Evening star., 1915-03-13
A SQUARE DEAL
FOR EVERYBODY
For Congress and Our Faith
full Legislators and for
the Capital.
RECIPROCITY IN FAIR PLAY
AND CONSIDERATION
The Greatest Legislature in the
World to Build the Worlds
Grandest Capital.
Editorial Correspondence Of The Star
BY THEODORE w. MOVES.

mittee is to re-eNamine the equi-
ties upon which the organic act
OF 1873 was based and to recon-
mend to Congress alterations. II
any be necessary or wise, in this
fundamental. and vitally ilnpor-
tant law.
The spirit in which Congress
and the capital community ap-
proach this new legislation. thus
prefaced by intelligent and inn
partial study OF the facts, should
be radically different from that
which has been generated at times
and in individuals on both sides
OF the controversy which has
ragged during the last Congress.
The Washingtonian. powerless
to participate in the slightest de-
gree in his own taxation and gov
ernment and impotent to punish
those who, he feels, have abused
to his vital injury their power to
tax and govern him, has in par
tlcular instances exercised too
freely and Extensively the privi-
lege of the hopelessly defeated
litigant OF "cussing the court .
And also in individual instances
the Districts legislators, with all
powers III their hands to wound
and even to destroy, have taken
too great ofense at the verbal
sputterings of the aggrieved and
helpless and have too vigorously
retaliated. .~ \
Too many OF Washington's leg
islators have come to view their
constituents as unappreciative,
ungrateful, greedy, selfish and
censorious: and too many of these
constituents have come to view
the legislators, selected for them
by the Constitution, as deliber-
ately ignorant of their needs, as
contemptuously Indifferent to and
neglectful Of their welfare or as
actively and Indignantly hostile.
The crying need Of the hour is
a change of thought, a change of
heart, new policy under which
each OF the capital-building part
ners shall heed the INDUCTION Put
yourself in his place. with the
result OF substituting mutual ap-
probation for recrimination. Fair
play and mutual regard are watch
words of the new policy.
Fair Play for Congress.
The WashingtOnian in accordance
with 1t will render deserved and
belated tribute of grateful apprecia-
| tion to the long line of senator's and
representatives who have faithfully
performed the unselfsh, difficult and
almost thanklexs task OF dealing rs
considerately and justly with their
capital constituency with their
home constituents. Washington knows
and hOnors these men-its loyal, help
full friends, public-spirited workers In
| the task of capital building, though 1t
may not have put this Appreciation aud
honor into words promptly and ade-
quately an 1t ought.
When Washington puts itself in the
place of Congress and recognizes the
n MI jao nd f.ur GOV
which congressman labor as District
Legislators it will be easier for the city
| to substitute at times appreciation for
| fault-finding. The capital may then
even feel pride in having as it's local
| legislature the greatest legislative
| body in the world: a legislature which,
though neglectful and exasperatingly
| slow to move in District legislation.
| has ever in the great crises of the capi
1 tails history acted justly and wisely
and sympathetically. Though the ma
| tion from the beginning neglected its
obligations toward the nations city. il
| frankly confessed its fault and came
to the city's relief in 1885. when Wash
| ington had bankrupted itself in trying
| to perform unaided the nations task
of capital making. So In the seventies
| of the conditions of 1885. the nation
| not only shouldered one-half and guar
anteed the whole Of the bankruptng debt
| but undertook as matter of equity
4
| making for the future. And II in the
| neNt Congress another crisis shall arise
as in connection with "A proposal thai
the nation repudiate the funded debt
| Of 1873 and throw it upon the local tax
| payers of today or overthrow wholly
the half-and half principle of the or
| ganic act-Washington may. in the
| light of the precedents. rely with per-
feet confidence for protection ON its
| legislatures wisdom. Justice and SYM
| pathetic consideration. Congress as
| the Districts legislature has confess
| edly its faults. but smallness and mean
| ness are not among them; and it is in.
| conceivable that the reputation and
confiscation proposed should not be
| found. when the test comes, shockingly
repugnant to the dominating spirit oi
| fairness of the American people
Fair Play for Washington.
As Washington should subject itseli
to u rigid seIf-ex amin mn ti0n to ascertain
whether 1t has not been lacking In
grateful appreciation. SO should indi.
| vIdual members of Congress test the
question whether they do not fall shor,
In just appreciation of their capita
constituency and deny 1t American fail
/ play, not merely I'm specific legislatior
hut in general attitude and theory oi
| CONTINUED on Fifth Page.)