The Washington herald., 1915-11-06
CONTINUED FROM PAGE THREE.


BrownIow, remarked. .T believe I have
! summarized the case fairly
You couldn't have stated 1t in a more
absurd way II you had tried" returned
Col. Worthington pleasantly. Mr..
Brownlow continued:
II cannot escape the conviction that
these gentlemen argue post hoe ergo
| propter hoe They set I'D In their own
minds as the essential feature of the act
Of 1873 the half and half The beneficial
results of the act of 1875. therefore. they
! credit to the half and half. Naturally,
they think the half and half should be
maintained.
1T is true, and it cannot be denied.
that the act of 1878 was the great for
| ward step in the adequate development
OF the Federal Capital But 1t was not
the half-and-half feature that made It 50.
effective. It was rather the fact that the
act OF 1873 placed upon Congress and
| upon Congress alone the sole and abso-
| lutte power of governing the District Of
| Columbia. Since its passage only Con-
gress has reviewed the needs OF the Dis
! trict of Columbia: only Congress has
made its laws; only Congress has deter
mined what projects of Improvement
should be approved, and only Congress
has found the funds wherewith to carry
| out these projects.
Conditions Preceding Organic Act.
cit has been said here by those who
support the half and half and are op-
posed in any event to what they term
the indefinite PLAN" that We had the
indefinite plan for seventy-eight years
before the passage Of the organic act.
and that II did not work. Such a state
ment Is not quite candida 1t is true that
before 1878. there were only spasmodic
contributions to local expenses. the ma
tonal participation in the Capital budget
was indefinite. but in those days the Dis
trict OF Columbia was a separate entity
and raised Its own taxes and expended its
own revenues in its own way. Under the
plan that / propose, the plan that was
proposed forty years ago by Senator Nor
rill, there would be no contribution Of the
Federal government to the expenses of
the District of Columbia. but all of those
Treasury and the only contribution would
be the contribution of the local taxpay-
ers toward meeting the Federal ex-
penses.
Helped by Congress- LfberaIity.
| Il firmly believe that the liberality Of
Congress in making appropriations for
the District OF Columbia in the last gen.
Grafton has been due rather TO the Con-
gressionsl appreciation OF the needs and
requirements OF the National Capital than
to any half and half recommendation OF
any dead and gone Congress.
The trouble with the supporters OF
| the half and half is that they do look
upon the present Federal contribution as
| a subsidy. I deny II. ] say that every
| cent that the Federal government has
ever spent upon its Capital has been well
spent. The American people are rich
people; they are a proud people, they
are a patriotic people, and they demand
that their Capital shall be the equal of
any capital on earth.
"Harboring the delusion that the pro-
gress of the Capital has been due to the
half and half forgetting the fact that
it has been due solely to exclusive Con-
gressional control, II has been said many
times in the District Of Columbia by the
supporters of the half and half that any
abandonment of the half and half prin-
ciple means the destruction by taxation
Of the local community.
so far as I can read In history there
never has been a government Possessed
Of the taxing power, be that government
autocratic, aristocratic, oligarchic. Re-
publican or Democratic, that has ever ex-
ercised the taxing power to the point
where II has destroyed any community.
There is a limit beyond which even the
power to tax, although It Is the power
to destroy, may not go.
An "Inhuential Fiction"
The half and half, I repeat, is a leg,
isIative fiction. But unlike many other
legislative fictions, II has a certain pow
erful influence. In the first place, !
want to concede to the proponents OF
the half and half everything that truth
fully can be said in its behalf. 1 want
to give credit to Mr.. Blackburn and
those gentlemen who brought about the
enactment Of the Organic Act OF 1875, for
every good thing that II has done for
the National Capital, for the. District Of
Columbia, and for the people who live
In Washington, and those good things
have been many. The trouble Is that
what was true in 1878 is not necessarily
true In 1915.
''In 1873 Congress had been for three
quarters of a century in the habit OF
looking upon the municipal activities in
side the District OF Columbia as functions
of the local municipal government Con-
gress had not determined what ought to
be done. Aside from adopting the plan
made by LEnfant, Congress had had
nothing to do with its development. The
mayor and council Of Washington. the
mayor and council of Georgetown, the
levy court Of the county. had made such