Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-17
The Cash-Payment Plan.

The District appropriation bill. as re-
ported today from committee, Is distinct
disappointment. not only in point of the
amount carried, but in view of the pr1n-
ciple of cash payments for large works
upon which IL is based. 1t follows the lines
indicated by Chairman McCleary OF the
subcommittee in the course of his inter-
view in The Star of Thursday. The COM
mittee has labored to provide for all works
and to keep the District out of debt. the
District feels that it is unjust to all pres
emit taxpayers to force them to bear the
whole burden of the construction of great
permanent improvements in order that the
capital shall be kept thus free from debt
Ii believes that it is only just that these
works be paid for in some part out OF ftt-
ture revenues and that the municipality S
current needs be provided for in adequate
measure meanwhile.
The bill carries S7,617,049, or So. 255, 1913
less than the estimates, SSio,SI4.91 less than
the current law, and S126,S39.97 less than
the bill of last year carried at the same
stage. This is wholly inadequate. The es-
Inmates were carefully prepared on the
basis Of the Districts actual needs and ON
the legitimate assumption that the large
works would be financed on a long-term
plan In order to adjust the bill to the
cash-payment basis the House committee
has been obliged to cut ruthlessly in the
provisions for all of the municipal depart
ments Only trifiing allowance has been
made for the capitals steady growth. Nor
is there hope If this principle be estab-
lished, that provision for that growth can
be made for at least five years.
To strut he District half decade
will be to accumulate needs the meeting OF
which at the end of the period of repression
will involve further problems, perhaps In
their turn resulting in the curtailment OF
some necessary line Of expenditure. In
short, the House committees policy, carried
ont Indefinitely, will mean the advancement
of the District by fits and starts. one phase
OF the development being pressed always at
the expense of another phase.
The District hopes to grow not only IN
beauty as a capital, but in efficiency as
municipality. 1t believes that 1t Is possible
to develop in both directions simultaneous
ly with its revenues, assessed on normal.
equitable basis. supplemented equally by
federal payments. Other cities grow in this
way, cities with heavier obligations upon
them. When confronted with the need Of
providing an extraordinary fund for large
work they do not attempt to take 1t out of
the current income, but finance it as do the
great Industrial corporations. by borrowing
money and repaying 1t during a course of
years. Only thus Is even, wholesome
growth possible.
Representative McCIeary's desire is to
keep the District out of debt. There is no
disgrace in debts thus incurred. no hard
ship. Rather Is there hardship in keeping
out Of debt. the kind Of hardship which
hampers growth, burdens taxpayers I'M
Justly, cramps their activities, and thus af
fects the sources of the community's in
come. Debt of the kind the District wishes
to incur represents growth and progress
and prosperity, and an equitable distribu-
ton Of the cost of permanent works so that
benefited posterity shall bear some part Of
It.
The bill just reported favorably from the
House District committee proposing an adj
vance of $4,000. 900 by the government to
the District to be repaid In twenty years
offers the logical and practical solution of
the problem raised by the necessity to pro-
vide at once for several large works and for
the municipal development. That measure. If
made the basis for the pending and all future
appropriation bills will permit the even de-
velopment of the capital, the distribution of
extraordinary expenditures over period Of
years. the avoidance of spasmodic taxation.
and thus will promote the Industrial wei
fare Of the District. Insistence by the
House at this session upon the policy laid
down by the appropriations committee will
perhaps involve an issue between the two
chambers. the prolonged delay Of the bills
passage and finally hasty compromise
which will settle nothing permanently and
AFFORD only another makeshift law. There
fore 1t is to be hoped that the House will
at the earliest possible moment pass the
District committees bill. and thus establish
tie right principle, upon the terms of which
the appropriation bill should then be re-
framed