Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-18
CITIZENS HOLD SESSION
WITH CAPITOL AND LEXINGTON
ASSOCIATION.
Address by w. j. Frizzell on Derelic-
ton of Congress in Paying
Money to District.

| the District of Columbia for its proper
| maintenance and Improvement what it. by
| joint enactment of the Senate and House
| In lstS promised to pay, was the keynote
| or an address given before the North Cap
| itol and lexington Citizens Association, a.
| its regular monthly meeting held last even
| ing in st. Martin s Hall. corner North Cap
| itol and T streets. w. j. FrZzer. who has
made this subject a close and careful
| study, was the speaker. and he showed
| himself to be thoroughly posted in the
| matter
The talk had turned to the subject CT
improvements TO be asked for by the as
ISOLATION for the territory it represents
Mr.. FrizZell took the opportunity to show
that Congress had stinted the District N
its appropriations, saying in part as fol-
lows:
while we on the subject of i'm
proVementS | have some figures | would
like to present, showing that Congress Is
owing a considerable amount of money 20
the District AS you know. in 1878 there
was passed the 'half-and-half law. II
which the United States promised to give
dollar for dollar for all the money raised
by taxation in the District-ie., the gov
eminent would give to the District a sum
equal to that raised by taxation in the
District.
The report Of the District tax colec or
shows that for the year ending June 20,
1904. the total amount received by taxes
was S5,so6,S47.24. Under the act Of 1873
the United States should duplicate this
sum, thus raising the total amount of
enues to $11,613694.4S. AS the District
money is deposited with the United States,
this total sum should be appropriated by
Congress to the District. But, according
to the report of the District auditor, the
appropriations by Congress amounted TO
only S9,436,319.4 Thus there is in Tie
United States treasury today $2,1773i'.01
no ha StriP
kept on the plea that the government was
poor and needed the money.
But the argument that l have often me-
with from congressman is that now The
United States is giving more to the Dis
trict than it gets from it. But they nave
not examined the facts. The report OF the
commissioner of internal revenue Tor the
year ending June 30. 1904 page 49,, shows
the amount collected in the District II be
$2SI,S1i.I9 The report of the bureau If
statistics, Department of Commerce and
Labor page y, shows that the per capita
of customs duties collected as S3.15; ard
estimating the population of the Distinct
as 100000 the amount of customs duties
paid by the people of the District amounts
to $4,000. This makes the total of United
States revenues collected in the District
81 232 Sl419. And this sum is used to make
up the deficit of the United States, rather
than applied to the improvements in the
District
Further, according to statistics. when
the 'half-and-half law was. passed there
was in the District only AZ per cent of TIE
property exempt from taxation, of which
the most government property. Since
that time the scale has been changing, and
now 81 per cent of the property Of the
District is exempt of which over 30 per
cent is owned by the United States. With
this amount of exempt property the gov
eminent ought to pay half of the taxes
General Business Transacted.
The meeting was presided over by the
president of the association, William G.
Henderson, and A. Q. Tingley, secrc larry
and treasurer was in his place. After
the reading and approval of the minutes
of the previous meeting II. E. Blau, chair
man of the committee on streets. sidewalks
and lights, made lengthy report.
A. NJ. Elwell. chairman of the commit
tee on police and fire protection, repoi led
that he had been informed by the Com
msSioners that the speed laws did not APP
ply to the wagons of the street railway
companies called to make emergency re-
pairs ''in cases wherein the emergency IS
is required to save human life, to preserve
property or prevent its destruction, or 10
prevent great inconvenience to the public
Those present at the meeting were &. j..
Trogner, Howard Boyd, F. NJ. Ferris w.
]. Frizzell, j. B. Robinson. Bernard Waters,
Jesse w. Morgan, Thomas d. Walsh. Dan
c. Vaughan Thomas w. Cadick, Carl !.
Mess w. e. Waggener, Francis S. Browne,
Thomas 4. Whittinght, c. NJ. D. Browne,
Thomas T. Ryan, George II. MarkWard, il.
S. Meekham, NJ. y. King, Edward Fouke.
II. z. Blau, w. G. Henderson, A. O. Ting
ley and A NJ. Ellwell