Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-11
The New York Herald in a fit Of spleen owe

The New York Herald in fit Of spleen over
the proposition to remove the remains of Gen.
Grant from the city where he has been DIS
bonored to Arlington, where he will be honored,
sssails the capital in this fashion: lis not
Washington the poor relation or charity boy
among cities? Washington lives under the
table Of the government New York
can submit with a certain meekness TO lectures
from cities which by the public enterprise and
private spirit Of their citizens have earned the
right to be. But New York pays TOO much
money every year for the support Of Washing
ton to accept her criticisms without remon-
STRANGE" In other words the portion of
the national taxes. which New York
contributes towards the money expended by
the republic in adjoining the national capital
10 to exempt tina. city from criticisms BY the
people OF the capital upon New York's displays
OF h lack Of public spirit. in the treatment OF
the remains of Grant The citizen of the Dis
trict, having been deprived OF about all the
rights OF American citizens except that of pay
ing taxes is now denied by the Herald the right
70 talk. Too much OF this miserable stuff, dis
torting through Ignorance or malice the rela-
tion of this community to other American eiti-
sons. has been recently printed and spoken.
The nation, OF which New York is a part,
founded and undertook to build up this
capital as national city. Under
pretenees about what it intended to do, which
were afterwards faIsifed. it obtained donations
of land from the original owners of the soil.
I. bound itself by its acts and declarations and
implied contracts to do that which the Herald
now treats q charity to the residents here.
BY planning = magnificent capital, covering u
large area and characterized by bread streets,
avenues and reservations beyond the means Of
. Maryland village or a self-supporting COM
msrcal city Of that day to maintain crcdita-
bly, and by founding this capital in a place
comparatively uninhabited as well as by the
terms Of its agreement with the owners of the
soil. and by the declarations Of its representa-
tives at the founding of the capital and
afterward, it indicated an intention to build up
q national city at national expense on a grand
scale irrespective OF the future population of
the District. Patrick Henry and some Of the
early Pamphieteers protested against the
TONS meeting al the capitals needs, lest the
self-respect OF the people should be degraded.
This protest was needed to such an extent that
practically all the burden Of capital making
was thrown upon tine Districts feeble popula-
ton, causing the city to drift into bank
ruptcy in 1885 in the desperate effort to
perform the nations task Senator Southland
in that year reported this condition of facts,
saying that the city authorities had been
misled into expenditures which did not prop
erly belong to them, although the views by
which they were governed were Of liberal
and public-spirited character" and Congress
Endorsed this statement by its action The
promises OF the nation in regard to capital
building were carried out in the same fashion
as New York's promises concerning the Grant
monument. statement made between 1870
and 1850 of the expenditures upon the capital
which the nation had undertaken to build for
itself, showed that the feeble population of the
city had done far more in capital-making
than all the rest OF the United
States, and had worked itself into
bankruptcy in 1885 in this patriotic labor. In
1878 the nation decided that justice required it
10 pay one-haH the Districts expenses, as the
untaxed owner Of one-half the capitals prop
erty, and as interested at least to that extent
in all improvements; but it has not yet de-
clared, as it should, that both justice and con-
sstency require the payment of the same pro-
portion of the expenses Of capital-making in the
years of indifferehceS and neglect of national
obligations Washington is a charity boy only
in the sense that it has been treated to
the charity boys kicks and cuffs, instead
of to the maintenance which its founder and
guardian is under legal obligation to give it.
The people OF this city have contributed far
more toward national concerns than the tax
payers Of any other community. They are OBJ
jects of charity for nobody, and certainly not
for tine nation, which undertook to make q cap
isal for itself, and got donations of land that
pretenss, then unioaded the work of cap
ital-mnking on the small population of
this city, and now, having justly resumed por-
ton of the burden, sneers, so far as the Herald
is q representative sheet, at the community
which il has misused. The charity is really from
Washington to the nation not from the nation
to its capital. The nation is now, however,
alive 10 its duties toward the capital. and Wash
inston, forgetting past neglect, sees magnif-
cent future before 1t. This development can
not be retarded by such foolish and ignorant
slurs as that Of the Herald, which are injurious
only until exposed in their foolishness
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