The Washington critic., 1888-02-16
WASHINGTON, FEB. lG, 1883.
rwo DAYS ron THE DISTRICT.


TWO DAYS FOR THE DISTRICT.
The House of Representatives has
agreed to set apart the second and
fourth Mondays OF each month for
the consideration of District business,
which is quite as liberal an allowance
Ms we have the right TO expect, yet il
viii only amount to nine days should
Congress sit till the lst of July.
A great deal of business, however,
siat has been carefully matured in
committee can be disposed of in nine
days. One danger to he feared, of
which we had u conspicuous illus
tration in the last Congress, is the
scramble of conflicting or rival
schemes for precedence, in which the
devil usually takes not only the hind
most but sweeps them all in, together
with many valuable opportunities for
something better.
Another danger consists in the
growingtendency of Congress to legis-
Late for the moral rather than the
material welfare of the District, as
though this were a special field for
missionary and reformatory effort.
All benefcent institutions estab-
lished for the relief of distress or pre-
vention of crime should be carefully
booked after and generously provided
for, but, as u rule, the police powers
of the Commissioners are quite enough
to maintain order and interdict all
hagrant violations of decency. If
they are not, their powers should be
adequately enlarged
While there are so many measures
to be matured pertaining to the ad-
ministrative machinery of the Dis
trict, to the codification of its laws,
and to the reorganization of its minor
courts; so many plans to be consid-
cred for the improvement of its streets
and avenues and river front, the bet
tex regulation of its assessme-o -.
TEN, its street ear conx''hieS, anu lUs
swater srnnl,., d. sreateft facilities of
H., IRE department and the increase
of its police force; the enlargement of
its school accommodations, and the
generally improved efficiency of all
branches of the District government,
there should be the least possible ex-
pendlture of time and effort upon
questions that are not thoroughly
practicable and in the line of sound
public policy.
The District Committee we believe
TO be well disposed towards our local
interests, but the recent agitation of
the bill 20 rule out of the mails all
District newspapers publishing adver-
tisements of lotteries, furnishes case
in point, where measure of no merit
and intrinsically unjust was permitted
for the days or weeks that it occupied
the committees attention to stand in
the way of useful, practical and
urgent legislation.
There is always this danger to be
feared so long as certain class of
people persist in making the District
Of Columbia the testing ground of
their pet hobbies and moral reform
ideas. So that although two days
u month, provided they are not
fillibustered away, seem sufficiently
ample and quite as much as the Dis
tr,ct can reasonably ask, it is certain
10 prove too little if matters of com
paratively small moment, or none at
all, are allowed to supersede those on
which the community at large is
unanimous in pressing demand to
be heard, and in behalf of which it is
TO the interest of the Government as
well as the people that the latter
should be heard.
THE SIGNAL SERVICE people had
nnthinot 10 do u.iih,fhn Rlninn hlizznrd