Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-08
Washington's Election Day.

Washington watches today's election with
the keener interest because this year a
Congress will be chosen by the people.
Probably no other city in the United states
is so intimately concerned in the complexion
and composition of the House of Represen-
tatives and the Senate as Washington. In
dividual voters in the districts are interest
ed in the fates of their favorite candidates
and in broad national sense partisans
hope for party dominance in the federal
legislature But Washington Is looking on
at the election of Its municipal assembly,
upon the attitude of which toward its needs
depends the rate of its progress toward the
ideal set for it as the capital of the United
States.
It Is the hope of the citizens of the Dis
trict that there will be no change In the
personnel of the House or Senate so far as
the men who are most directly connected
with the framing of local legislation are
concerned. These men are now familiar
with the local situation. They understand
the peculiar relationship between the capt.
tai and the government They have studied
more or less closely the history of the Dis
trict. They are acquainted with it's present
needs and the projects for permanent i'm
provement. which are now under way or
men out of office. whether republicans or
democrats, would cause a setback for the
District.
Very often the newly-elected representa-
tive or senator comes to Washington with
peculiar views as to the management of the
capital. He cannot understand the big
budgets of estimates He does not approve
of the wisely liberal scale of the allotments
of public money for streets, for sewers. for
water works, for public buildings for parks
and the hundred and one miscellaneous
works Of municipal necessity. He meas
ures the federal capital, maybe. by the
standards of state headquarters. Once in
while he even breaches the long abandon
ed proposition to move the capital west. He
goes off half-cocked questions of NUM-
cipal finance, talks wildly about taxation
and essays to show how easy is the lot of
the Washingtonian, with half of his ex-
penses paid by the government.
Against this kind of legislator Washington
and its friends in Congress must constantly
be on guard. He must be educated to a new
view of his responsibilities to a right con-
ception of the federal city and its relation
ship to the general government. He must
be disabused of the notion that Washington
is undertaxed and shown that the citizens
OF TINS community pear an unusually heavy
tax burden, with fewer opportunities for
business development than the average citi-
zen of the states He must be persuaded
that the country at large really wants the
capital city developed broadly and grandly.
p Washington can do little or nothing to in
fiuence the voting for members of Congress
The votes cast by those working here who
retain their legal residences in the states
are only a slight leaven In the lump. The
capital can only rely upon the good sense of
the people to retain in service the men who
have proved their capacity as national leg
islators and whose usefulness to the country
is the greater because of their intelligent in
terest in and diligent labors for the greater
Washington of the nations ideal