Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-31
STREET EXTENSIONS
Unjust Imposition Of Burden
on Local Shoulders.
NATIONAL AVEN UES
TRUE SPIRIT OF CAPITAL MAX
ING Is VIOLATED.
District is Willing to Bear It's Proper
Share Of the Cost, but
a.iAAi5.
NATIONAL AVEN UES
To the Editor of The Evening Star:

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
Desiring to be brief and concise, as every
correspondent should who seeks a portion
of the valuable space of your paper, l beg
to heartily commend your recent editorials
on the relationship of the District Of Co
lumbia to the United States. I particularly
refer to the editorial published on the 2Sth
instant. and will allude to what may well
be considered as being very important, in
addition to your admirable presentation of
the radical error. which Congress is maxi
ing by an attempt to segregate the item of
cost pertaining to street extension as the
only expense beyond the old city limits,
which should be excluded from the letter
and spirit of the organic act of 1873.
admit the correctness of your contention
that this important item of expense does
not differ in any respect from other neces-
sary expenses of a municipal character be-
yond the Florida avenue If we cannot
have streets what need have we for water
mains. sewers, police and fire departments?
How can We have private development with
out avenues for travel and along the line of
which private improvement must, If at ALL
follow? How ever have the new
and greater Washington. of which we so
often speak. without streets? And yet 1t is
fact that not single highway has been
opened north of Washington to the Dis
trict line in hundred years. Do they not
lie at the very foundation and are they not
fundamental requisite to municipal devel-
opment?
A Vast Extension Project.
There is an important feature however,
which you did not cover in your editorial.
Congress, in 1893 passed what is known as
the highway extension act and by it's pro-
visions one-third of all the land then and
now private property beyond the limits of
I'll, II tLA
District of Columbia. that is. about twelve
thousand acres. was designated as and for
public highways streets and avenues. NO
city in this country ever attempted such
vast system of street extension. and per-
haps city would or could undertake it.
The local taxpayers of Washington would
not dream of it's execution at their own
cost and expense. 1t was dictated by Con-
gress: it is a federal undertaking of ma
tional proportions for the benefit of the
nation because Washington is it's capital
city, and only upon this assumption, 1t was
a commendable and proper thing to do.
District of Columbia taxpayers can mako
their own streets of such width, number,
direction and grade the same, landOwn
erS may direct and pay the whole cost just
as other communities do, but District of
Columbia taxpayers cannot, short of evil
and disastrous consequences, and perhaps
bankruptcy, make national streets national
in width, in direction, in number and grade
without federal assistance. and many in
this District are of the opinion that the
people of this country do not desire that
they should, for they want the new and
greater Washington to be all that it ought
to be, and, indeed. all that they demand it
shall be- without the imposition of an I'M
Just and even vicious burden upon thirty
or forty thousand people who happen to
own land here.
A National Street
Before the highway act was passed we
had a 10th street out to Mount Pleasant,
but Congress demanded very properly a ma
tional 10th street, yet it was not just and
fair to place the burden of this great ma
tional Improvement, extending not more
than a mile, at a cost of 5000, 900, upon the
people of the District of Columbia.
Washington development and Washington
Improvement must go on, and they must go
on to reasonable extent at national ex-
pense If national proportions are to be die
tated by Congress, or burden beyond en-
durance will surely fall, and, indeed, is now
falling upon our people.
Washington, like any other city of prog
ress. grows. develops and improves beyond
some imaginary line like our old Boundary
street, now Florida avenue. Eliminate If
you will, for the purpose of illustration
Washington Heights, Columbia Heights,
New Mount Pleasant, Brookland, Ecking-
ton, Chevy Chase and Woodbridge, and re-
gard this territory vast plain as 1t
was, practically speaking, twelve or fifteen
years ago, without streets, without water
mains, without gas, without avenues, and
consequently, uninhabited, and tell US the
effect 1t would have upon old Washington?
The True Capital
This suburban development this evidence
of growth, improvement and increase of
population, adds stability and has en-
HANGED value to every foot of Hand in the
old city proportionate to it's location
Therefore, let's have a national capital of
national proportions with national streets
national fire department, water department.
sewer department, police department
schools, parks and buildings all worthy OF
the dignity and wealth of our country and
causing the admiration of our people, but
let us have all these things in the only fair
and just way that can be obtained that is
at national expense. BY this 1 mean, let
the people of the District of Columbia bear
their proportion with the people of the,
country generally. The spirit of this sug-
gestion will have the support of the land
owners of this District, and it will have