Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-12-22
A GREAT NATIONAL CITY.
Washington.s Relations to the General
Government.
sound Views Of Senator InxaIIs.

| AN OUTRAGE To TAX THE CITIZENS OF THE DIS
TRlcT FOR HALE THE EXPENSES OF THE CAPT.
TA-LIBERAL EXPENDITURES FOR ITS M
PRovEMENT AND ADoRNMENT DEFENDED-THE
SUFFRAGE EXPERIMENT FAILURE.
That clause Of lone of the proposed Senate
rules referring to the District committee bills,
| making appropriations for the District govern
ment, gave rise to considerable discussion
| Thursday. Messrs. Harris, Sherman and Ingalls,
| advocated the change as q most advantageous
one, while Messrs. Allison, Beck. Garland and
Others opposed it. In the course of the debate
Mr.. Allison, chairman Of the committee on ap-
propriations referred to the fact that the United
States government pays one half the interest on
$50 900, 900 debt of the District and provides
one-half the sinking fund to extnguish the prin-
cipal of S300OOOOO
Mr.. ingalls,, in response, said: The Senator
from Iowa will not divert me from the consid-
eratlon OF this question by any appeal to preiu-
dice In consequence of the fact that the govern
ment pays large amount upon the capitalized
debt OF this District do not think the gov
eminent pays half Of what it ought to pay in
this District. When the contest came up In
1873 as TO the relative position occupied by the
government and the people here, and the ques-
tion OF taxation was considered, resisted the
5o per cent by the people of this District. They
ought not to be asked to pay one-halr of the
expenses of this District. 1t is an outrage
upon them. The expenses here are enormously
In excess OF what would be required in an ordi-
nary municipal corporation. The width Of the
streets. the parks, the expenditure Of water for
ornamental purposes, everything that Is done
here Is on gigantic scale, and 1 believe the
government ought to pay IS per cent Of the
taxes here. | think it would be equitable, 1t
would be just.
Mr. Bayard-.MayI suggest to the Senator
| another fact, that the people OF this District
nave no voice in their own government?
DISTRICT SUFFRAGE A FAILURE
Mr.. Ingalls, am very glad they have none
That experiment was tried sufficiently We had
popular government and universal suffrage
here, and the result was an expenditure that
was not entirely satisfactory either to the gov
eminent or to the taxpayers; and when the
| fathers and founders of the republic declared
| than the United States should have exclusive
jurisdiction over the district where the Federal
capital should be located. think it was a very
wise provision to exclude popular suffrage as an
element in the government of that district.
But was saying word about the expendi-
lures OF this District in response to q remark
made by the Senator from Iowa, evidently in
the dd cdptdndum spirit, to show that there
| ought to be still further limitation because
there had hitherto been extraordinary expendi-
observation. Mr. President:
GOV. SHEPHERD DESERVES A MONUMENT.
There has been great deal of anmadversion
In this country upon the expenditures that have
been made in this District tor the Improvement
of the streets and for other public works which
have been carried on at the expense that has
been named by him. l regret, sir, that more
was not expended. 1 will say in response to
| the Senator FROM Iowa that there never has
been S30Ou0000 expended in this country in
| public improvements that was expended more
TO the satisiaction'of the people of the entire
country. and there never has been $50 900 900
| expended for which there is more to show than
| there is for that and these men who have been
magned, and who have been aspersed and who
| have been viiiiied end pursued by newspaper de-
| traction and held up and pilloried as deserving
OF public eXecration are benefactors of this com
| munity, and instead of being denounced and de-
| cried they deserve appreciation, and they ought
to have. and they will have yet, monuments
| erected in their memory.
am no believer in niggardly policy about
| this District aud about this city. l believe in
| the widest possible beneiiCence and generosity
| We have exclusive jurisdiction here and this
| was Intended to be the national city. 1t ought
| to be In all its appointments a fitting repre-
! sentative. Of the wealth. of the taste, Of the
| grandeur OF this people: and the Senator from
| Iowa Will not obtain public appreciation by ad-
vocating. even in an indirect way, the policy of
niggardllness in appropriations made here by the
| government.
1 stand here in no sense whatever as the apollo
| gist for what has been DONE bat as the advocate
and defender of it, and to say that l regret that
the system OF improvements which was marked
out by the men who have been hitherto exc
Grated was not carried out to its fullest extent
1t would to-day have been benefit to this
| people, 1t would have been an honor to this
country, If $4,000, 600 had been expended rather
than $50, OO0, 900. There is not citizen of this
| pnfr 1rv,n
what 1t is here for, who would not willingly
contribute his share of the expense necessary to
pay the interest upon that debt.
The Senator from Iowa attempted also to
correct me In another particular, ana stated
that the courts of this District were entirely
paid for by the government When said that
| the Police Court was an exception he endeav-
| ored to avoid the force of my observation by
| saying that that was paid out Of fees. Now
| mark how plain tale shall put the chairman of
the committee on appropriations down. On
page 141 of the laws of the United States for the
| first session Of the Forty-seventh Congress-
under the head Of courts" is one paragrap pin,
which will not read IN detail, but in which the
| aggregate In all is S12 9lS that is appropriated
| for the purposes Of that court alone; and when
the Senator states that it is paid for from fees he
| shows an additional reason why the apprOpria-
ton bill for the District of Columbia should be
referred to body that has information upon
these subjects.
AS the Senator from Delaware appeared to be
somewhat uncertain as to the fact that the ap-
| preparation was half paid from the revenues of
the District. let me read the enacting clause of
the appropriation act
Be it enacted, &c, That the half of the following
| sums named, respectively, is hereby appropriated
| out OF any money in the Treasury not otherwise
appropriated, and the other half out OF the reye-
nues Of the District Of Columbia
| Then follows the whole list of objects for
| which appropriation is made, including the
| aqueduct, the institutions of charity, reforma-
| ton and prisons, the general expenses for the
payment of the salaries of the officers, for the
streets of the city, for the metropolitan police,
for the fire department, tor the courts, for the
public schools, for the markets, and miscella-
| neous expenses, including the health depart
| ment, the interest On the sinking fund and the
| water department..
| BELIEVES IN WASHINGTON AS THE GREAT
| NATIONAL CITY.
Mr.. President, have no interest in this mat
ter other than that of friend OF this District
1 am believer in the city of Washington as the
great national city. There are 10000, or, it
may be, 10000 people located within this ter
ritory over which the government of the United
States has exclusive Jurisdiction by the Consti-
tuition. 1t was designed as place for the seat
of government. and l think that when the
trainers Of the Constitution and the founders of
the republic decided that they would have q
! federal city, and that it sIbuld not be located
in any great commercial or manufacturing