excess of the curreat sa8 thalr pwn private riations apd $9,850 less than e rent appropriation ace of the budget proposals. In- that the est for the|cluded under th head s the usual ar 1926 for purposes | abbropriation for cleaning streets, in- se consolid that has|cluding the removal of snow and lce 1 do The appropriations are s and sidewalks. The roposed he consolidated form | amount proposed for this purpose is ibmitted in the b ery | $430.000, which is $20.000 in excess| | \Water service, including for 1925 $22210 separately car now readily can see jus of the current appropriation. ried on account of field service classification........ 222210.00 3,140.00 : X3 u)niv«‘l' “fm”‘\rmlh b “Much is heard of the inadequacy of —— = e = - e details ¢ he appropria th ppropriation or of the emer- L 1s. i $1,694,803.79 459 4 e budget. The commit- | gency appropriation carried under a Fotale, & 5 e ade the language of the|other head of the bill to meet condi- s more specific and has | tions such as3 occasioned by the re- agraph relating {cent snow. As usual, the blame is > purchase, exchange and main- | placed upon Congress. The fact is tenance two br three items carried|that up to and Including the fiscal n the budget through in-|year 1912 a separate annual appro- priation of $10,000 was available for removing snow and lce from the ets and sidewalks “The general str was not avaflable for that purpose. With an unusually heavy snow the amount of $10,000 was not sufficient. usual complaint of fnadequacy of pplicable to the separate So for the fiscal year keep facto be a ) ‘TION OF REFUS STREET CLEANIN the 53,176.00 3,716.21 38,060.00 orth lump will 731,810.00 560.00 5.000.00 +600,000.00 +5.513.00 36,670.00 Eigbth 200. street 1o 500,000.0 157,000.00 £1.000.00 in the b follows: reported todas 300,000.00 974,900.00 Plan. Total, exclusive of water service.. $29,644,747.00 +$1,691,663.79 1$96,486.00 Numbered Streets. Follows Lump-Sum Second wtreet, Channing street to anning street, Cromwell terrace northeast, $3,000. Third strest, Bryant strest Douglas street northeast. $9,500, Fourth street, Rhode Island avenuas to Central avenue northeast, $13,900. Seventh street, Ha on to Jeffer- son street, $9 Seventh street, southwest, $11.000. has priati nsferred to, the pa rgia avenus to vear and the budget estimate of $375,000. The committee is impres thit there is an imme- diate ne. r improved heating and for the current e e where the fine or perfod of fmprison- ment for the offense s not in axcess 1 £ AN o et pre seribed in the law or trafe| Eighth strect, Market Gueh apportionments may | lighting ties in many of the |regulations, he may never be brought | street, $18,000 hening of some extraordinary emer- : Shall neihommo e e DK e unusuul circumstance which bt by 0 ca | Sould not be anticipated at the t Boni v ones are | of making such apportionment ot | saceus Ssnondd of & handling light snows the regul Ings, 15 high and J kb school v o, propriation is adequate. Heavy ildings and 2 ool ulld- Yl fre the exception and not the rule in |ines. i dicing 5 Washington, and when they occur | the curre Fd e thes \mquestionably are an ‘extraor- | Ings and addition il alnary emergency’ or an ‘unusual snder. conatss Cuinstance’ within the meaning of the | 76 portal law sufficient to permit the walving e of the apportionment and the assun tion of sufficlent of those in auth expenditure of such as they might d ing the maln ar later, if need be, to pr propri the law requires that such appropr tions be so apportioned as to preciude the need for deficlency or additional appropriations, but the law also pr fleld street, Georgla avenue G to Water street space to E inth strest street, Florlda avenue to k Plac ols avenue $4,000. irth street $21,7 et, Hamilton to Ingra- $8.500. Decatur to theast STREET AND ROAD IMPROVE- MENT AND REPAIR. to Cen ading; $4,400 - Island ave (grading) clean fund the ast Emerson treet, R appropriations under this head ¥ s = e current flscal year amounted | 94 This was the appropriation ever m on | nt, and, of course, was due 3. on recommendation of the Com gasoline tax law, in pur- |1 ners forth 1 ir esti- the whole of the|mates to Congress, the separate fund the gasoline | was abolished and the general street cleaning fund was made avallable for removing snow and ice. In the sub- ssion of their estimates for that vear, the Commissioners made the estimate to the | following explanation of the proposal imately $100,000, so | to include s nd fce as a part of d work costing approxi- | their regular street cleaning appro- Florida 0.000 vele men avenus to and, in ttees t, the & stre k avenue to Court judges should be two to four, Fittin ent promptly meted out wou deterrent to thes law da avenue to street, § 000, o e is proposing ons to provide for emE ofr Ehs tpol street to Tstir D east 36700 nted privates « v % | e 36 per annum each - it ven will regularly Capitel to | specific street improveme: appears that the receipts f gt 1,500 By at authori fourth ately that will have to be to Congress as a legalized de lon and control 11d require peoy to tax them- Jorne out of eceipts during the ich, of course, wi nt the amount appropriation for 1926 The budget est took this iInto & recommendation totals 3,000 less than the cur- new proje. 