Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-23
What Washingtonians Really Need.

What Washingtonians Really Need.
II may be that tls National capitalize
city in it's material aspects-in buildings,
streets. parks and 1nouumSnts--has won
its victory. is assuredsos American regard
and pr.ie of nationaL fostering care and
Of contiT,ued and greE prosperity.
II so. the greater need and the greater
opportunity for the development Of the
city, so fay as it is constituted of the men
who live in it. as distinguished from
buildings. streets and monuments.
1) The community needs to be devel-
oped along the sociological lines in which
President Roosevelt is so much interested.
In general our effort must be to make
Neutrality-suspicious. tincludtng ourselves) bet
ter. more intelligent healthier, stronger
physically. mentally and morally.
g, Let Congress give the community
opportunities for l<scal sell-support so that
growing youth may not be exiled
Cease to discourage reasonable CONNER
ciaI development and the establishment of
light. clean manufactures. like those OF
Paris and Vienna. Repeal or amend in
the interest of the District of Columbia
the apportionment Of Offices law SO that
Washingtonians may have ready access,
If the most meritorious of all applicants.
to the classified service of the government
departments and workshops, which for
Washington take the place Of ron works
in Pittsburg and the cotton, wooden and
shoe factories of many N'ew England
cities. Do not deprive the people of the
local means of self-support which come to
the self-developing commercial or factory
city, and then shut them out from the
local workshops which the. nation permits
TO exist at the capital.
(2J Do not discourage residence in the
District by continuing to BRANDT its citi-
zens as un-American, lacking the Ameri-
can freeman's privileges and in some re-
spects worse off nationally than aliens.
after the reasons for these disabilities
have passed away. Make it easy and de-
sirable for instance. for the government
clerks to become Washingtonians, to live.
vote, pay taxes and go to war In national
defense as citizens of Columbia NJ the
fitting time remove disabilities in relation
To the Washingtonians standing in the
federal courts and in respect to Representa-
zion in Congress and the electoral csollege
as well as the disabilities in relation to
access to the federal workshops and local
means OF self-supDOrt.
These American rights ought 10 be
given without the necessity OF amending
the Constitution. If Congress under the
power to admit new states should admit
Columbia as a state for purposes OF rep
resentation in Congress and the electoral
college and for the purpose of suing in
the federal courts. leaving In Congress full
and exclusive power of legislation. con-
corning the District, there would be no
obvious strain on the Constitution. Power
TO legislate concerning the territory be-
longing to the United States and power
to admit new states give to Congress the
power to extend American rights to all
Americans from top to bottom: from the
privileges OF the American resident of I'M
organized and despodically governed terri
tory to the sovereign citizen of a sover-
eign state. Somewhere in the ladder Of
American rights is the rung to be occu-
pied by the District. in which status 1t
shall be quasi-state. and its citizens shall
have all the rights of citizens of state
that are consistent with the exclusive
power OF legislation by Congress under
the constitutional provision. II the Su-
preme Court can constrle the District to
be a state under a treaty with France
and a state for the. apportionment of
direct taxes under the Constitution, it can
surely. with proper legislation by Con-
gress treat It as a state for the purpose
Of American representation in its only
legislature, Congress. But II constitu-
tional amendment is necessary, then
amend.
What Washngtonians really need should
determine what Washingtonians will ur-
gently ask from Congress through the
Commissioners and President Roosevelt
But It will be obviously futile, and doubt
less obstructive or prohibitive Of other
needed local legislation, to attempt to
secure any political rights or privileges, or
any change in the existing form of gov
ernment, from the short final session Of the
dying Sixtieth Congress