Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-29

The uniavorable comment by some persons
outside of the District upon the proposed
G. A. r. appropriation Is based upon a mis-
understanding o, the situation. They do not
comprehend that by virtue OF an implied con-
tract made at the foundation of the capital,
and by virtue of the national ownership of
more than half of the property in Washington.
the nation is under obligation. now crystalIized
into law, to contribute as a quasi taxpayer to
the municipal expenses of the CRY which it
founded. which it largely owns. and over which
IL exercises exclusive Legislative control The
only question for Congress TO decide concern
ing this or any other proposed District e1pendi-
ture is whether it is a lawful and eIpedient mu-
nicipal appropriation. II the decision is in the
Affirmative. AZ on this proposition it was in the
case of Boston, Detroit and other cities, the
penditure is naturally made from the District
fund. and the manner in which this fund is
constituted Is already provided by law. The
act Of 1878 provides as follows: 10 the extent
to which Congress shall approve Of said esti-
mates (the annual estimates of municipal ex-
penditures submis.-d BY the COMMISSIONER
Congress shall appropriate the amount of fifty
per centum thereof" Is it not palpably IN
Just to reproaeh Washington for applying as
Boston and Detroit have done to i:s Lcal and
only legislature for q municipal appropriation.
10 be met in precisely the same manner in
which all other municipal expenses are paid?
When the nation founded its capital here it
took from the residents and assumed to itself
exclusive power Of legislation over the nations
city. 1t received from the property owners
a. free gift over 5000 acres out of o total of
something over I, 900 acres in the capitals site
1t sold lots from part of this donated five
seventies and with the proceeds bought the
sites of the original public buildings and
erected these buildings. The washingtonians
of that day, having surrendered to the nation
title to five-sevenths Of the capital and s1clu-
sive legislative control, and having provided
the fund from which the public buildings were
erected, were not expected to develop the pre-
tentious city which the nation laid out upon its
property. BY planning q magnificent capital,
covering large area and characterized by
broad streets, avenues and reservations to an
extent unsuitable for aself-supporting CONNER
cial city, and by founding this capital in place
comparatively uninhabited, as well as by the
terms Of the bargain with the owners of the
soil, and by the declarations Of its representa-
lives at the founding Of the city and afterwards
the nation showed an intention to build I'D
national city at national expense on a national
scale, and the expense of its support and adorn-
ment was not to be limited by the scanty re-
sources of what permanent population the ma
tion's city might acquire. In the course of
pamphlet discussion Of the early DAYS protest
was entered against Congress meeting all the
needs Of the capital. en- the ground that the
independence and self-respect of its citizens
would be degraded. Congress seems for a
long time to have obeyed this protest so far as
to render no assistance whatever worthy the
name in the work Of capital making.
For more than thirty years, during
which 600, 900 had been realized from the sale
Of donated lots pledged by it for the benefit Of
Improvements its expenditures upon streets
and avenues which were its exclusive prop
erty we're less than s700 per year and its an
nual appropriations since that time until q re-
cent period in the city's history have been
widely varying in amount and at the best in
adequate. In 1873 the government which had
in the beginning implicitly undertaken to
meet all the expenses Of capital making and
then shifted that burden in the main upon pri-
vate citizens, decided that justice REQUIRED
il to pay one-half of the Districts expenses
A-s fey Va s<-AS fAOpOft4ou Tue nlleO
States as the untaxed owner Of one-haf of the
city property and as interested to that extern.
in all Improvements had been urged by Sem
ator Southland in 1885. He also advocated the
Embarrassment to the District of whatever it
had expended in the past beyond its Just pro-
portion. Congress has followed only half of
Senator Southsrd's advice. II justice requires
the government to pay a certain proportion of
District expenses now, both justice and consist
ency demand that it should pay the same
proportion of the expenses Of the years of its
indifference and neglect. From 1880 to 1878.
according to the report Of Secretary Of the
Treasury. District citizens expended s14OOO.-
600 more than the United States in the nations
task Of capital making. In equity a balance
should be struck. and whatever sum is neces-
sary to MAKE the expenditures Of the general
government upon the capital equal to those of
its citizens for the whole course Of the city's
life should be credited to the District
The nations contribution to a Washington
eneampment appropriation or any other NUM-
cipal appropriation Is not the distribution Of
beggars' aims, but the inadequate fulflIment
Of an equitable obligation. II in the relations
of nearly a century between capital and nation
one party has sponged on the other obtained
property by false pretenses, or disgracefuLly
neglected or repudiated just obligations, that
party is not the capital The national guar
dian. who for three-fourths CT q century was
unfaithfCl to his trust, now, without making
the slightest restitution for the wrongs of the
past, shares the expenses of the ward whom he
equitably bound himself in the beginning TO
support, and some men call il charity.
The idea OF deducting from the salaries n,