Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-11
Organic Act an Expression of
Federal Responsibility.
MUST BE MAINTAINED
Infractions and Evasi0ns of Half
and-Half Principle From
Time to Time
BY THEODORE w. MOVES.
SIXTH INSTALLMENT.
BY THEODORE w. MOVES.
SIXTH INSTALLMENT.
Part w.

local taxpayerss and it's serious VIOLA
ton as by it's repeal, direct or Indirect,
In it's application to the portion of the
District outside of original Washington,
would be prOpOrtiOnately disastrous.
If through the repeal of the organic act
of 1878 the entire burden of capital eX-
penses were thrown upon the LEGAL tax
payers the present heavy per capita tax
levy would be doubled. A mere handful
of District taxpayers now raise annually,
to be expended by the government, on
the capital, over s6,O0O,O00. Nearly a
million dollars of the - local revenues
Gncuding both national and local con-
tributions) are diverted into interest
and sinking fund charges in con-
the agents of the government. main
ly to improve the streets, the gov
ernment's exclusive property, in carrying
out the governments obligations to.'buliu
up a capital worthy of the great repub-
lie Twelve millions now expended an
nually for the capital are not enough 10
meet the city's reasonable and fncreas-
ing municipal needs. Six millions con-
tributed by the local taxpayers would be
entirely inadequate to sustain the Ma
tional Capital as it now exists or to keep
il in line of natural development. A re-
pudiation of national obligations in re-
spect to the nations city would result
either in a discreditable capital. poorly
sustained by reasonable taxation upon
local resources, or in the virtual confiSca-
ton of local property through excessive
taxation.
A partial repeal of the act of 1878. as
by limiting it's application to the bounds
of the original Washington, and by re-
scinding it so far as all of the District
outside of the original city is concerned,
would work a corresponding measure or
injury to the community. In 1897 the
people of the District asked Congress to
amend or repeal the so-called highway
a Of 100, for the of Kidding
the capital of an injurious discrimination
against that part of the city which hap
pens to lie outside the boundaries OF
the original Washington. An appeal was
made to our legislature to refrain from
the obvious injustice of extending the
grand national street plan of the cap
ital exclusively at local expense. 1t was
demonstrated that this course would be
Outrageously unfair and unendurably OPP
pressive. Congress was urged to amend
the highway act in such a manner as
to repeal section Is of that act, which
provided that condemnation damages un-
der the highway law should be one-half
assessed against the land benefited there
by without regard to the aggregate per-
centage of actual benefit and the other
half charged up to the revenues of the
District. Not only was the United states
excluded by this section from partlc1pa-
ton in the original condemnation of the
streets, but the nation was caused to re-
pudiate for all time to come financial
concern in the capital beyond Boundary
street" by the provision that no eX-
pense for the improvement of any street,
circle reservation or avenue laid out
under the provisions of this act outside
of the cities of Washington and George
town shall be charged to the Treasury of
the United States. but such expense snail
be paid solely out of the revenues of the
District of Columbia" This provision
was a repeal by indirection of the or
ganc act of 1878 so far as the new Wash
ington beyond Boundary street is con-
cerned and was a precedent pointing the
way to the entire destruction of that
equita BILE statute.
Congress needed the urgent appeal
made to it. and among the amendments
of the highway act passed in 1879 was
one repeating section fifteen. Congress
thereby condemned and repudiated the
proposal embodied in the highway law of
1893 to extend the grand national plan
of the original city over the mlsht sub
divisions and unsubdivided land Of the
suburbs entirely at local expense. Inc
law of 1878 was thus caused to apply TO
all municipal expenditures, including
those for condemning and improving
streets, in all parts of the District with
out any exception whatsoever, and Ior
the first time since 1893 it was possible
to anticipate the development of subur-
ban Washington as an integral part OF the
National Capital with the same street
plan sustained under the same policy OF
proportionate contribution by the nation
and the nations city
Re-Enacting Section Fifteen.
But hardly was the District rid of the
pernicious provisions of section 10 when
legislation was proposed in various bills
which would re-enact piecemeal in the
case CT successive single streets the in
iquitous principle of exclusive local con-
ri hut for c,,bI ctr
ton and improvement which Congress
had just condemned and abolished in is
application to the comprehensive extern
sion Of Washington's streets collectively.
Congress was asked by these bills to re-
verse and to stuitify itself.
Every protest and every argument ever
made against the existence of section II,
which had been repealed. applied with
equal force to the proposed resurrection
of the principle and spirit of that OBJ
noXiouS enactment. Congress and TINS
community, having i'm effect disapproved
reputation of the half-and-half principle
in reference to the extension OF WASH
ington's streets collectively, were not eX-
pected to abandon that principle In the
extension OF the same streets individually
and separately.
In every possible way the people of
the District protested against the pro-
posed imposition whether the street eX-
tensions were presented one at time or
in a bunch. The Board of Trade mas re-
peated.y and formally declared that pro-
portionate contribution by the United
States under the act of 1878 Is a vital
feature of such extensions, hacking "hich
thew should not be made at all ON the
proposed grand and national scale. It's
latest declaration on the general subject
is contained in a resolution. unanimously
adonted on the 9th of January, 1898, as
follows:
Resolved, That in the opinion of the
Board of Trade it is the duty of the Dis
trict officials and citizens generally not
to propose or give assent publicly CT pri-
yately to appropriations being made for
any municipal purposes ether than those
made in accordance with the act of June
II. 1878: and that it should be made
manifest to Congress, whenever neces-
sary. in an earnest and unmistakable but
resnectful manner. that appropriations
made otherwise are not desirable or ac-
ceptabe.' 1000
Since this sweeping declaration of 1898
the hoard has several times Teaffirlned
the general principle in it's application
to sDecial cases, its latest resolution OF
this sort being that of February %, 1919.
when in adopting the report of the COM
mittee on charities and corrections in
dorsing the playground movement, 1T de-
CARED: "But it is the sense of the
Roard of Trade that it prefers no con-
gressional appropriations for this pur-
nose if such appropriations are made in
rrioIation of the principle of an equal
division of expense between the national
and the District governments" The
hoa I'd. in adopting report OF the COM
oiitee on municipal finance on March Z.
1910 indirectly reaffirmed it's general
declaration by indorsing the following