Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-13
Present Condition Isolation;
Present Privileges Only Pc
tition and Evacuation.
POLITICAL FAIR PLAY
FOR WASHINGTONIAN
He Deserves Every American Right
and Privilege Consistent With Full
Control of Capital by Nation.
May :, 1914


The problem of a square deal
politically for Westinghouse is
not solved by the arbitrary die
tum that their status is unchange-
able, that their political impotency
is incurable. that their voteless
un-American condition was vol
unfairly accepted by them more
than a century ago and is not,
therefore, through all eternity to
become at any time a reasonable
subject of complaint. The CEN
tury-old surrender of the Ameri-
can birthright of national repre-
sentation was only for a time and
not for all time.
Are we prohibited from contemplating
changes in the political status of the
Washingtonian? Are we forbidden to
consider what that status should be in
future by the authoritative declaration
that the Washingtonian's condition was
unalterably fixed at the beginning of the
republic by the ten miles-square provision
of the Constitution. and that what he was
after the Maryland cession he is now, and
ever shall be?
We are told that this is so; az that this
provision of the Constitution is in some
unexplained fashion not subject to
amendment but is fixed and unalterable
like the laws of the Modes and Persians;
2) that this provision means that the
Washingtontan can never exercise any
American rights which he did not pos
sess just after the city was born; and
-;ot,fr No vjrx1,t to ,oti ton
and to emigrate. to supplcate or evac-
uate. to beg or get out. these being also
the alternatives submitted by a Castro or
a Zelaya to his subjects, and that 81
when he became Washingtonian. wheth-
er by birth or by railroad or other trans
portation agency. he did SO with full no.
tice that the Washingtonians of over a
century ago had bound him irrevocably
20 this status with its disabilities; and
that by being born here or railroaded into
the city he accepts these disabilities as
perpetual.
All these assumptions are unsound: %
The miles-square provision Of the
Constitution is as readily amendable as
any other provision, il the conditions
have changed which furnished the 'rea-
sons for its enactment. (2 The provision
does not mean what it is construed as
meaning and no amendment of it is nee
eseary. Exclusive control by Congress Is
declared, but there is no prohibition
against future representation of the Dis
trict in the Congress which is to exercise
this exclusive control. The Marylanders
and Virginians who were marooned in
the District of Columbia were too few in
numbers to be represented on state
footing in Congress as a separate COM
munity, and, having lost their rights as
Marylanders and Nirginians, they were
never until recently in position of popu-
1o<f IN cir i'm
as a distinct community. But the Consti-
tuition does not prohibit such request or
a favorable response to it. when the
changing and changed conditions Justify.
S) The Washfngtonian Is no more COM
mitted to refrain from fighting to alter
for the better his political. judicial or
material status than the Hawaiian. the
Porto Rican or the Alaskan. There is
no solid foundation for the charge that
the District (wifen nearly uninhabited
voluntarily resigned its right of distinct
representation and irrevocably adopted
the whole body Of Congress Gncluding its
bitter enemies and its lukewarm friends)
as the representatives OF its interests
What was the intent Of the forefathers in
respect to the Washingtonians, the in
habitants of the ten miles square? Madi-
son commenting in the Federalist on their
status said: las they will have had their
voice in the election OF the government
as a municipal legislature for local pur-
poses derived from their own SURFACES
will of course be allowed them :"
every imaginable objection seems to be
obvated"
Madison's idea was that the community
should have local elected legislature,
and it did have some such government for
nearly three-quarters of a century. In
the beginning the nation had no great
property interests at the capital which
required it to control the local govern
ment in self-protection.
At that time it was the impecunious
partner, the beneficiary of patriotic
charity 1t had at the capital only what
was given it in jurisdiction and money
contributions by Maryland and Virginia
and in land by the individual owners of
the soil. The proceeds OF sales of part
of the lots thus donated much more
than paid the cost of the public build
ings.
Conditions have changed. The national
government is now very large property
owner at the capital and a half tax
payer. 1t feels that for the protection
of it's interests 1t must dominate the To-
cal government.
Under these changed conditions the To-
cal legislature which, according to Madi-
son would. of course. be granted to
Washingtonians, has been denied.
The conditions have also changed in
respect to the local community as an ap-
plicant for representation in Congress
and the electoral college The feeble
population of the infant capital was de-
MED representation because these few
men were no longer Marylanders or Vir-
ginians, and because they were not in
sufficient numbers to enttle them to dis
tinct Independent representation. 1t was
indicated in congressional debate in
1900 thaN the Constitution might be
amended to give them representation in
the general legislature when their num-
bers should become sufficient Madison
meets the objection of lack of national
representation by the suggestion that in
voting for the cession they will have
had their voice in the election of the
government which is to exercise author
ity over them This suggestion applies.
however. only to the original inhabitants
of the ten miles square who voted for
cession and not to their successors who
have had no voice, as alleged, in the Sc
lection of such government. Unless, in
deed, the few original inhabitants, when
the District was almost uninhabited,
could SO assent to Misrepresentation for
themselves as to bind all future Washing
tonians. though they might grow to
million in numbers and might surpass
dozen of the states in all characteristic
elements of the American commonwealth
Personally. l do not think that any
American right is forfeited by the Wash
ingtonian II he permits the nation to con-
troll the affairs of the municipal corpora
ton in which it is half stockowner and
believe the control by the nation. in
consultation with the smaller stockhold-
ers. is in the interest of both nation and
local community. The principle of no
taxation without representation carries
with it in spirit the principle of no repre-
nicipal corporation the principle of no
representation except in proportion to