1 the ading items in out- estimated to cost Sooner or later these items ume per! more than a ble aspect. Until then the com | mittee believes that the money should | g0 into improvements in bullt-up | tions where the streets have not been T nd that is the course it has These two items have been { eliminated and in their ad other | ltems inserted which members of the new clause covering the work of snow removal has been added, as it is desired to include this work in the general work of street cleaning, pay able the general appropriation Snow removal {s but a particular class t cleaning involving the use of 3 n, the same la- bor, and largely the same equipment, that is used in the ordinary work of aning, and there is no logi- on for separating it from the from year since that tima the general street cleaning appropriation has been available for snow and lee removal, yet each time an unusually heavy snow has occurred the failure to act has been laid at the door of Congress. “It is true that the appropriation is made for general purposes and that oposed n for repalrs | of trafiic a iprovements is but ‘here there are no regu e 25 of them > the motor cycle mainder will be em- for general d with “Provision is included under this head for acquiring the site on which the present garbage transfer station is situated—New Jersey avenue and | street southeast. The budget es- te is $40,000 and contemplates purchase. Members of the | ittee inspected the property and belfeve that it is worth ahy more than its assessed value, which is $30.912. Unquestionably, It would seem, the District should own such = permanently necessary plant. Tl committee is proposing that it be a quired either by purchase or cor demanation, the purchase price not to exceed the latest full value assess- t. ¥ for current work Jads TEXT BOO! “The budget This is §50,000 allowed durln there Is real merit is pro ng an agre vith th air . comi do not tal addit current 1.057 metroy on year £ the include 00l sup- thar tan police force, olicemen neces- | the one-day-off-in-seven provision i hearings givi to the po! SCHOOLS. al of Congress sh of pub- SALARIES UNDER CLASSIFI- CATION ACT. corporated in vhich has heen the annual sty reported at the ng to expendi- | 5 in the Dis- n accordance with .. This character, ppropria- fisc continued wodifica- AT rulin of * General of the United those District en by ‘the sthi- rvolved an addi- during the cur- v r on the basis of the y approved allodations of $322,- t r about ; an_increase roll of 12.28 per the Personnel granted appeals llocations, impos- Ke this present fis- and there are at ittee is advised, awalting action Ly the I ification Board. The appropriations proposed for 1926 take care of the appeals already allowed and include & mederate D from th ing a furthe. cal year of this time, {he about 1,000 nis SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS SHOWN The following tables, supplied to the House appropriations com- mittee by the superintendent of schools, and included in the report on the District appropriation bill, graphically show the school authorities’ viewpoint of school accommodation requirements as of November 1, 1924, and how such requirements will be affected by construction now under way and by the construction proposed in this bill ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS lassrooms needed To eliminate portables ........ To eliminate rented quarters ... To reduce oversize classes ... To eliminate undesirable rooms. To eliminate part-time classes: Grades I and II Above grade 1T ... i To abandon buildings recon e immediate abandonment in 1908—still in use: John F. Cook .Rooms THeelkeld o.oavvoraemnannees © To abandon buildings recommended for early abandonment in 1908—still in use : Webster . ... Rooms Abbot .. o Berret Lincoln Force Adams . Bradley . Jefie To abandou- o for use: Hamilton .... Bell .