Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-13

the taxpayers In the disbursement of
! the city's funds the taxpayers rights are
| preserved, their interests protected. and
| their desires met to an extent uneaualed in
| other large American cities. where, under
! system of manhood suffrage. the organ
! ized non-taNpayerS spend as they please
| the money contributed by the taxpayers.
| The American principle of manhood
representation does not apply to choice OF
business agents by corporation, munich
| pal or otherwise On the other hand. an
American right is denied when Americans
gathered in sufficient numbers in a limited
| area of American soil are denied repre-
Sentation In the American Congress which
| taxes them. and may send them to war
which makes their laws apd has their
lives as we'll as their property at its dis
poSai.
If the nation is to continue to control
| the District the District should De ana
can safely be recognized asi part OF the
nation and be permitted representation
in Congress. which is the nation. in eNer-
cisins this control.
The only way to preserve the Original
status of Washington was to keep the us
trict as nearly uninhabited as at the be-
ginning Our forefathers did not expect
this paralysis of growth George Wasiihs
ton predicted that the city of the nauon
century thence. if the country kept
united would be. though not as large
as London. yet of magnitude INFERIOR
to few others in Europe. IL IS unheheN-
able that he thought that this great CITY
which his imagination pictured would pe
peopled by aliens politically and less than
aliens iudicially. He could not nave
imagined that the great National Capitdi,
rivaling London in population, WOUND
not he an American city.
The transaction at the birth OF rhe
city was not the permanent sale OF nm
American birthri9ht for special capnai
privileges. Including national mafnfe-
nance and development. If the nation
to
to the capital the surrender OF the
American birthright Of national repre-
sentation would not equitahly have
been viewed perpetual. But the ma
tion violated it's obligation and in 1873
only in part recognized and reassumed
1t. Today the United states should fni-
RH Its obligation of capital main
tenauce and upbUtldinG to the extent
that equity demands; and should also
restore national representation 10 the
people of the District. II statehood
conditions arc now fairly met here.
Isolated Wasbingtonians.
Friend. Of the people of Warrington
Iike senator John sharp WiIIiamsD
som etimes EoOd-naturedIy lecture them
for arguing concerning their affairs rs
If they were community set apart. "
group Of Americans on one side Of the
line with all the rest of the United
States on the other.
This isolation is not. however. a
visionary theory: but q practical, pain
for 1t Is not upon the people of the
capital. but upon the people of the
United States.
The class of isolated Westinghouse
that is. Washingtonians claiming resi-
dence nowhere else than in the capital
grows larger and larger every year. in
creasing not only in numbers, but in re-
sources and influence. and is destined
finally, perhaps. to include all the people
of ha q
Washfngtonian claiming residence no.
where else? What are some of his char
acteristics as suggested by friend or foe!
He is among all Americans by far the
largest contributor to the upbuilding of
the National Capital-as donor of the
city's site, and of lots sold to get funds
to erect the original public buildings. and
as taxpayer, local and national-yet In
his financial relation to the nation he
is pronounced by the ignorant or mali
cious greedy mendicant!
He is an American who is told that his
only rights in his home city are those
of petition and emigration. to supplicate
or evacuate, to beg or get out. and If
he does not or can not get out, and pro-
ceeds to petition. he is denounced by
the ignorant and malicious as an impu-
dent beggar!
He is one whose exclusive legislature,
to whose tender mercies his interests are
solely confided, in effect forbids to his
sons the local means of self-support pro-
vided by the commercial and manufac-
turing industries of the ordinary Ameri-
can city. and then by the apportionment
of offices law tof late extended and even
more rigidly applied and enforced) prac-
ncally shuts out the Washington youth
from the classified service and In enect
bars them from the only great industries
which it permits to exist in the nations
city.
AS a candidate either for certain ma
tionaI offices exercised in the nations city
frri 70
purely local offices, which elsewhere are
filled as matter of course from the To-
cal community, he is coming more and
more each year to be greeted with the
derisive and humiliating announcement:
mo Washingtonians need apply
He is the citizen of state when bur
dens are imposed and not the citizen of
state or even of territory when privi-
leges are conferred.
For example, the District has been pro-
nounced a state (by the courts), under
treaty with France. a construction con
ferring privileges aliens, but not
state under the Constitution, whose peo-
pie can sue in the federal courts. The
District is state Tin the Constitution
when direct taxes are to be collected.
but not a state Tin the Constitution
when representatives are apportioned,
though the Constitution couples the two
things. Public attention was not long
ago called to the fact that the Washing
tonian is not the citizen Of a state or
even of a territory in the distribution of
educational appropriations under the Nor
ril acts.
Capital-Maker.
On the other hand the isolated Wash
ingtonian has the honor of being an eff
fectively working. though silent. CO.
partner with the nation in developing
National Capital of which every Amerl-
can is proud.
His municipal government, in the opin-
ion of some of us, meets the spirit OF
the principle of no taxation without rep
resentation. and the converse principle OF
no representation without taxation, and
in raising and disbursing taxes reflects
the will of the taxpayers more completely
than in any other large American city
Here Congress, representing the half
taxpayer, decides all tax and appropr1a-
ton questions. after consulting with the
representatives of the other taxpayers. to
whom in the grant of the power to SUD
nit estimates it gives the initiative OF
suggestion in respect to approprlatlve
legislation. Here the great majority OF
the taxpayers are back of every leglsla-
tive decision concerning appropriations:
in other large American cities. under a
misapplication of the principle OF govern
ment by unlimited popular suffrage, the
organized nontaXpayers control, as
rule the city's purse and spend as they
please the money contributed by tax
payers.
While denied representation as Amer1-
cans in the national legislature ana cleo
toraI college the Washingtonian Is the
most national American of all Americans,
the only exclusive American OWING no di-