Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-27
Economy That Leads to Danger.

No citizen of Washington is disposed TO
question the wisdom and desrability of
economic administration resulting in the
saving of money in the various processes
Of M. cipai management. 1t is the best
of & business for the Commissioners
10 : the cheapest way to clean the
sire to repair them TO light them and
o-ne!. sc TO provide for the safety, COM
fort ! j health of the residents, assum-
ing tat in these economical enter
rrises there is no departure from the
high standards of efficiency which the
taxpayers of the capital have right to
expect But every dollar saved in any
department of the District government
should be regarded as available for I'M
mediate and effective use, either in the
same department or in another. in the
extension of the existing services or their
perfection.
There is decided and emphatic objec-
ton to the saving of money in street
lighting. street repairing and street clean
ing for the purpose of decreasing the
total Observation-Disclosures budget or in
creasing I. 9 annual refunding allotment
of District tax money. II is not as though
Washington had everything now that it
could reasonably desire in the way of
municipal equipment, enough schools,
enough policemen and firenen, enough
street lights. sufficiently clean and well
surfaced streets. If it were in that ideal
condition of equipment and upkeep it
could we'll afford to pay off its floating
Indebtedness more rapidly as a matter of
inaIc.al fact, although a more speedy
liquidation of this debt would still further
violate the principles of equity, which de-
mand that all permanent Improvement
.<r.1d lures should be distributed among
eas aspayers of a long period of years
T49 5 no Hypothetical objection that
90 laiSed 10 the announced purpose
Il tie commissioners to trim the esti-
r.a FIR current maintenance i'll order
4#ete lie economies which they have
rfees.e.9 > certain departments. Con-
,eeSs Is .ert to seize every opportunity
n taIarg from the basic principle of the
~ Eau.s act OF 1878 whereby the United
STATES undertook to pay Ean the cost OF
the Districts maintenance With the
Commissioners themselves presenting
iowcr-ccst estimates with a total Of
smaller annual appropriations for main
tenanee what hope have the local tax
payers that TIE organic act will be held
III hign respect in House and Senate?
What guarantee is there that Congress
Viii regard ~ per centum contribution
to the local upkeep as reasonable and
equitable? With such initiative tend
ing toward the conclusion-the unques-
tionably false conclusion-that the Dis
trfct can be run with less money, who can
assure those who have settled in Wash
ington TO make IL their place of residence
and business enterprise on the strength
of the half-and-half division of cost that
Congress will not amend the act of 1873
pointing TO the Commissioners own show
ing of Economics as Justification?
The taxpayers of Washington would
feel much more secure in the preserva-
ton of the existing relations between the
United States and the District If the Com
missioners would take the local rather
than the federal point of view in all sucl
matters, in the preparation of the esti'
mates and in the question, for an in
stance. of the water rates. avoiding suct
remarkable recommendations as the tax
ing of sidewalk vaults with an equal divi
sion of the tax money between the Dis
trict and the federal Treasury.