- Tenley . Arthur ... Brightwood Garnet . Langdon . Patterson ... Grand total . HIGH SCHOOLS Capacity 1924 900 2,300 1,500 1,100 650 300 150 100 225 225 300 Business Central ... Eastern . McKinley . Western Columbia Junior® . Hine Junior* ..... Jefferson Junior* Langley Junior* . Macfarland Junior* . Stuart Junior* Armstrong . Dunbar . Randall Junior! Shaw Junior* ... Francis Junior* Total «ccsoesesmannes 9,300 Net €XCES o . ve wonesmes mameld *Nioth grade ouly, reee ied for Shortage Shortagn when con+ struction con- when present templated in authorized budget recom- construction mendations is completed. is completed 55 24 40 37 24 40 % 77 When con- struction con- When present templated in authorized budget recom- construction mendation 18 completed. is complnte 303 854 45 273 —142 91 —2 —100 ~78 —28 —225 —46 488 —25 —12 854 45 273 —142 91 —2 —100 —188 ~—138 PUBLIC “For all school purposes the appro- priations proposed total $9,130,517 This is $545,302 more than was &p- propriated for the current fiscal year and $54,754 less than the budget esti- mates. PERSONNEL. l “For the pay of school officer: attendance officers, teachers and libra rians the sum proposed by the comml tee exceeds the current appropriation b $404,350. - Of this amount, $8,700 is for the pay of three additional administra- tive principals, $163,400 is for the pay of 86 additional teachers, Including 24 substitute teachers, and the remain- der ($232,250) is to provide for longevity increases. “For the current fiscal year the ap- propriations provide for a total of 2,710 administrative and supervisory officers, teachers and librarians. This bill provides 2,799 such employments. Apart from the 24 substitute teachers authorized by the act of June 4, 1524, the additional teachers are required for new rooms and new classes to be opened by reason of increased enroll- nt. “The committee i not providing for a director for the department of chool attendance and work permits, authorized by the act of June 4, 1924, it a baslc salary of §3,200. The posi- tion is not now filled, and it seemed to the committee that this work might be continued to be supervised as at sresent. “For the office staff at school \eadquarters seven additional posi- ions ar eincluded in the budget, at & otal compensation of $8,820. The ommittee is proposing that three of hese positions (clerk-stenographer) be allowed, at an initial salary of $1,320 each. “For the panitorial force the budget proposes and the committe recom- mends an increase of $35324, of which $12,480 represents the pay of 11 new positions, needed for the most part to care for new buildings, and the remainder is to meet adjustments under the classification act of 1923. In connection with these employes the committee is providing for the pay- ment of additional compensation to such of them as may be required to perform extra service on account of night schools, Americanization work and community center activi- tles. TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT FUND. “The budget includes an ltem of $2,000 for the employment of per- sonal services necessary for an ac- tuarfal valuation of the teachers' re- tirement fund, as required by the act of January 15, 1920 (41 Stat. 387), The committee consulted with the chief of the United States Bureau of Effictency with respect to this item and was advised that the bu- reau s prepated to undertake the work. A special appropriation, there- fore, 18 unnecessary. FUEL AND REPAIRS TO BUILDINGS. “At the instance of the school au- thorities the committee reduced the appropriation proposed in the budget for tuel by $50,000. The reduction was suggested by most recent fuel prices. The committee has transfer- red: this $50,000 to the appropriation for repairs and improvements to school buildings and has added an- other $26,000 to the budget estimate, making the total allowance for thi: purpose §480,000, as against $300,000 BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. “The Iy 0,000 under 500 1s for lar construction and ing the heating strong Technical School 000 of the amount for plant at the All bu new constru Arm t §20 room ac- and ced additional on account of new clas dations and the bui {additions to buildings will provide 2,860 com seats. {com he committee has included in the all of the budget items only $175,000 on of th bill tow new funfor urth and E streets north- han the whole amount proposed in the other words, has provided for school in the manner and to extent the budget proposes for N streets northwest. Of the amount thus taken off the committee Is pro- posing that $225,000 be applied to new ftems, as follows: “For the purchase of a site for pew school in the vicinity of Rhode