Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-30
Hearing Before the House District
Committee.
|HE BOARD OF TRADES VIEWS
Presented by President Moves and
MIR. Worthington.
come QUESTIONS ASKED

b.
ing today on House bill $685. to amend
the highway act. The provisions of this
bill have been published heretofore In The
Star
Mr.. Theodore W. Noyes, Mr.. George H.
0darries, Mr.. NJ. NJ. Parker, Mr. A. T.
Worthington and Mr.. W. F. Mattingly ap-
peared Oh the part of the board of trade.
Commissioners Wight and Black, with Mr.
w. p. Richards Of the engineer department
OF the District, represented the Commits
sioners.
Mr. Harries introduced Mr.. Moves, presi-
dent of the board of trade of Washington
who addressed the committee.
Mr.. NOyes' Remarks.
Mr.. Noyes said:
The vitality essential amendment of the
highway act is the repeal of section Is.
There are other provisions which need to be
corrected. but this section alters the nature
and effect of the entire legislation and
compeis 1t. reversing the experience Of
BALKAN, to curse the community which it
has been expected to bless.
Section Is provides that condemnation
damages under the highway act shall be
one-haf assessed against the land benefited
thereby. without regard to the aggregate
percentage of actual benefit, and the other
half charged up to the revenues of the Dis
trict- Not only is the United States ex-
Guided from participation in the original
VI the STREETS, DuC the nation
Is caused to repUdiate for all time to come
financial concern In the capital beyond
Boundary street. by the provision that
TO expense for the improvement of any
street. circle, reservation or avenue laid
out under the provisions of this act outside
the cities of Washington 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 Dis
trict of Columbia --a#-.. ...,.
This provision, if allowed to stand, is a
repeal by indirection CT the organic act of
1878, so far as the new Washington beyond
Fiorlda avenue is concerned and IS prece-
dent pointing the way to the entire de-
struction of that equitable statute.
Purpose of the Highway Act.
The broad purpose of the highway act
was to insure the extension of the mag
nifcent street plan of the original city over
the whole modern capital, as it is today
ana as IL will be in the future, incidentally
streets in the belt of misft subdivisions
which the negligence of Congress has per-
United to girdle the original capital But
the plan OF Washington, as conceived by
the 1orefathers. was on a national, not a
local. scale, the broad streets and avenues
occupying more than one-half the entire
area 1.-The scheme would have been absurd
Tor a self-suppor.ing, self-developing Mary
land village of that day. Its extension at
this time to adjacent territory is equally
absurd. as well grossly unjust and
unbearably oppressive, unless the nation
stands in the same relation to the extended
as 10 the original plan and in the same re-
iation to the enlarged as to the original
city The highway act inconsistency says
10 suburban Washington: You to be a
part of the capital in plan. but not in any
other respect You are to be compelled to
Gedlcate. open and improve streets and ave-
nues OIL national scale. but exclusively at
local expense While making you inte-
graz part OF the capital in street system,
you are repudiated as a part OF that capital
under the organic act of 1S7S.''
The expense of the street system of
was hington is not to be endured unless
met by all the. resources which combine
TO make the national capital worthy of the
n1 ton. If Congress viii violate the obli-
cations incurred at the founding of the
fedora! district, upon which the act of 1873
vas based. and will say that the nation
has no financial concern in the modern cap
ital save in the portion limited by the inn
agiIary line of Boundary street then the
streets of the repudiated section must be
opened and improved on the basis of
cramped local resources, and not on the
national lines of the original city. But IT,
on the other hand Congress wisely deter
mines that the grand purpose Of the high
way act shall be carried out and that the
greater Washington of the coming century
for which we moderns will be held respon-
sibie. shall not discredit the nation when
compared with the city planned by the
forefathers, then the violation of the or
ganic act involved in section Is of the
highway Jaw must De corrected DY repeal
OF the obnoxious provision.
Board of Trade Resolution.
Influenced by these considerations the
board OF trade. in dealing with the amend
atory bill, unanimously adopted the fol-
lowing resolution:
Resolved, That proportfonate contribu-
tion by the United States under the act of
1878 is vital feature of this amendatory
legislation and that If the elimination of Coo
ton Ia cannot be otherwise
whole highway act should be repealed
consider cor one moment this stree,
plan which the nation has provided ex.
c-usiveiy at private expense for the ex.
tensioh of the nations CITY, II. represent.
the hard bargain driven with the origina
proprietors of the soil. John Law, a prom
ne citizen who came here in 1890
charged in 1870. v0icing general com
plant. that the city had been made vas
by the politicians merely to crafty theiI
cupidIty and to tempt as many farm hold
ers as possible to give up half their prop
erty- Even more bitter complaints were
made concerning the area appropriated TO,
streets and avenues, not merely one-half
but all OK which was taken by the govern
Ment without compensation. The propert,
owners donated one-half of the lots an(
> all of the streets and avenues to the Ma
tion; and the national representative.
showed shrewd appreciation of the term:
OF the benefaction by setting apart al
streets more than eue-half Of the tota
area Of the city, 1896 acres out of a tota
OF gill, greater percentage OF stree
surface than In any other city in the world
Its vastless has been well pictured by
imagining a street 100 feet wide extending
from Washington to New York, to b.
graded, aspsalted and supplied with gut
fers, curbstones, sid. walks, drains, sewers
lampposts and shade trees. As the Senat,
District committee said in its report O
ISIS; The plan of the city was formed
by the public authorities; the dimension
OF the streets determined by them withou
interference by the inhabitants CIR regar,
to their particular interest convenience
I: is a plan calculated for the magnificen
, capital of a great nation. but Oppressive
from its very Dimensions and arrange
ments to the inhabitants. II It's 'executio,
to any considerable extent is to be thrown
upon them. No people who anticipat e
the execution and subsequent support O
II out Of their own funds would ever hay
dreamed of forming such plan. At tina
period neither the government nor tn
proprietors contemplated that the Who'll
OF even a large proportion of the burde
should be thrown upon the Inhabitants o
the city,
The streets were not only oppressiv
from their size and extent in their origina
formation, but they wifi from the sam
cause continue to be an unending sourc
Of expense in their repair. They mus