Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-04
No Compromise Equitably Possible.

There would be no equity in a compromise
of the issues between the District and the
appropriation bill as drawn at present. The
bill prescribes strict cash basis in the pay
ment Of great improvements, at the cost OF
reducing current maintenance funds to
dangerous minimum. The Commissioners
proposition seeks to establish the long
term basis for the great permanent works.
thus permitting the current maintenance
funds to be restored to their proper pro-
portions. compromise between these two
policies would be afforded by the extension
of federal aid from year to year. thus
swelling the annual income Of the District
to the point of fair provision Of current
needs and the continuing prosecution of the
great works.
But such plan does not relieve the Dis
trict from the burden of cash payments for
the big projects. If the terms of the ad-
vances are calculated on the assumption
that the loans will be all repaid when the
work itself is finished. Such loans would,
therefore. merely increase the Districts an
nual resources, permitting a closer approx
nation to the desired point of current MAIN
tenance. The District would have to pay
the government in a very few years all that
it had thus received and the taxpayer of
today would be the one to stand the chief
If not the sole burden of the plans for capt
tai development.
The issue at stake Is not whether the
District Is to have, from year to year. suf
fcient funds for current maintenance and
for permanent works. 1t Is whether the
provision of that money Is to fall wholly
upon the taxpayers of these few years of
great development. The point at stake Is
whether the absolutely necessary federal
advances shall be repaid within three or
four years or within twenty. All other con-
siderations can be swept aside. 1t may be
deemed certain that Congress will not be
so unjust as to hold the District down to
its own unaided current tax revenues while
these heavy demands for permanent i'm
provements are to be met.
That Is why there can be no compromise,
why the issues cannot be adjusted on
middle ground of agreement, without doing
gross injustice to the capital. If the adj
vance Of the exact amount Of each years
deficit in order to make the income equal
the actual outgo, each loan repayable in
two or three years. is the plan adopted the
District will lose all that it has commended
for in this connection, the right to distrib-
ute the cost of great works over long
series of years. 1t will lose the vital prin-
ciple upon which the Commissioners bill is
based. and for which every representative
voice in the District has been strongly
raised. To the individual taxpayers the re-
suit will be that only those who are COM
PEELED to use the unfiltered water will pay
for the filtration plant; only those who do
not enjoy the completed system of compre-
hensive sewerage must pay for its expen-
sive constructions: only those who suffer
meanwhile the Inconvenience and munich
pal discredit of the old municipal building
must pay for erecting the new; only those
who continue to be subjected to the dan
gers of the present threatening nuisance,
the Long bridge. must pay for the new
highway bridge to be enjoyed by others;
and only those whose lives continue to be
threateped and whose business interests
continue to be injured by the existence of
grade crossings, and by the disturbed con-
ditions during the period of demolition and
reconstruction must pay for the grand rail-
way terminal improvements. which are to
add so conspicuously and so inexpensvely
to the safety, business prosperity and mu-
nicipal self-respect and pride of the future