Evening star., 1909-02-09

description of the lot occupied by the
plainly identified building the word
northeast was employed, whereas
northwest should have been used. The
act approved. after fully describing
the structure that named in the act OF
1891, as standing on part of lot II of
square al, as formerly used an engine
house. and as occupied by the Veteran
Ffremen, set forth an obviously incorrect
and impossible statement of metes and
bounds. noting a line running east
from the northeast corner Despite
the absolute certainty of the intent Of
Congress and the meaning of the act. II
was thought advisable to apply for an
amendatory enactment Consequently an
other bill was prepared. but as though the
spirit OF mischief were at work to com
rlicate matters to the full, instead of
simply proposing to change the one err
roneous word in the act of January ~
1909. the measure was framed to repeat
the entire legislative process by proposing
TO amend the act of March ., 1891.
Thus when the House yesterday re-
solved itself into the Districts legisa-
ture, with an attendance of less than fifty
members, it was confronted with this
measure. not simple means of cor
recting a typographical error in law
enacted by Congress and approved by the
President in January. 1909. but as brand
new proposition to amend an act of Con-
gres of eighteen years ago. Confusion as
to the circumstances followed
When the bill was put to d vote it was
defeated. "a yeas and q noes, and the
House had refused to correct the obvious
error of the enrolling clerk printer and
to make the law conform precisely 10 the
wording of the bill which it had approved
only a few days before
While the correction of this slight verbal
error is desira BILE II is clearly not essential
to the validity of the legislation. The act
of January. 1909. authorizes the joint oc-
cupancy by the Oldest Inhabitants Asso-
ciation Of the property occupied for
eighteen years by the Veteran Firemen
under the act of 1891: 1t is further de-
scrbed in this act as property in lot II,
square 14l, formerly used as engine house:
it is further and superf1uously described
in exact accordance with description of
the property occupied by the Veteran
Firemen, except that by an obvious typo
graphical error the description begins with
northeast instead Of northwest corner of
lot II. There is no confusion in the mind
of any one concerning the property in
which joint occupancy at the discretion of
the Commissioners is given by the law.
The only purpose of the amendatory bill
was to correct the typographical error.
made not in Congress but by the enrolling
clerk in the act approved January % by
inserting the word northwest for the word
northeast.
1t is immaterial whether this typosraph
ical error is corrected or not. The law
unmistakably gives to the Oldest Inhab-
itants Association the right of joint oc
cupation with the Veteran Firemen of the
former "engine house. "in lot II. square
AL" which the Veteran Firemen, by au-
thority of law. have been occupying since
1891 and are now occupying. An obvious
typographical error in the superduous
formal description of the property by
metes and bounds cannot defeat the law.
The whole of this latter description may
be disregarded as meaningless.