Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-22
The Pruning Policy.

The evil effects OF the congressional
policy of holding the District government
down TO an allowance for all purposes
limited by the actual income. regardless
of extraordinary necessities. IS tieafiH
shown by the conference report on the
District appropriation bill. Yesterday at-
cepted by the Senate and laid before the
House. The bill appropriates No.ll' .66s-
-. or S323,otp less than The amount car
ried by the current appropriations Here
. is actua! retrosresSion. Notwithstanding
the fact that the Districts needs are
growing. Had il not been for he unfair
doctrine that the District can spend on
current necessities only what Is left over
after providing out OF current funds Tor
the extraordinary expenditures Tor per-
manent public works. there would nave
been no need to pare and prune IN ali de-
partments of the District government in
framing this budget.
Congress has conceived the idea that
the District can be made to pay as 1t
goes for its great works of a permanent
character. 1t has been appealed to in the
name of common sense and common fair
ness to abandon this unbusinesslike, in
equitable policy. 1t has been shown re-
peatedly that successful corporations pro-
vide for their expansions by means of
borrowed money. refunded on long-term
basis. 1t has been shown that no other
city in the United States. indeed none
other in the world has ever undertaken
to do what it is trying to do for Wash
ington, namely, with funds derived almost
exclusively from current revenue re-
sources, to build great structures, to es-
tablish filtration plants to erect bridges,
to abolish grade crossings, to lay elabo-
rate systems of trunk sewers, ito construct
sewage disposal plants and otherwise to
provide expensive equipment designed for
the accommodation of citizens for many
generations to come. and meanwhile to
keep up decent. satisfactory and efficient
municipal administration.
This is not merely bubble of terms,
without real significance in fact. 1t is
most vital difference which the District
seeks to draw between pay-aS-yOu-go and
the 1ong-term systems of defrayng per-
manent Improvement expenses. Had the
right policy been adopted ten years ago
the District would not now be suffering
from totally inadequate school equip
ment. with buildings closed because of
fire menace. pupils crowded into halliday
school: and with teachers overburdened.
1t would not now be menaced by dangers
which could be entirely averted by the
enlargement of the fire-fighting force and
the installation of a high-pressure system
in the business section. 1t would not be
one Of the poorest patroled cities in the
United States because of lack of a suffi-
cient police force. 1t would not be suf-
fering from the results of badly MAIN
tanned country roads and from inadequate
appropriations for street cleaning. 1t
would not be pinched at every turn in its
municipal outfit.
Nothing that can be said by the citizens
Of Washington seems TO have any effect
upon Congress whatever in this matter
The House slices the estimates beyond
recognition. the Senate with commenda-
BILE generosity restores them TO SEM
blance of their original form, and the con-
ference strikes the balance in compromise
which maintains the restrictive principle
OF holding the District TO "a cash basis in
hquidatlng its permanent improvement
debts. Some day these debts will be paid,
but at Il heavy cost in accumulated ne
ceSSities