September 13, 1978

On The High Cost Of Back Door Foyers

Sometimes big events are reduced in scale by small, personal experiences.

So it is this week as I ponder two news releases about "exciting" building projects underway in Bagdad On The Potomac - otherwise known as Washington, D.C.

The back door of our printing plant needs a foyer, about four by seven feet will do nicely.  It will keep drafts and dusts off my employees and cut down heating costs substantially.  My friendly neighborhood contractor estimates $1,100 should cover the costs, including a new door.

All systems were go until I remembered that payroll costs will go up about 20 percent on Jan. 1 when new Social Security taxes and minimum wage increases apply across the board.  Postage costs are up 20 percent, and newsprint is going up another $65 per ton.

All things considered, I decided the back door improvement can wait a little longer.  My temper was not greatly improved, therefore, to learn that the oriental palace the U.S. Senate is building for a select few of its members has been given a $15 million transfusion.  The House of Representatives, in a rare refusal to scratch a colleague's back, has set a limit of $135 million for a third Senate office building.

The building will be the costliest in U.S. history, transcending even that of the giant Pentagon.  The structure will house about 40 senators in offices with 16-foot ceilings, solid wood paneling and two complete bathrooms.  It will have a roof-top restaurant, gymnasium, underground garage and tennis court to supplement the same facilities in the two other Senate office buildings.

All of this will permit the hiring of about 2,000 new secretaries to add to the 7,000 staffers already ensconced in the Senate.

It is estimated that the building will cost another $65 million as inflation balloons the move-in costs.  The House will huff and puff a bit, but finally will appropriate the money from your pocket and mine.  Then, not to be put down by the autocrats across the hall, the House will build a new and bigger palace for itself.

Running the new Senate building a close second for rip-off honors is the Franklin D.  Roosevelt memorial about to break ground after 20 years of study.

There is no quarrel with the idea of enshrining FDR.  He was an important president, even though we still are paying dearly for some of his remedies to great national crises.

Roosevelt himself told Justice Felix Frankfurter that "if they are to put up any memorial to me, I should like it to be placed in that green plot in front of the Archives Building (on Pennsylvania Avenue) ...  I don't care what it is made of, but I want it to be plain."

In 1965 a plain granite slab was placed just where FDR wanted it.  But this is not enough for the image builders who will not rest until their idol has a temple to match that of Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington.  Too bad the Kennedy people beat them to a perpetual flame.

No matter.  The waterfall franchise is still open.

A 12-acre strip of land along the Tidal Basin with its Japanese cherry trees is to be converted into a "living" memorial for the New Deal president.

For a mere $46 million the site is to receive a wall 1,100 feet long and 14 feet high inscribed with quotes from Roosevelt speeches - including, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Four "garden alcoves" will feature heroic bronze sculptures depicting the high points of his administration.  One section will memorialize his first inaugural.  The second will emphasize the Great Depression.  World War II will be the focus of alcove three.

The fourth and largest area will display a cascade of water celebrating - are you ready?  - "Roosevelt's sailing days at Campobello, his World War I service as Navy Secretary, his recuperative swims at Warm Springs and his Atlantic Charter meeting with Britain's Winston Churchill before the U.S. entered World War II."

This is a heavy load to lay on a single, artificial waterfall; but Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., declares it "absolutely outstanding."

Although $46 million would buy a badly needed bridge across the Ohio River, parks are nice too.  If the FDR memorial stopped there, no one would seriously object.  What impact will $46 million have on a federal debt of $765 billion?  Inflation, after all, is an inconvenience for taxpayers, not Washington planners.

But, no, the design will require a "visitors' center" and 60 new federal employees to explain the layout and keep order.  Estimated annual cost - in perpetuity - is $1.6 million.

The only thing I ask is that they put a foyer around the back door of the visitors' center.

Author: Lindsey Williams