The Washington herald., 1912-09-29
RUDE STRANGER
|NVADEs FORUM
Suffrage Speaker Disturbed by Man
in Crowd Who Wants
TO Talk. =;
GATHERING H00TS DOWN
THE OBJECTIONABLE ONE
Present Condition of Affairs in the
District Denounced by the
Orator, Thomas E. Will.

In the course of an address last night
at the Peoples Forum, at Eighth and
Pennsylvania Avenue, by Thomas Z
Will, the speaker was interrupted By
his remarks by a man in the audience
who declared in somewhat heated terms
that the Henry George report on Dis.
trict affairs was all wrong and that he
was prepared to prove his contention.
Mr. VIII said he would give him op.
portunity to set forth his proof then oil
at any time agreeable to the objector.
The man said he would present his
proofs later. and bring to naught the
fine spun deductions of the Single Tax
Representative in Congress. He incl
dentally said he would also smash the
notion that the people of the District OF
Columbia stand in any need Of suffrage.
About this time the crowd, which. in
the main, is a very orderly one. bent on
listening to whatever may be said by
speakers at the Forum. took hand in
the matter and hooted down the OBJ
jector The incident almost broke up
the meeting but the withdrawal of the
critic of the George report, either from
choice or through fear for his personal
safety. enabled Mr.. viii to proceed and
finish his address.
Mr. Will spoke again on the need for
suffrage. and denounced the present con-
dition of affairs in which the people are
taxed without representation and are
practically enslaved by tyranny OF ma
tional political eXpediency. The speaker
said, in part:
Old influence Gone.
The people Of the District have never
consented that the right to manage their
local affairs should be taken from them.
The people of the several States could
not give that consent 1t was not theirs
to give. The consent has not been
given" (Senate report No. 572, Forty
fourth Congress. second SESSION.
Who. then. did it? Certain local peo-
pie have, for years. been limiting, if not
openly boasting. that to them belongs
the credit. Upon their own heads,
whomever they may be, let the guilt
rest! For, by this act, they sold the
people of this District into possible,
and. largely. actual slavery.
This blessed compact carried with
II no bond that the District fathers
should forever retain influence at the
Capital: and. with the old Aldrich-
Cannon machine on the scrap heap, and
a wave of revolutionary sentiment roll
ing in from the West, the days of their
influence. shacowy now at best, are
numbered. In the House, in fact,
those days are already gone. Relations
with the House District Committee are
chairman has given out that attempts
have been made to burn his papers,
and even to take his life.
Now. what? This same committee
chairman is ransacking the records of
the relations between the District and
Congress. He is dragging from their hid
ing place beneath the Treasury steps the
ancient. dirt-covered, moldy records of a
generation past.
And he is finding or is convinced that
he is finding things. He is telling the
House and country that Congress has
illegally and at the instance of the Com
missioners paid huge sums for the Dis
trict. Such payments he would stop
henceforth. Furthermore, he would
doubtless re-collect from the Districts
funds.
Control Surrendered.
Can the District help itself? Not in
the slightest degree. Why not? Because
of this Infamous compact by the terms
of which the people have surrendered
permanently we are told. the control of
their public purse