Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-14

Amendment or Repeal.
The vitality essential amendment of the
highway act is the repeal of section Is.
There other defective or actively OBJ
jectionable provisions. which need to be
corrected. but this section alters the ma
ture and effect of the entire legislation and
compels 1t, reversing the experience of
Ba-:- 10. curse the community which 1t
has beer expected to bless.
Section - provides that condemnation
damages under the highway act shall be
one-half assessed against the land bene-
fitted thereby and the other half charged up
to the revenues of the District. Not only
is the United STAKES excluded from partici-
patton in the immediate opening of the
streets. but the nation Is caused to repudi-
ate for all time to come financial concern
in the capital beyond Boundary street"
by the provision that no expense for the
Improvement Of any street. circle. reserva-
ton or avenue laid out under the provi-
sions of this act outside the cities of Wash
ington and Georgetown shall be chargeable
to the treasury of the United States, but
such expense shall be paid solely out of the
revenues of the District of Columbia
This provision, if allowed to stand, Is a
repeal by indirection of the organic act of
1873. so far as the new Washington beyond
Florida avenue is concerned, and is a pre-
cedent pointing the way to the entire de-
struction of that equitable statute.
The broad purpose Of the highway act is
to ensure the extension of the magnificent
street plan of the original city over the
whole modern capital. as ii is today and as
it will be in the future. But the plan of
Washington. as conceived by the fore
fathers a national a local scale
the broad streets and avenues occupying
more than one-half of the entire area. The
scheme would have been absurd for a self
supporting, self-dereloping Maryland vii
lage of that day. Its extension at this time
TO adjacent territory is equally absurd.
We'll grossly unjust and unbearably op-
pressive. unless the nation stands in the
same relation TO the extended as to the
original plan and in the same relation to
the enlarged as to the original city. The
highway act says to suburban Washington:
You are to he part of the capital in plan,
but not in any other respect. You are to De
compelled to open and improve streets and
avenues on national scale but exclusively
at local expense. While making you an in
iegral part OF the capital in street system,
you are repudiated as a part of that cap
ital under the organic act of 1SIS.'
The expense of the street system of
Washington is not to be endured unless
met by all the resources which combine
to make the national capital worthy of the
ration. II Congress will violate the obliga-
lions ;ncurred at the founding of the fed
eral District. upon which the act of 1878 is
based. and will say that the nation has no
financial concern in the modern capital
save in the portion limited by the imagin-
airy line of Boundary street then the
streets of t,ae> repGGiated section must be
opened and improved the basis of
cramped local resources. and not on the ma
tiCnal lines of the original city. But IL on
the other hand Congress wisely determines
that the grand purpose of the highway act
shall be carried Qua. and that the Greater
Washington of the coming century, for
which we moderns will be held responsible.
shall not discredit the nation when COM
pared with the city planned by the fore
fathers, then the picayune. underhanded
and contemplate violation of the organic
act involved in section 10 of the highway
law must be corrected by repeal of the
obnoxious provision.
Every public spirited Washingtonian will
hope that the highway act, wisely amended,
and the organic act may both be preserved.
A vital blow at the latter law would be
ru.nous to the capital, and must be pre-
vented at all hazards. No municipal pro-
ject wha tscever is of sufficient importance
10 be permitted to jeopardiZe the act of
1873 But nothing short OF the discovery
OF a temper in Congress, which places the
highway and the organic acts in hopeless
opposition, should suffice to bring assent to
an absolute repeal of the highway law.
The sectional prejudice which has been
invoked in opposition to street-extension
legislation is TO he deprecated as both I'M
worthy and irnpoltic. Every great public
project bestows private benefits -unequally.
The reclamation of the AnacoStia flats is
public Improvement in which all Washing
tCnfans should be heartily interested,
whether: or not they live or own property
in the vicinity OF that river. The removal
of grade crossings is none the less q matter
of general concern because the lives and
property Of East and South Washington
are esf ecially endangered and injured by
their presence. All Washing tonians must
stand together in working for the welfare
of the city, whatever section may be spe-
cially benefited by the particular project
Under consideration, or in the process of
universal throat-cuttfng nothing whatso-
ever of public benefit will be accomplished