Island avenue and South Dakota avenue northeast, $25,000. “For the purchase of a site for a new school in the vicinity of Thir- teenth and Montague streets north- west, $60,000. “For the construction of an elght- room extensible building on the site at Fifth and Sheridan streets north- west, $140,000. “These items wers brought espe- clally to the attention of the com- mittes as of paramount importance in the general scheme to relicve pres- sure in the most populous sections and to provide facilities which are wholly lacking in areas far removed from exlsting school houses. “The additional building which the committee Is proposing will raise the number of additional classroom seats for which the bill wholy or partly provides to 3,180. The junior high schools provided for will be used largely to relieve congestion in the elementary schools, although it Is true that the high school situation will be benefited to tha extent that the junior high schools will take care of ninth-grade pupils. The bill makes a big step toward meeting the school needs, but admittedly falls short of the program advocated by the Board of Education with respect to ele- mentary schools, which calls for 90 classrooms to be opened each . year for a period of five years, having in view the elimination of all portables, undesirable rooms or buildings, and oversize and part-time classes. 3 “In consideration of the require- ments of the Police Department the committee chiefly was concerned with finding, if practicable, a solution of the unsatisfactory situation here touching the direction and control of traffic and with finding a more effec- tive means to curb these reckless driver. Additional policemen alone will not supply the remedy. Much of the trafic difficulty grows out of the lack of proper direction of trafiic, which can be remedied by regulation and more policemen. Some of it is due, however, to the narrowness of certaln thoroughfares in congested areas, from which relief must awalit provision for widening them. “To reach the traffic offender of the reckless type, beyond providing for additional policemen, involves action without the jurisdiction of this com- mittes. This type of offender goes into court and demands a jury trial, and’ the docket there is such that, tnless there s legisiation that will a like building at Twenty-fourth and | ttee is making pros ated in the ger ity of Geor- fa aver Shepherd street 1 station house excess of §71,500. This present with headquarters on | Georgia ave- h extends from south to the the north and from the west to the Ridge east, covering eight and square miles and having an _population of 130,000. The the new precinct will be | on the east and west and | extend from Buchanan street on the south to the District line on the This area embraces about five e miles of territory, which has a population around 50,000. and road on th. FIRE DEPARTMENT. ‘The total amount proposed in this bill for the Fire Department is $2,023,- 100, or practically budget esti- mate. Of this sum $1,770,000 is for pay of members of the Fire Depart- ment, of whom there are 140 officers and 634 men. The number of both, it | will be recalled, was increased b 115 to meet the one-day-off-in-seven provision in the act regulating the pay of policemen and firemer ap- proved May 27, 1924. This bill pro- vides six additional officers and thirty additional men as the comple- ments of the two new companies pro- vided for in the current appropria- tion act. Most of the reduction under the current appropriation on account of the Fire Department falls under the head of permanent improvements. The committes is proposing more and consequently larger appropriations for apparatus, but the estimates in- Capltol to A street sout Seventeenth east, $9,000. street, Columbia road Nine roe street Twenty- aven Twe $10,000 Thirtieth eet, Massachuse! id avenue, §2 cond street, Fessenden to n street, £6,610. fourth street, Klingle to $5. Alphabetical Streets. A street, Fifteenth to Seventeenth streef northeast, $17,000. A street, Fifteenth to Elghteenth | street southeast, $26,000 C street Twenty-first to Twenty- second street, $7,000. D street, Fifth to Seventh street, $18,000. E street, Fifth to Thirteenth (widen- ing), $95.000. E street, Eighteenth to Nineteenth street southeast, $14,000. Q street, Thirtieth street to Wis- consin avenue, $25,000. | Maple reet, §4 fonroe et to Carrol street, Twentieth to Twer neoln roa $22,000, | t, Reno road to Thir. street to W atree irieenth stree ttenden street s avenus 1a da avenus t Neal str Rock € md_street tc 1, $10,000 avement iral avenue uth of Wool Twenty-eighth