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
proportion, 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.