Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-03
The Seat of Government.

The more that Representative Morrell
recent speech in the House on the District
finances is studied the less adequate appears
his analysts of the cost OF the local govern
lnent. In another part of The Star today
is printed a further comparison of the sta
tlstics cited by Mr. Morrell and those as
sembled by the census Office and published
in bulletin No. 80 In this article Is set
forth the plain deduction that the critic of
the local municipality did not carefully dis
eliminate between the District as mere
community and the District as the seat of
the national government. Had he taken
account of the property holdings of the fed
eral government, on which no taxes are PAID,
but which are in effect made the basis OF
the governments contribution of fifty per
cent of the cost of administration, his hg-
ures would have undergone a material
change. Thus, instead of showing Wash
ington relatively low in the municipal scale
as 10 assessed valuation, he would have
shown It high In the list. But. even elimi-
mating the governments holdings and re-
duciug the assessed valuation to a per
capita basis, Washington ranks well with
other cities. its per capita assessment ex-
ceeding those of Buffalo and St Louis, with
their heavy business interests And had Mr..
of the bases of assessment in the different
cities he would have more closely approx
mated the true situation in this respect.
Conceding that the "gross expenditures"
Of a municipality afford an unsafe ground
for calculation of relative municipal econo-
mics Mr.. Morreu nevertheless cited certain
figures which seemed to show that the ma
tional capital is a very heavy spender. as
compared with the other cities which he Sc
lected for the contrast. Again he ignored
the fact that Washington, as the seat OF
government is compelled to make it's i'm
provements on a larger and more expensive
scale than though it were independent of
national influences and responsibilities. The
praiseworthy desire of many members of
Congress is to make Washington a model
capital To do this 1t is necessary not only
TO erect great public buildings of a monu-
mental character and to establish parks,
but to develop model municipality 1t
would be in the last degree absurd for Con-
gress to appropriate millions for depart
ment buildings and statues and artistic res
erva tons and to restrict the local govern
meut to basis of parsimonious administra-
ton, with few schools, inadequate police
and fire departments. insufficient sewerage,
bad water supply i'll paved and poorly
lighted streets and all the other signs OF a
neglected town. Yet that was what Con-
gress did for many years, until Washington,
the capital, became a reproach to the ma
tion. II has been only within a recent period
that the true principles of capital making
have obtained with Congress. To bring the
seat Of government up to date as munich
pality has called for hard work and heavy
expenditures. That work is far from COM
pletion. 1t is indeed only fairly well begun.
To pinory Washington as an extravagant
community because it is bravely bearing
its share of this process of capital making
on the proper scale is unjust in the extreme.
Congress should be glad to carry the pro-
cess forward with the utmost speed, and
should be proud to place Washington in
category of its own, Incompatible and
unique. and should not apply TO it the petty
scales of municipal economies which can
not be made to fit into the local equation.