to $12,200, —_— clude noth while th carries $118 ng for Frent 000 for new construction, appropriation act such purposes CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS “There are but two items that stand out prominently in a comparison of the budget estimates and the bill with the current appropriations for the many activitles or agencies fall- ing under this general heading. first relates to the new District Training School (Home and School for Feeble Minded), for which an ad- ditional appropriation of §140,000 has | been requested and is proposed (§1,- 700 under another head), and the sec- ond is on account of the indigent in- sane of the District of Columbia, who are accommodated in St. Elizabeth's Hospital, for which object an addi- tional appropriation of $59,000 has been recommended and is proposed. It is highly probable that as to tha latter item the budget has not recom- mended an adequate amount. “For the District Training School the appropriation proposed would make available the remainder of the entire amount of $300,000 authorized PERMANENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR CAPITAL GIVEN IN DETAIL One important fact is often o trict appropriations. The annual verlooked in considering the Dis- supply bill does not include the permanent annual and indefinite appropriations which occur auto- matically each year without annual 1 action by Congress, having been created specifically by law in previous years and continued until legislation is enacted modif; Following is a comparison o appropriations for the fiscal years Estimated ex- itures for 1025, Object. Permanent and indefinite appropriations : Refunding taxes...... Extension of streets and avenues. Industrial Home School fund. Teachers’ fund... Miscellaneous trust fund deposits. . ‘Washington redemp- tion fund. . Permit fund. . Policemen and fire- men’s. relief fund. retirement Total, permanent an- nual and indefinite appropriations, District of Colum- $20,000.00 20,000.00 2,000.00 200,000.00 809,962.00 150,000.00 25,000.00 ng or discontinuing them. f such permanent and indefinite 1925 and 1926: Estimated expend- Increase () or itures for 1926. decrease (—). $15,000.00 —$5,000.00 15,000.00 —5,000.00 175,000.00 --25,000.00 763,356.00 125,000.00 20,000.00 450,000.00 bia.... eo_$1226962.00 $1,565,356.00 _— ————= Grand total, regular annual and perma- nent and indefinite appropriations..... $30,399,11521 $32,532,313.00 +§2,133,197.79 The | acquisition and erecti ore f 1 be provi while t number right now in where they have been absence of better sulted hich they institutions ed ir modations and from the ement i made ave knowl- t of cost heretofors will_mest the re that further appro- ater be provided If a nature for which t school was authorized are to be c tered in one place, “The committee has not re budget estimates in cov | stems, where fication ons must uced t a singla instance charity and correctiona and a number of cases there seemed to be no just! for the reductions proposed in the budget, the committee has re stored appropriations to thefr pres- ent year lavels, thereby adding to the bill on that account a total of $14,400 I ANACOSTIA PARK. “For continuing the reclamatior and development of Anacostia Park the committee is proposing the budger estimate of $170.000, of which further sum of $25,0 able for the acqui Benning Bridge. [ fiscal vear expenditurés had beer confined to the area below Benning Bridge, which comprises 800 acres 700 of which were owned by the Gov ernment, the remainder having beer purchased. The whole project below Benning Bridge, apart from the par’ development phase of the work, w! cost approximately $2,500,000, of which $416,000 remains to be ap propriated in addition to the amount proposed In this bill. “For each of the fiscal years 1824 and 1925 $50.000 was made available for the development of a portion of this section as a park—that is, for leveling, grading, seeding, planting trees and shrubs, building walks, etc—and the further sum of $63,060 1s proposed ia this bill. These sums should be adequate for placing t section in suitable condition as park. ““The area above Benning Bridge, to be reclaimed and devoted to park purposes as authorized by law, com- prises 640 acres, of which title to 460 acres now vests in the United States. The total cost of the work above Ben- ning Bridge Is estimated at $1,806,000. b until the current IMPROVEMENT AND CARE OF PUBLIC GROUNDS. For all expenses incident to local park areas the budget proposes $515,- 480, or §90,230 in excess of current year appropriations, most of which {8 (Continued on Fifth Pagey