“We are embarking on an ambitious building program for the city of Washington. The Memorial Bridge is under way with all that it holds for use and beauty. New buildings are soon contemplated. This program should represent the best that exists in the art and science of architecture. Into these structures, which must be considered as of a permanent nature, ought to go the aspirations of the nation, its ideals, expressed in forms of beauty. If our country wishes to compete with others, let it not be in the support of armaments but in the making of a beautiful capital city. Let it express the soul of America. Whenever an American is at the seat of his Government, however traveled and cultured he may be, he ought to find a city of stately proportions, symmetrically laid out and adorned with the best that there is in architecture, which would arouse his imagination and stir his patriotic pride. In the coming years Washington should be not only the art center of our own country but the art center of the world. Around it should center all that is best in science, in learning, in letters, and in art. These are the results that justify the creation of those national resources with which we have been favored.” CALVIN COOLIDGE. “This is more than the making of a beautiful city. Washington is not only the Nation’s Capital, it is the symbol of America. By its dignity and architectural inspiration we stimulate pride in our country, we encourage that elevation of thought and character which comes from great architecture.” HERBERT HOOVER. “In the Capital an example should be set for the country as a whole in the matter of planning. Our national monuments will attract seekers of the ideal in art. More and more it will become the tendency to establish the headquarters of societies of literature and art in Washington and to make bequests of collections to the National Capital. Already there is a definite project to establish here in Washington a national gallery of painting. Thus the Capital may be foreseen as an art center responding to the desire of visitors from all over the world and satisfying that demand. The public buildings, as finally located and constructed, should place Washington in the forefront of the architecturally beautiful cities of the world.” ANDREW W. MELLON. “The people of America are beginning to see that it is not necessary to be commonplace in order to have common sense * * *. They wish for themselves in the public buildings of municipalities and of States and Nation to have the best results of time and the best attainments of genius. What the people desire, their representatives in State legislature, in municipal body, and in the Congress of the United States desire for them. The art of our fathers, the art of our private citizens, is to be the art of our people and of our whole people.” ELIHU ROOT.