the execution of the work requiring the services of many stenographers, typewriters, and other assistants. In addition to the files of correspondence, reports, specifications, contracts, deeds (of property purchased), etc., there are also files of all kinds and descriptions of materials submitted by contractors for use in the construction of the buildings, such as stone, marble, brick, terra cotta, tiles, wood, hardware, plumbing fixtures, etc. The initial movement toward the erection of a government building is the framing of a bill by one or more members of congress from that section of the country in which the proposed building is to be located, which bill is formulated upon information received from officials of the various departments contemplating the occupation of such building, together with the approximate estimate of cost furnished by the supervising architect. This bill then undergoes the scrutiny of the committee of public buildings and grounds, as well as that of the appropriation committee of both houses, after which, to become a law, it must receive the approval of the president.

A portion of the appropriation is set aside for the purchase of the site, and, after it has been purchased, and the title has been approved by the department of justice, and the property rights have been vested in the government, the preliminary drawings and estimate are prepared for the signature of the secretary of the treasury, postmaster general, and secretary of the interior, whose approval is required by law before any working drawings can be made. The supervising architect has, in the meantime, visited the site, in order that the design may conform as accurately as possible to the requirements of the purposes for which the building is intended, and that the environment may be given proper consideration. The influences which now chiefly affect the character of the design proceed from causes climatic, geological, and historical -relations which have always existed between local conditions and logical design, even from prehistoric ages and in every part of the world. Thus, within that portion of our country to the north of the isothermal line extending from Cape Hatteras, and to the east of the Missouri river, the roof is generally given a steeper pitch, to shed more quickly the heavy rains or snows. For buildings situated to the south of that

mysterious North Carolina line, and to the west of the Missouri river, roofs of gentler slope are indicated, the rainfall requiring less consideration and the radiation of the sun's rays more. Those who have visited Italy can appreciate the importance yes, the absolute necessity-of sunshine for the enjoyment of life in that land, and in Our Own Riviera, Mr. Howells has indicated with his inimitable touch many subtle distinctions produced by differences between the climatic conditions of the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. In the government buildings at San Francisco, and at Portland, Ore., this has been recognized in plan as well as in elevation, the former having a Ushaped and the latter an H-shaped plan, with no interior light shafts, all rooms receiving light and air directly from without.

The legend, E Pluribus Unum, indicates that we are a nation of many peoples, and this sentiment is given proper weight in the historical influences affecting the design of our national edifices. The postoffice and courthouse in San Francisco contains the old Spanish records of a state or city whose early history has a decidedly Spanish flavor. Not only the primitive adobe buildings still seen and used, but the very name of the city, proclaim the origin of Pueblo, Colo.; what, then, more logical than the adaptation of the Spanish style of architecture to the buildings in these cities?

In a publication entitled The County of Saginaw, by Wm. H. Sweet, is the following statement: "The first settlers in the valley located therein in 1815; they were mostly of French origin or half breeds; their avocations chiefly trading with the Indians, hunting, and fishing." The postoffice in Saginaw is accordingly French in style, the corner towers being suggestive of the defensive features of frontier life, while the carving of the pinnacles and finials was suggested by the fauna and flora of the neighborhood.

Among the earliest settlers of Paterson, N. J., were a number of Flemish silk spinners and weavers, so that, in the course of time, the silk industry grew to be a very important one; the postoffice in that city, therefore, suggests, in the style of its architecture, the nativity of its first substantial citizens. In the buildings at Pawtucket, R. I., and Lynn, Mass., the direct business methods of the citizens, with the

academic training of so many communities of that section, have been recognized in designs suggestive of the training which architects receive from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, the most notable school of architecture of the present day, where many of our foremost architects have studied. The mint buildings at Denver and Philadelphia have called for special treatment, the conditions governing each being entirely different, not only from those of other government buildings to be designed and erected at this time, but from those governing the other. These two (and the Portland building) are fortunate in fronting upon wide streets, thus permitting the use of broad and simple motives. A mint, being a money making building, can well afford to assume somewhat of an industrial air; yet in these two instances (being situated on the border line between the residential and commercial sections of their respective cities) the surroundings have received special consideration, with a result which may be discernible. Since it is always the desire of the supervising architect to specify such materials as are generally acknowledged by a community to be suitable for building in that locality, the design for the Denver mint recognizes in its motive the sturdy, robust Florentine palace with the possible use of the local red (or gray) granite or the red sandstone, which would show to advantage in the clear atmosphere of Colorado.

