Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-04-02
Pay $40 q Year Apiece Here.

W mere pay $40 year apiece and the
rest pay 6 cents year apiece. aud
there is no complaint from either. The
United States owns at least half in value
Of the real property and pays no taxes.
The per capita tax levy here. census
bulletin lis of 1913 shows, is higher
than in 1I3 out of the 1875 cities having
over $4,000 population. 1t is higher than
in a number of these cities having much
larger population and far greater wealth
than Washington. The progress. phySi-
cal and moral. Of the National Capital
has been made possible by the half-and-
half arrangement. and will stop il it is
directly or indirectly repealed
THE facts are outlined in our eNecu-
tive committee report and reference given
to the official documents. all published
by Congress. Read that report. get your
friends in Congress and elsewhere to read
it. The facts are the argument. The
only difficulty is to get busy men in Con-
gress not directly on the District of Co
lumba committees to study the question
for themselves Already many of them
have done this with excellent results. The
sentiment of the country is strongly in
favor of maintaining the progress of the
capital under the present arrangement.
So soon as the dangers now threatening
it are known to the country through the
national organizations which are begin
ming to send out the facts. the protest
of the people at large will be heard here.
Every patriotic citizen should see to
it that the country and Congress learn
the facts promptly AS possible. We OF
the executive committee are giving our
nights and a little of our days. crowded
with our regular business. to this common
task of patriotism. This voluntary serv-
ice gives us the right to cal! upon all
others for active personal cooperation 10
this emergency of the National CAPITAL
To make it worthy of the great republic
is a twentieth century ambition felt by
all our countrymen.
Asks Baltimore to Aid.
Mr. Watrous. in his talk to the women
of Baltimore. called attention to the fa",
that the women OF that city, through
their Woman's Civic League. have fc.'
the past three years done n very i'm
Dor ,ant civic service for THAI city. and in
discussing the legislation pending in Con-
gress which would do away with the
.half-and-half plan OF supporting
Washington lie appealed for their CO.
operation with the committee of one hun
bred in the effort to protect the capital.
Mr. Watrous said, in part:
'Thc interest of Baltimore in Wash
ington, the capital city. ought to be very
great. Baltimore is annually visited by
hundreds of thousands of people. but it
is safe to say that all of your guests be-
fore leaving you make 1t point to 20
over to their capital city. and very often
ii is your pleasure to accompany them.
For that reason Your pride IN Washing
ton should be- if anyth ins, lit deeper
than that of almost any other city in
the United States.
There is Il deh.ite service that you
can do right now, and that is 10 commu-
nicate with your senators and repre-
seutatives i'll Congress. telling them just
how strongly you do feel in favor Of the
largest possible consideration of the
needs of Washington and making it clear
that Washington is not city of the ord'-
nary type. but as the capital city must be
maintained and developed on d larger and
broader scale than other cities that have
to depend for their maintenance upon
their own resources.
ut must be borne in mind always
that the residents of Washington are
already paying their full.snare Of taxes
By full taxes l mean taxes that are
equal to those paid in most other cities.
But they are not sufficient TO meet the
demands of Capital city. and ii would
be unfair to the people to increase the
burden upon them for. those eXpendi
lures that are national and not local.
Representatives in Congress are
very busy men.
With some exceptions, notably SO i'll
the case of Senator Smith of your own
state, who is chairman OF the Senate
committee on District affairs, and has
always manifested a keen interest in
the larger development of Washington.
the senators and representatives are
not always completely advised as to
the exact conditions that prevail. Your
message to them should be that they
acauaint themselves with the history of
WashingtonS financial arrangements, and
that they give as much of their lime as
possible to informing themselves, and
their support to advancing the best inter
ests Of the Capital city,