Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-02

The real issue in this matter Of financing
the Districts needs lies in the terms con-
corning time of repayment on which the
federal money is advanced to bring the
local revenues up to the point demanded
by its immediate current and extraordinary
needs. Whether the specific objects for
which the advance is intended are named
or not, the necessary fund should be adj
vanced for the distinct purpose of paying
for those works which are easily TO be
classified as permanent and more beneficial
to posterity than to the present taxpayers,
such as the filtration plant, the sewer sys
tenn the municipal building. the Long
bridge and the railroad improvements. No
such advance for meeting the cost of
work of this character should be repaid in
less than twenty years. That is neither
long nor a short liquidation period. 1t is
fair both to the lender and to the borrower.
This issue will be met squarely in the
consideration of the District appropriation
bill in the Senate committee and the Sen
ate itself. When. for instance. the item Of
the filtration plant Is met 1t will be found,
as the bill was framed by the House, that
provision is made for the complete payment
for this work out of the current revenues
within the period of construction, some
two or three years. The general theory of
the House is that the District should pay
1t goes for these works. The fact is
that it cannot without serious injury. The
Senate's compromise, according to some
suggestions, may be to let deficiencies &C
cumulate as the sure consequence of the
conflict between legislative theory and prac-
tical fact. and then to accommodate them
by means of annual advances. So, as re-
CARDS this filtration item. the cost, taken
from the current revenues. will be replaced
there by federal advances expended for
some other purpose within the scope of the
appropriations. and will be repaid In two,
three or four years. The Senate could
properly determine the whole principle of
these extraordinary expenditures by adopt
ing slight amendment to this filtra ton
paragraph to the effect that the morey
necessary for the construction should be
advanced by the federal treasury and re-
paid in twenty equal lnstallments, with in
terest. And so with the sewerage PROPOSE
ton.
Therein lies the principle of finance which
cannot be violated without doing harm to
the welfare of the District. There must be
not only definite sum named for advance,
but its repayment must be on a long term
and well understood basis. Nothing else
is so vitality important as the period of re-
payment. 1t matters comparatively little
If twenty-year advances are made for each
OF the great enterprises. so long as they
are distinctly stated as for such terms It
would entail awkward bookkeeping and
would be less convenient to both the gov
eminent and the District, but it would
follow the common-sense principle of let
ting the District pay for its great works
as other cities pay for theirs, as great
commercial institutions and corporations
pay for their big betterments, on a long
term basis And the District merely asks
to be treated in this connection the same
as are other cities and the great COM
mercial institutions.