Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-01
MAJORITY RULE
IN WASHINGTON
Continued from First Page.)

ible ground of controlling the municipal
corporation assumes, of course, that
while representation in Congress is, when
certain conditions are met an American
right, representation in a municipal cor
poration is not an American birthright.
In theory the powers exercised by the
officers of cities are by delegation from
the people of the whole state. in whom
the ultimate sovereignty. as modified by
the Constitution of the nited States, re-
sides. In New York, from 1III to 1921.
the officers of the municipal corporations
We're appointed by the governor. and four
senators chosen every year by four SUB
divisions of the assembly. Instances of
the intervention Of the state government
into the affairs of cities, amounting in
some cases to indirect acknowledgements,
have not been lacking in later years.
Universal suffrage Is demanded by re-
publican principles only in the choice of
those officers who exercise purely gov
ernmental functions, and not in the Sc
lection of agents by municipal corpora
tionS to perform duties affecting private
property interests.
Taxpayers take the place of share
holders in other corporations. In dis
bursting funds for municipal purposes the
just principle of representation is saved
only if those who contribute the money
direct its expenditure. In the case of
our local municipal corporation the nation
pays half the taxes, so to speak. and,
with more or less of Difference to the
wishes of the other taxpayers. does all
of the deciding as to the methods of
disbursement Such a system of expend-
ing the municipal funds. while it is very
far from perfect comes much closer to
enforcing the will of the taxpayers than
the system which prevails in the ordinary
municipality of determining such ex-
penditures by unlimited popular suffrage,
which gives to non-taxpaying, irresponsi-
BILE voters the power to expend extrava-
gantly and corruptly the money sup
piled by the taxpayers, and places
the contributors and non-contributors to
a fund upon an equal footing In the mat
ter of deciding how and by whom the
fund shall be distributed. Under it have
resulted in intolerable misgovernment and
robbery of the taxpayers in many OF our
American cities.
Taxation and Representation.
The requirement of local residence
for eligibility to the commissionership
goes far to work a practical compli-
ance in the local municipal govern
ment with the principle Of mo taxation
without representation" the gist of
which is that the man who puts up the
money should say what shall be done
with it. The District taxpayers include
Uncle Sam as to SO per cent of the
whole amount, and all other local prop
erty owners combined as to the other
so per cent Uncle Sam. through Con-
gress, decided all questions of tax
raising and tax disbursing. But the
local taxpayers, through the Commls.
sioners, who under the law are local
residents and representatives of the
community. take the initiative In franz
ing appropriative legislation by pre-
pairing and submitting all estimates.
Thus the one-half taxpayer through its
representatives the Commissioners
proposes the tax raising and tax DIS
bursting which will meet the needs OF
the people Of the District: and the other
half taxpayer. through its representa- :
tives in Congress, approves or rejects
these propositions. When an appropria-
ton is made in this way 1t represents
the will Of all or the great bulk Of the
taxpayers.
In sharp contrast with this practlcai
compliance with the principle that only
those who contribute to a fund should
say how much should be raised and how
the money should be expended is the
practice in many other large American
cities. where tax questions are de-
termined by unlimited popular suffrage
and where organized non-taxpayers have
by mere force of numbers been able to
seize the city's purse and to spend as
they pleased or to steal the money con-
tributed by the taxpayers. AS long as
the :Jbnrnissioners remain, as they are
now: required by the eligibility pro-
vision OF the law to be, the genuine
representatives of the views and wishes