The traditions of the old mint and of certain other buildings in Philadelphia have called for the manifestation of a more classical feeling in its successor, leading to the consideration of a white marble exterior. In the Buffalo postoffice, courthouse, and customhouse-the largest and one of the most important buildings designed in this office within the past two years-a mottled pink granite is being used, as the best material obtainable within a reasonable distance; and a rather free treatment of early Gothic has been chosen as the style, being capable of greater refinement than the Romanesque and of greater vigor than the Renaissance. The buildings at Madison, Ind., and Richmond, Ky., are constructed of materials well known in their sections.

It does not often happen that a government building may be consistently picturesque, but in the cases of Paterson, N. J.,

(where the lot is irregular in shape and there are considerable differences of grades), and of Clarksville, Tenn. (near which runs a broadly sweeping river with precipitous banks in an almost mountainous country), the result could scarcely be otherwise.

Each one of the three influences, climatic, geologic, and historic, is often greatly modified by another and very different (but equally important) condition which always confronts the government architect as surely as it does the architect in private practice. This is the element of cost. For instance, although good building stone may be found within reasonable distance of such cities as Lynn, Mass., Saginaw, Mich., or Pueblo, Col., yet the appropriation authorized by congress for the construction of the building may not be sufficient to warrant the use of stone for the entire building, and the architect must adapt his plans to the funds available. The resulting modification in the selection of material, such as the use of brick with trimmings of stone or terra cotta, must affect the character of the design, and, as granite is a more expensive as well as a more intractable material than sandstone, limestone, marble, or terra cotta, the character of the material selected must be given due consideration in determining the choice of a style.

It is hoped that the preceding pages are indicative of the fact that the government is not a mere machine, a soulless corporation, but, in each of its many departments, has at heart the accomplishment of the greatest good to the greatest number, and is, as in the days of Lincoln, a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

MODERN SKYSCRAPERS.

BY ARTHUR W. FRENCH.

[Arthur Willard French, professor of civil engineering at Worcester Polytechnic institute; born July 13, 1868, at Battle Creek, Mich.; studied at Dartmouth college and graduated from Thayer school of civil engineering in 1892; the same year he went to Colorado as the civil engineer for the Platte river paper mills, Denver, remaining there until he became assistant engineer in 1894 for the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf railway until '95, when he was made assistant professor of civil engineering in Thayer school of engineering connected with Dartmouth college; in 1899 he was chosen professor of civil engineering at Worcester Polytechnic institute; he is coauthor of Stereonomy.]

A bird's-eye view of any large city in 1880 would show an almost dead level of roofs, above which only an occasional spire or dome of church or public building rose to relieve the monotony. The last 25 years has brought great growth to all large commercial cities, and the demand for space in the business center of such cities has increased far beyond the supply. With the area of desirable land covered, the only alternatives were to go either up or down. With characteristic energy, the American engineer has gone both ways. Rentable space far below the surface is procured by novel methods, and the only limit to the space which he will furnish skyward seems to be the laws or ordinances of the cities.

If the old methods were attempted in the construction of buildings reaching to a height of 20 stories, the walls would have a thickness of from six to eight feet. Such a waste of space where land values reach, as in the case of the land on which is located the American Surety building, corner of Broadway and Pine street, New York, $267.67 a square foot, or at the rate of $11,500,000 an acre, and the yearly rental a square foot is often $10 or $12, could not be tolerated. Moreover, in many locations, the great weight of such walls could not be carried by the soil, even if the foundations were spread to cover the whole lot. To avoid walls of tremendous thickness, and to reduce the weight of the structure, a stronger material than masonry must be used to carry the loads. The steel frame was the solution of the difficulty, and its adoption