COPY - Original document is filed under "Reconstruction"
Dear Mrs. Soliday:
I have been asked to reply to your
letter of March
thirty-first regarding the renovation of the White House.
I think you should know that the
President had no
responsibility for either the cost or the nature of the remodeling. By
Act
of Congress, this responsibility was vested in a Commission composed
mostly
of members of Congress who made recommendations to Congress for the work
and obtained the necessary appropriations.
Incidentally, the cost was not seven
million dollars. It
was $5,761,000. All of the work was done by contract after solicitation
of bids.
The work necessitated by the
crumbling of foundations which
could have at any minute collapsed all of the floors in the White House,
consisted of removing the entire house inside of the outside walls, and
building an entirely new house inside the old walls. The Commission
decided
to preserve the old walls for sentimental reasons.
|
Sincerely yours,
JOSEPH SHORT
Secretary to the President
|
Mrs. Phillip D. Soliday,
Soy Bean Acres,
Vermillion,
South Dakota.
