Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-17
FOR PRINTED REPORT
Request of GaIIinger in Ana
costa River Matter.
REFERRED TO committee
Mr.. Taggart Reviews Laws Affecting
Eastern Branch Lands.
DRAWS SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS
Commissioners Have Not Power to
License Erection Of Private
Wharves.

/ Senator Gallnger, chairman of the Sen
ate District committee has asked to have
printed as a public document the report
he submitted to the Senate yesterday,
made by Hugh T. Taggart. on the title
and right of the United States TO lands
along the Anacostia river. His request
has been referred to the Senate committee
on printing.
Those who have seen the report declare
that 1t is an important addition to the
history Of the development of a section OF
the National Capital, and, with the maps
which Mr.. Taggart has included, will be
invaluable for future reference. 1t is be-
lieved the committee on printing will
look with favor on the proposition to have
it put into permanent form by having 1t
printed.
| Mr.. Taggart reviews with thoroughness
the laws affecting the lands along the
| Eastern branch, and the court decisions
| Interpreting them, and from them, he
draws conclusions, which, he says, appear
! to be inevitable. They are:
Il. At the time of the execution of the
| deeds in trust the titles of those who
| owned lands bordering upon the river
| did not extend beyond the line Of high
water and the right to appropriate the
| soil OF the stream for wharfing or other
purposes was not incident, by the COM
mon law or by statute, TO riparian owner
! ship on the Anacostia river.
Could Not Lay Out City Squares.
"2. The Commissioners were not in
vested with authority. by the deeds or
otherwise, to appropriate the soil of the
river by laying out upon it city squares
and streets or by granting rights of
wharfage to the navigable channel.
"3. If the city had been laid out along
| the Anacosta river in accordance with
| the plan adopted by the President there
| would have been no water lots in 1t, in
| the sense of lots to which the right of
wharfing would be incident by law and
| even the city was actually laid out
there were no such water lots. Mere ad-
jacency to the water did not give the
right OF wharfing and the Commissioners
have not been vested by Congress with
| the power to grant 1t.
| Il. The Commissioners were invested
with no authority over wharves by the
| twelfth section of the Maryland act of
| 1891, which granted them power to license
| their erection. The state at that time had
no jurisdiction over the subject.
IS. Neither the superintendent, tho
commissioner of public buildings nor the
chief of engineers Of the army. as the
successors Of the commissioners, were
vested with any authority over the sub
| ject of wharves.
&c The late corporation Of the city of
Washington, although given by Congress
| full authority over the erection and re-
pair Of public wharves. was not invested
with power to license the erection of pri-
vate wharves.
Matter of Private Wharves.
81. Inc government established for the
District by the acts Of 1871, 1874 and 1878
were not granted the power to license
the erection Of private wharves, and 1t
was not conferred upon the Commission
ers Of the District Of Columbia by the
| act of 1899
| FINALLY, 1t follows as a necessary de-
| duction from the premises that from the
beginning of the city there has been no
private wharf on the Anacostia river
| which was lawful structure, having the
authority OF an act OF Congress for Its
| erection and maintenance as such and
| that private individual who erected
| such a wharf, having done so without
such authority, acquired no right or
| title as against the United States to the
structure or to ground reclaimed from
the river in connection with it,"