Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-30
The Redfeld Bill.

respect 10 the District Of Columbia. First
il is by the Constitution charged with
exclusive jurisdiction over the capital
area, and second. it is bound by its own
formal enactment OF 1878 to maintain the
District financially on the basis of an
equal division Of cost between the local
and federal revenues If both OF these
requirements were strictly observed there
would be no such legislative proceedings
that Of yesterday in the House of
Representatives. when bill was passed
providing for the maintenance Of the
pension fund for the police and fire de-
-partments of the District by means of q
special tax levied against the peoples
property, provided that this tax receives
the sanction of a majority of the tax
payers of Washington as expressed in a
referendum vote. Congress should itself
decide this matter. and furthermore. it
should decide IL in accordance with
the principles laid down in the or
.ganic act of 1873, under which such a
plan as that suggested is impossible
Of all the plans for the maintenance Of
the police and firemen's pension fund
that for a special tax Is the least accept
able and the most dangerous. 1t is q
direct departure from the half-and-half
principle. 1t attempts to segregate part
of the municipal ORGANIZATION from the
remainder as to financial support. II
this can be done in the payment of the
pensions Of policemen and firemen 1t may
be done with equal justice-or injustice
in the payment of their salaries while on
active duty. If it can be done with the
salaries or pensions Of the policemen 1t
may he quite as eauitably-or inequitably
rn-st
the building inspectors. or in fact any
other branch of the local government
Congress unquestionably must recognize
the. truth of this proposition, and the at
tempt in the House to secure the adoption
Of a special tax for the maintenance of
the pension fund, by way of plebiscite,
must be regarded as an effort to gain
the sanction Of the people of the District
to deliberate departure from the or
ganic act, by holding out before them
the temptation Of an assured method of
maintaining this. fund. now so often de-
pleted.
This action involves q failure to meet
the situation. The House admits by it's
passage of the bill that something should
be done to maintain the pension fund.
It has been shown through its District
fund from year to year and the conse-
auent distress of those who have been
given the right to depend upon it for their
sustenance. The men who have failed
in health through devotion to duty in the
dangerous work OF police and fire pro-
lection and the widows Of those who
have lost their lives in those services
have suffered severely under the present
system of dependence upon fund made
UP of fiuctuating sources, such as dog
taxes and police court fines. The District
has asked Congress to put the pension
on a stable basis, and the answer thus
far given Is the proposal of a special tax,
which Is in q double sense an infringe
ment Of the organic act. first, that it
puts the whole cost upon the District
people, and second. that 1t provides for
q means Of revenue raising outside of
that contemplated by the fundamental
law.
The tax proposed by the House bill is
more serious menace to the Districts
welfare than a failure Of the House to
-meet the needs Of the pension fund could
possibly be. However unfair to those de-
pendent upon tine fund the lack of
remedial legislation might be, 1t would
be infinitely better to allow the whole
subject to pass over than to accept such
solution. For this proposed tax. borne
exclusively by the people of the District
and not shared by the people of the
United States would be only an entering
wedge to cause the complete disruption
of the organic act and the equitable sys-
lem by which under it the United States
bears half the cost Of District main
fenance. The organic act contemplates
10 such taxes for special purposes. and
it is not to be believed that the people
of the District, were the issue fairly
presented to them. would consent TO ac-
cept such method. however DESTROYS
they might be Of relieving the policemen
and the firemen from the menace OF a
failing pension fund.
The bill now goes to the Senate where
II should be amended, not merely by the
elimination of the referendum paragraph,
but By the substitution for the special
tax OF provision placing the pension
fund upon an equitable basis In accord
w,th the organic act.
This special tax should not be levied
without the referendum: il should not be
proposed even with the referendum.