Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-10
FINANCES OF THE NATIONAL
CAPITAL PARTNERSHIP

! PARTNERSHIP
Of the resident Of Arkansas. ten times
that of the resident of Maine. sixteen
times that of the resident OF South Caro-
lima, twenty times that of the resident of
Vermont and eighty-six times that Of the
resident of Mississippi
Does not the Washingtonian pay enough
both in national and local taxes? Is he
in any respect favored by the legislati tive
body. which, not chosen by him, decides
for him all questions of equitable taxa
ton?
In the Matter of Mendicancy.
The figures above given concerning ma
tional taxation throw light upon the ques-
ton whether the western congressman's
average constituent is really robbed to
ease the tax burdens OF the mendicants
residing in the District Of Columbia.
1t appears that the contribution of
such constituent to the national revenue
is inflnitesimal. and, In the cases cited.
far exceeded by the contribution Of the
Washingtonian himself. While the Dis
trict has no representation in the ma
tional legislature which is paid from
and which disburses this national fund,
its contribution to the internal revenue
exceeds the combined contributions Of
Maine. Vermont, Mississippi, North Da-
kota, Nevada, Oklahoma and Wyoming,
which cast fourteen votes in the Senate
and tWenty-three in the House. The
Washingtonian pays into the fund from
which are drawn the salaries of the
South Dakotan'S senators and represent
atives more than four times as much
in internal revenue taxation as the
South Dakotan; toward the salary of
the Kansas congressman, six times as
much as the kansan; for the Texan
congressman, five times much as the
Texan; for the Vermont congressman,
twenty times as much as the Nermonter:
for the congressman from South Caro-
lima Or Arkansas, eighteen times as much
as the Arkansan, and sixteen times
as much az the South Carolinian. and
for the Mississippi congressman eighty
six times as much as the Mississipian.
1t is not intended in presenting these
figures to suggest that the states or citi
zens contributing the most per capita to
the internal revenue tax or other national
taxes should on that account have any
weightier voting power in respect to the
disposition Of the national revenues than
those states and those citizens whose
contributions to the national taxes are,
comparatively speaking, inflnitesimal.
and it Is not intended to discredit in
any way the small contributors to the
national taxes or even to argue in denial
Of the latter's claim that 1t is more vir-
tuous not to contribute than to contribute
to internal revenue taxes derived so
largely from whisky. beer and tobacco.
The sole purpose is to convince the rep
resentatives OF small-contributing con-
stituencieS in the states that they should
not berate their National Capital con-
stituents (whose legislative interests are
intrusted to their care by the Constitu-
nd hot f1,n latf
are untaxed mendicants supported by
the tax money unjustly drawn from
their local constituents; first, because
in so many cases these contributions
by their constituents to the national
taxes are infinitesimal, far less than
those made by the District itself; Sec
ond, because the District, instead of be-
ing untaXed, is reasonably, and, owing
to the peculiar local conditions, even
heavily, taxed, both in municipal and in
taxation, and, third, because the
tax conditions are not of the Districts
but of that of Congress. II the
local tax burden is too light the reproach
attaches not to Washington. but to Con-
gress: but. as has been already demon
strated, this burden is not too light
1t should not be that harsh and unjust
criticism OF the expenditure on the Ma
tional Capital Of tiny fraction of the
national revenue should be In inverse
to the amount OF contribu-
most vociferous and unfair critics whose
through superior virtue.
plain living. small consumption of i'm
ported luxuries and rural residence far
from custom houses. breweries and dis
til leries, have been only infinitesimal con-
TO the national funds.
IN developing the nations city the
Nashingtonians are by far the largest
contributors among Americans. They
contribute on both the local and the
N n rIa,,
the expense as local taxpayers;
they are heavy contributors to the Gus
toms duties and internal revenue taxes
from which the national funds are de-
are the only Americans who have alb
solutely nothing to say authoritatively
the disposition Of the funds
to which they are such large contributors.
/ lived for four years in South Dakota
just before that hustling community be-
Dakotan, l vigorously resented
manySa time eastern misconceptions of
tLat community's spirit and tendency;
eastern sneers at people of unbounded
energy and intelligent progressiveness. in
whose miniature cities the schoolhouse
was ever the conspicuous public build
ing. eastern denunciations of them as
uni. for statehood, and as suitable ma
terisl only for rotten borough in the
American system. Then there We're not
merely conscious and avowed caricatures.
but serious references, based ON honest
ignorance, which represented this people
as being fittingiy typified by the Whoop-
ing cowboy, full of bad whisky and pune
turing the atmosphere with bullets or
by the jay farmer with abnormal goatee
and potato side to his head. Worse
still We're the malicious libels imputing
universal knavery to the community, pic
turing the citizens as chased from the
east by criminal records, as rObbing the
government by vast and systematic land
frauds, as combining in d body TO swindie
innocent fasteners by sailed mines
bogus ,~wn sites and worthless mortgage
securities. But ! soon found that there
was reciprocity in sectional misconcep-
up matters by classifying fasteners who
remained in the east either as brainless
dudes. boasting inherited money and
nothing else. or as sharpers using un-
scrupulous brains In the pursuit of
money. from the Shylocks Of Wall street
to the gold-brick bunco man. 1 also dis
covered that as an ex-Washingtonian 1
ceptions OF the people of the capital as
frequently as eastern misconceptions of
the community Of which l was an adopt
ed memoer
And I call upon every western man
who reads these words to remember that
the representation of Washingtonians as
untaxed mendicants. dependent upon the
national bounty. is denounced by them as
q lying and insulting caricature as afro
cious as any emanating from the ignor-
ant east under whose injustice the west
erner himself may have smarted.
Neither in the past nor present,
neither in respect to money nor land
has the District OF Columbia been q not
able national beneficiary. even as COM