Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-03
District People to Own Street
Railways, But Not to
Control Them.
TO INCUR HUGE DEBT
AND GAIN NO new POWER
Another Stab at Organic Act-Mu-
nicipal Ownership Under Crosser
Bill Premature, Unnecessary,
and Unwise.
Editorial Correspondence of The Star.
BY THEODORE w. MOVES.


BY THEODORE W. MOVES.
The favorable report on the Crosser
street railway municipal ownership bill
will, It is suggested, serve two good pur-
poses: a. As compliment to Repre-
sentative Crosser's legislative activity and
effectiveness 1t will help him to re-
nomination in his home district; and ca
as a rod cut and trimmed for the avowed
purpose of Furnishing the public service
corporations It will warn these corpora
tons to be good. obedient and respectful
to the public utilities commission. lest
for their sins of rebellion they suffer
far more drastic penalty than the COM
mission can infiict
The District wishes well to MIR. Crosser
and in his interest will endure with pa
tience some juggling with its domestic
affairs to their confusion and disad-
vantage. The District also approves the
procedure of admonishing and threatening
the public service corporations into more
hearty cooperation with the public util-
tiles commission.
But the favorable reporting of the Cros-
ser bill fro:-c the House District committee
accomplishes these results. and its leGis-
lative advance should at this point be
abruptly halted. Not another step should
be taken in pushing the bill toward en-
actment until its merits and demertts are
carefully considered.
In a nutshell the proposition Of the
Crosser bill Is that the District taxpayers
shall incur a heavy bonded debt (possibly
$6o.O00. .0OO in order to buy the local street
railways: that the United States shall
repudiate all responsibility for this debt,
abrogating in respect to it the half-and-
half provision OF the act OF 1878: and
hot 3oe 20 ft1A 0nvA
owners Of the roads. shall turn over their
management and control absolutely to the
District Commissioners, officials who are
responsible to them in no respect whatso-
ever. and in whose selection they have no
voice.
Not q step should be taken in the d.
rection of enacting this proposition
into law unless and until It is directed
ta1payers. Since the nation repudiates
all responsibility for this debt the ma
tional legislature should repudiate and
refuse to accept the responsibility of
Why should any weight attach to the
opinions and demands in the matter OF
the District Commissioners. who are
not chosen by and are not responsible
t. the District taxpayers? Those who
are to be burdened with this debt, and
they alone, should decide whether they
wish t. incur IL.
Incurring Fifty-Million Debt.
Should the District taxpayers wish to
shoulder the burden Of such a debt in or
der to venture upon this speculation?
i. Congress has for years been de-
nouncing debt and especially bonded debt
without discrimination as the essence OF
evil. The District has been admonished
to shrink from debt with instructive re-
pugnance. The District has been refused
permission to bond itself in order that
great permanent public improvements,
wisely developing the municipality and
perity. might be hastened to completion
and to beginning Of their full useful
ness: and In order that the cost of these
improvements. in whose benefits posterity
shares, might be borne in part under
bond issue and sinking fund arrangement
by posterity. For many years the District
earnestly urged bond issue of ten or
twelve millions Of dollars to carry out
benefit-promising series Of projects of
public improvements-but all In vain.
This aversion to the very words debt
and bond issue was instilled into the
community by some of the Commission
ers of the past as well as by Congress
until 1t passed the bounds OF reason and
became an obsession. The bonded debt
which represented the herculean labor
and of building up the New Washington
was less than half that now proposed to
buy some street railways, which are al
ready reasonably well run and which. II
they rlisbehave, can be disciplined into
equitable treatment Of the public by the
public utilities commission.
Another Stab at Organic Act.
2 The bankrupting debt OF the seventies
was shared by the United States gov
eminent. The proposed bonded debt for
great public improvements which Con-
gress refused with abhorrence was on the
half-and-half basis of the act of 1873.
This vastly larger debt proposed by the
Crosser b.Il is thrown wholly upon the
District, dissolving. SO far as 1t goes the
existing financial relations between ma
ton and capital. and constituting itself
a precedent and precursor of the destruc-
ton o. the haf-and-half provision of the
organic" act We have been for
months and are still in the agonies of a
struggle to preserve the equitable and
necessary haif-and-half provision of the
act Of 1873, and to maintain its past and
continuing application to all legally au-
thorized Indebtedness of the District
We have with good reason fought des-
perately against the efforts to relieve the
United States from liability for one-hali
OF the 3.65 bonds: We have resisted the
claim that the District should refund the
whole of certain installments of interes,
on 1865 bonds paid prior to 1878 by the
United States. Could there be a grosseI
and more imbecile Inconsistency than tc
clsmor now for a hfty-million debt solely
on the District and in violation of the
act Of 1878? Has not the organic act
been. and is 1t not now, subjected to suf.
fcient assaults. without our volunteering
TO add this one of our own accord? Fol
how long after the opulent District was
bearing unaided a bonded obligation OF
nifty millions would the United States re
main liable for one-half of any of the
District Indebtedness? The Crosser bill
in Its present shape Is as vicious stat
at the act OF 1878 as any which hav,
caused anxiety and distress in t!e com
nunity during the battle of the last few
months for square deal for the Dis
trict. While defending the act Of 1877,
against the assaults of others We are in
vfted by the Crosser bill to give il q NOR
tai wound ourselves.
Is Municipal Ownership Necessarily
To justify assent to a fifty-millior
Y debt solely on the District taxpayer.
in violation Of the act OF 1873, some
mortal danger to the community mus
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