Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-18
DUTY OF CONGRESS
ISFA|R DEAL HERE
Representative M0ndeII Cham
pionS Cause of District
on House Floor.
NOT TIME NOR PLACE
TOCHANGE FISCAL PLAN
Discussing Appropriation Bill, He
Voices Objection to Crisp
Proposition.

Whatever Congress may conclude to
do in the future, our duty in the present
is to deal fairly and considerably with
these people from whom We have taken
the franchise. and whose city council
We have constituted ourselves
Representative Mondell of Wyoming, a
member of the great appropriations COM
mittee of the House, threw these words
into the faces of the members OF the
House who would rutblessly tear down
the we'll built foundations of the greatest
capital in the world.
1t was the opening defensive gun of the
debate in the House today on the Dis
trict appropriation BILL to which, before
the day is over on Capitol Hill, an at
tempt may be made to add as an amend
ment the Crisp bill, which takes away
the federal support from the District of
Columbia and gives absolutely nothing in
return. - ....--
Representative AIondell is a republican.
but he had behind him in sentiment the
Speaker of the House, Oscar Underwood.
leader of the democrats; Representative
Fitzgerald, chairman OF the appropria-
tons committee; Representative Page.
chairman of the subcommittee which
framed the appropriation bill-all leaders
without doubt as to their ability and
sincerity. Interviews with these members
of the House freely voicing their antago-
nism to the Crisp proposition were OBJ
tanned today by The Star.
Strikes at Fiscal Plan.
Discussing the section of the appropria-
ton bill which is aimed at forcing the
District to pay back to the United States
the excess of it's revenues this year over
it's portion of the expenses, Representa-
tive Mondell said. unhesitatingly:
This provision strikes at the very
vitals of the plan under which the LIS
trict has been operating for many years
That fiscal plan is one of the yea
lures of an arrangement under which the
general government has taken over anu
administers the affairs of the District
The arrangement in its general features
has been considered wise and advan-
tageous to the nation, and If the time
has come to modify 1t, the modification
should come after full consideration OF
all features of that relationship between
the District and the general government,
of which the half-and- half plan is but one
of the features"
No Income, He Says.
Mr.. Mondell asserted that the claim
that the pending appropriation bill, as
sliced by the committee, provides for an
increase of $4,000 over last years >ap-
propriations is not true. Even II 1t
were true, he said. it Is very doubtful II
such an increase would PROVIDE TOT the
proper and necessary growth ana 1evei-
opment of the nations capitai. Goihs
further into an analysis Of the penang
measure, Mr. Mondell showed that, IN
stead of providing an Increase or $o4'V
over the appropriation for the current
year, the bill actually provides total
l 30 Nsot ri
given this year.
Mr. Mondeli went particularly into
the items of appropriations asked for new
work and for the carrying out OF pro-
visions of existing law. showing that the
sums asked In each and every case, were
either greatly reduced or eliminated al
together from the bill as 1t came from
the committee.
Mr.. Mondeil referred specifically to the
appropriations requested by the District
wharf and market; municipal market:
bathing beaches, physical valuation or
public uti ities-the latter specificaH
directed by ex sting , lava mum mumci pa
a number Of other projects for which
the Commissioners provided In their
estimates. None of these items, he SAID,
are to be found in the bill as 1t came
from the hands of the committee.
Attacks Section 8.
Referring to. the haif-and-half prin-
ciple, Representative Mondell said:
Much of the trimming and many onlis-
sions of the bill can be accounted for by
Section 8, which appears on page 81 of
| the bill and which is as follows:
Sec. g. That to the extent the reve-
nues of the District of Columbia for Tho
fiscal year 1915 shall exceed the proper
tionate part of the appropriations mads
| in this or any other act and chargeable
against said revenues. the same shall be
covered into the Treasury of the United
States to the credit of miscellaneous
receipts
This provision strikes at the vitals
| of the plan under which the District
has been operating for many years.
have neither the time nor the inclina-
| ton to discuss the wisdom or pro-
priety Of the arrangement under which
| the federal Treasury is p edged to pay
one-half of the expenditures of the
| District, but this As not the time, this
bill Is not the 11fce to attempt to