Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-25
"Unethical."

ne DlSlTitI appropriations Dill Will soon
take its final shape reports from the
conference committee. All the issues.
great and small raised by this bill will
soon be again and for the last time this
year conspicuously i'll evidence
IT is contended by some critics that the
half and half arrangement is ''unethical,"
because alleged. there is no impulse
under the present system on the part of
local taxpayers to reduce expenses or to
practice economy. 1t IS alleged that since
. their tax is to be just so much. no mat
ter what appropriations are made, the
people become indifferent to jobs and
steals. do not oppose appropriative prop
ositionS however outrageous and content
themselves with grabbing all they can
for themselves, irrespective of the public
need. If there is any founda ton for this
charge it arises from the fact that Con-
gress has not carried out literally the or
ganic act. BY that act the determination
of future expenditures on the city by Con-
Sress preceded taxation, and the only
statutory authority to tax at all was that
given by the organic act to raise by
taxation one-half of the approved esti-
mates of such future expenditures. If
Congress has in practice substituted an
other system in violation of the letter and
local community an arbitrary amount fixed
without reference to the approved eSti-
mates. and has then failed to appropriate
for municipal purposes from the Treasury
an amount equal to the local tax revenue,
the responsibility or blame for thus sever
ing the relation between taxes and ex-
penditures is wholly upon Congress.
Under the provision of the organic act
the local taxpayer paid one-half of every
municipal expenditure approved by Con-
gress, more and no less, and he is
Just as much interested in the wisest and
most economical and most productive ex-
penditure of the municipal fund to which
he contributes half as he would be of
fund to which he contributed all. No sane
man assents to waste of his own tax
money because there is wasted with 1t an
equal contribution by somebody else. The
suggestion that the District is careless
about extravaganza in the expenditure of
its own tax money because at the same
time Uncle Sans money is wasted sug-
gests the pajamas-clad lunatic who
when discovered holding dog in a snow
bank in zero weather shiveringly explain
ed that he was trying to freeze the dog to
death.
In the matter of the exposure of So
called steals and jobs In the earlier days
JedlousieS between the sections caused
every appropriation for the benefit of one
section to be viewed as a steal by the
other sections. y cutthroat game re-
suited, in which every was defeated
and no one gained anything. Congress
was confused and made unwilling to pro-
gress in any direction by these jealous sec
tionai wranglings. AS little progress was
possible in the House with the appro-
pria tions and District committees block
ing each others propositions for the Dis
trict's welfare.
Conditions are now somewhat improved
municipal loyalty is extended from the
local section to cover the whole city
Northeast Washington recognizes that
Rock Creek Improvement benefits the
whole city. including itself. The north
west comedies that the entire capital and
not merely East Washington is interested
in Anacostia reclamation. 1t is now gen.
orally recognized that most projects of
municipal Improvement, in whatever Sec
ton located have some merit and that
the question of comparative merit in re-
lation to other projects pushed before
Congress can safely and wisely be left to
congressional judgment. Congress, hav-
ing fun and exclusive power of decision
exclusive burden of responsibility. If
there il anything ''unethicar' in the re-
lation of local taxpayers to the nation as
represented by Congress, il is not caused
by anything which these taxpayers have
done or left undone, or by the words of
the organic act in stating the haIf-and-
half arrangement and establishing the
method and plan of local taxation, but by
Congress Itself. which has misconstrued
the organic act and has partly destroyed
the direct arbitrary relation between local
taxes aud municipal expenditures.
Congress can revive the keenest inter
est in the local taxpayer concerning the
smallest municipal expenditure through
appropriation by returning in good faith
TO the system laid down by the organic
act. under which the only taxes levied in
The District are to meet one-haIf of the
expenditures the capital previously
approved by Congress