The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-09

counsel on through the Territorial form
OF government to the contamination of
the present appointive system With such
wonderful strides of development under
the present commissioner form, that re-
turn to elective conditions would not, 1
believe, meet popular approval here:
The present form of government has
existed for a full generation or more.
Since the civil members of the board
have been taken from among our resi-
dent citizens, and l believe before that
time, when such appointments were made
from the country at large, there has
been the fullest opportunity for sugges-
tions to our city fathers. For many
years through the Board of Trade. anG
now through its vigorous Coadjutor. the
Chamber of Commerce, and also through
the open door the Commissioners always
hold to the public, that all interests
and all sides of opinion have been given
fullest opportunity for hearing. In short
the development and continuance of our
present system has justified the wisdom
of the action of the original committee
of 100 representative citizens. more than
thirty years ago, in advocating the COM
missioner form of government
Its success has been demonstrated in
the matter of general Improvement and
development far more than would have
been the case if the Federal government
had not thus taken hold of the actual
development of the District from
a national standpoint. The Federal gov
eminent contributes annually one-half of
our current expenses. and through the
appotnttve system the United States thus
justly and wisely keeps its hand upon
our public expenditures. Individual in
stances of assumed hardship, or even
unfortunate appointment, have been so
rare that they bear no weight in COM
parison 20 the great general good which
has come through these many years, from
our present form and method of govern
ment. Our resident citizens are pa
triOtic, they thoroughly believe in Ameri-
can institutions and in the representa-
tive government. which the fathers
founded, but many of us know from
long residence and close observation here
that the introduction of the elective sys-
tenn would finally bring the evils which
flourish unfortunately in other mu-
inequalities. and opportunity for the
existence of what is termed graft in its
all-embracing forms, and which is con-
spcuously and wholly absent in our pres
ent form of appointive representatives |
AS the experience of the past has shown |
the President may be trusted to wisely |
exercise this appointive power am |
speaking from a lifelong residence here
begun before the war, and would readily |
use my voice and pen, most vigorously, |
against any change in the present system |
which has been so thoroughly tried and |
its success so thoroughly demonstrated in |
all the past.
The reasons are so abundant for the |
conviction, which a great majority of our |
people entertain, that it may well be ac-
complished through the editorial columns |
of our local press in a series of articles |
which will be instructive to the new men |
now entering Congress in their coun- I!
try's service When their knowledge and |
experience is thus acquired, I am thor
oughly convinced they will agree in ap-
plying to the situation here the test |
which the elder Pitt expressed in one of |
his famous orations in the House of
Commons. viz: That he knew no light /
for his feet except the lamp of expert
ence. BY that light we have been guided. |
and through a generation of experience |
know the ground on which we stand. / |
do not believe our people would change
therefrom to any elective system, with
all Of its uncertainties arising out of the
unique conditions existing in this District,
not only in its close relation to the
Federal government, but for other rea-
sons as well, which need not be ampli-
fed here. Adds B. BROWNE