The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-03-23
Plain Talk by Mr.. Sims.

Judge Sims of Tennessee does not
set up for n gimcrack orator, but there
is no man in the house who talks more
sensibly than he. He is plain, blunt
man who loves not only his friends,
but the truth also. lie is terror to
the looters Of the treasury. His hon
esty and courage are proverbial with
the members. On proposition for
the District Of Columbia to pay two or
three prices for some land Brother
Sims delivered this brief but forcible
speech:
Mr.. Chairman, wish to oppose this
appropriation because II involves moro
than the mere amount appropriated Ev-
erybody who has any land In this Dis.
trict that he cannot sell to q specuator
or to his neighbors endeavors to sell Il
to the government. / know of one gentle
man who has lot of hills, ruts and ra-
vines that are not ut for anything except
to furnish shade who Is trying to unload
them on the government for park pur-
poses. Another party or parties who have
pieco OF land little nearer heaven than
any other spur In the District, with no
shade on 1t, want to unload 1t on the gov.
ernment for the purpose OF furnishing
FREQ sunshine. So that you can go down
Into tho cool, shady, damp, musty hollows
In Rock Creek park and get cold. and
then you can go on the sun clothed
heights Of Meridian hill and get hot. and
vice versa. They want park here and
another yonder and everywhere. and ev-
erybody that has any land he cannot
sell to anybody else endeavors to unload
Ii on the government for d street or an
avenue to have another park.
As the gentleman from Kentucky has
asked, I would like to know whether men
could recover their senses by working on
hills like those in the land to be pur-
chased in this bill Why not provide for
condemnation proceedings instead of put
ting 1t on the government In this way?
No doubt some of these propositions are
log rolled through. This particular one
may not have been. but Il is time to stop
encouraging this sort of thing in the city
of Washington Every time we try to
reduce the governments share of taxes
In this District of Columbia we are met
by. tho statement that the government
OWLS more than half OF all the real es-
tate In this District. leaving insufficient
property on which to levy taxes, thus
making It necessary for the government
to pay at least half the burdens OF the
city and District
Unloading on UneIe Sam.
And yet every man that know any
thing about who has a bad job on his
hands is trying to unload 1t on the gov
ernment. Now. we are asked to buy ev-
erything south of Pennsylvania avenue
lying between the avenue and the mall;
to buy power houses. theaters, meat mar
kets, hotels. railroad offices and all other
buildings In that strip OF land, because
the property Is offered at bargain and
Is going up. Nine times out of I'm 1t is
just as the gentleman from New York
said about this property-it Is going down.
The city is building away from it. private
individuals do not want 1t, and immedi-
ately she government is asked to become
purchaser. How long has 1t been since
this house heard nothing but the beauties,
glories and necessities of n hall of rec
ords? Somebody had some land to sell.
When they got 1t sold we heard no more
about the hall of records. So 1t goes on
all the time. Rock Creek park must be
Increased, the lines must be Strengthened,
Anacostia must have park Georgetown
must have n park. We are asked to ap-
propriate for parks. streets and avenues
without limit.
The superintendent says they need this
land, but he does not present any very
convincing reason why they need It, In
my opinion this is another attempt to un-
load undesirable property on to the gov
ernment. People who have good prop
erty that Is advancing rapidly In price do
not usually show as much anxiety to get
rid of II, / have alwayq fought lhy of