Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-16
The Evening star Newspaper Company.
Organic Act and Funded Debt.

Representative Johnson's argument OF
last Friday that Congress did not by the
organic act or the legislation immediate
~ preceding or subsequent to II assume
for the nation payment OF one-half of the
Districts accumulated debt, and that con-
seauently half payments on this debt
made by Congress should he refunded IL
printed in yesterdays Congressional Rec
ord; and one learns for the first time
exactly what Mr. Johnson's theory Is and
the reasoning upon which it Is based.
II may safely be left to the lawyers to
discuss with Mr.. johnson the technical
meaning of the words employed In the
legislation which he quotes. To the lay
man conviction that the words OF the
statutes might reasonably be construed
as Mr.. Johnson contends would not seem
Of practical Importance, if all the Con-
crosses and Treasury administrations
since 1873 have construed them the other
way 1t would be reasonable to suppose
that the Congresses which enacted the
statutes and those Immediately succeed
ing. controlled by the same organization
and leaders. would know best what they
meant by the words employed.
According to the popular understanding
OF the matter in the Seventies, as In 1885.
Washington was bankrupted In the effort
TO do the work of capital building which
the nation assumed at the founding OF
the city and then neglected.
Congress gave relief from the accumu-
lated debt i'm 1885 on the congressional
admission that it had been incurred by
the people of Washington in performing
a national task. in shouldering from pub
lie-spirited motives burdens which did
not properly fall upon them. The debt
which bankrupted the city in the Seven
ties was in the main incurred from the
same public-spirited motives in perform
ing the same national task. 1t was con-
tended that equitably the whole of this
debt so far as it represented a meeting
OF the national obligation of street de-
velopment and associated public improve
ments should be paid by the United
States. Relief in part at least, from the
burden of this debt in accordance with
the precedent of 1885 was believed to
be a certainty.
According to the popular understanding
the United States did not directly assume
this debt or one-half or any portion of it.
But the United States guaranteed to
provide for its payment by proportional
appropriations and by levying taxes in
the District. By the organic act 1T en-
gagged to pay one-half of the approved
estimates of expenses of the District gov
eminent. and from that day to this
expenditure on account OF interest and
sinking fund in connection with the debt
has been in effect an item in the esti-
mates of expenses of the District govern
ment. treated as such by the District
Commissioners, approved as such by the
Treasury Department, and approved and
District appropriation bills passed by
successive Congresses. since the date of
the organic act. II this popular belief as
to the facts is well founded. substantially
and on broad lines. IL not in detail. WASH
ington will not fear that Congress In 1912
will declare on the strength Of legal hair
splitting and word-juggling that all its
predecessors for thirty-four years have
blundered in constituting statutes OF 1874,
1878 and 1879.
Washington looks on the arrangement
Of 1878 not as revocable agreement
without consideration by which the Unit
ed States pays only as long as it pleases
an annual gratuity. but as only the
partial fulfillment of long-neglected ma
tional obligation. a binding compromise
OF conflicting equities. under which the
United States. being itself the sole ar
btrator of the issue. has always paid less
than was equitably due from 1t.
The legislation OF 1878 was. however. a
grand act of long-delayed justice. 1t
recognized that the expenses of the ma
tons city. planned by the nation on mag
niiicent lines as the National Capital,
largely owned and absolutely controlled
by the nation. were properly met pri-
marily by the nation, with such con-
tributions to this cost by the meager
comparatively resourceIess local popula-
ton as could equitably be collected from
them.
There - no reasoning which recognizes
the national obligation to meet one-half
Inc capitals expenses after 1873 which
does not raise or concede like obliga.
ton in respect to the abnormal capital
building expenses on national lines In.
Cured in the Seventies prior to 1878 and
represented by the funded debt Since
the nation ought to have paid all or by
the 1878 compromise, one-half Of thi.
debt. and since 1t has paid annually one
half OF the interest and sinking fund to
meet this debt, II seems like a waste OF
time for US over thirty years later to be
Rubbing over the words of the statutes
on the theory that Congress- did not
technically say that IL would do what it
ought to have done and what !. has in
fact done. The difference between twee-
dledum and tweediedee seems as great
as that between national assumption of
half the debt and a national guarantee
Of the whole debt. the nation providing
for payment and actually paying the debt
on the haif-and-half basis in INSTALL
ments as they have become due during
the. last thirty years.
OF course the whole question will be
thrashed out In District committee,
Washington will have a full and fair
hearing. and the committee will give to
the matter the serious consideration
which its Importance deserves, before
recommending any legislation There
will be in common fairness no snap judg-
ment sought through legislation sprung
suddenly or pushed surreptitiousiy in the
District appropriation bill.