Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-28

rs PICTURE GIVES AN IDEA OF THE i
IT THEIR WAY. TT WILL BE SEEN ]
would be no need for the federal gov
eminent to contribute at all to the ex-
penses OF the capital.
port the half-and-half plan stand in
the way of the District. that If it were
not for the half-and-half plan Con-
grsss might appropriate much more
He said that the arguments OF the
two classes nullified each other.
The government has an immense
amount of personal property here in the
! 'in the furnishings Of all these build
ines. the Library of Congress and in
| tho Treasury building, where untold
millions are kept. If you are going to
by the government here in order to ar
rive at the proportion of the expenses
| which the government should pay. you
should take into consideration the
the personal property of the residents
| is taxed, as well as their real estate,
| to help pay their share Of the burden
Of government"
Not Resort Of Tax Dodgers.
| Mr.. Worthington called attention to
the fact that it was a very common
| thing to hear Washington called a re-
sort of tax dodgers. II have seen it
printed somewhere that Washington
has a mile of millionaires.' he said
millionaires residing in Washington
was comparatively small. he said, and
| he had never heard OF a person of
! wealth coming to establish a residence
Ii
alton of his intangible personal prop
| erty in one of the states where such
tax is levied. except once. and that
was the case OF = millionaire from
ago.
Herbert J. Brownies Statement.
At the conclusion of Mr.. worthing-
| tons testimony Herbert ]. Browne
| took the stand. He began by saying
| that the question Of the 1865 per cent
| bonds and their interest was dead. end
| ed by the decision OF the controller Of
| the Treasury. But he insisted that the
| federal government had recovered
| s5s6.000 OF interest charges on this
the efforts Of the subcommittee Of the
House District committee -ctH-rea :"
| as the Mayes committee. which inves-
| tigated the accounts Of the District and
the federal government. This sum. he
| said. had been placed in one Of the
appropriation bills and taken from the
| District revenues and covered into the
federal Treasury, following the dis
closures in the Mayes report.
Says Half-and-Half Plan Is Dead.
ct contend that the half-and-half plan
| is dead and has been dead for num-
Der of years." said Mr.. Browne, "for
<olr fntN O
the revenues of the District. about s1o.-
| 100000 is raised annually from the Dis
trict, and the contribution OF the fed
eral government to the District ex-
penditures does not exceed and has not
exceeded $6.000,000. The half-and- half
plan. therefore. has been modified to
| Senator Chiffon suggested that II such
were the case, then. under the law. the
federal government owed the District a
large sum of money.
After praising the representatives OF
| the joint citizens committee, Mr.. Mac
farland. Mr.. Moves and Mr.. Worthing-
ton, and admitting that they were rep
resentinR various citizens associations
| in their defense Of the half-and-half
plan. Mr.. Browne said:
II, too, am citizen Of the District. and
am opposed to their view And many
but a lot of them. are opposed to the
| half-and- half plan. The taxpayers of
the United States are entitled to appear
| before this committee, ana l. IN sense.
will speak for them, too.
Mr.. Browne then took Up the joint
citizens committees brief and criti-
cised it. He said that there was no
d diction in the District; that II lay
wholly in the hands Of the United
States government: that people who
came to live here must realize that.
At this point Mr. Browne said that he
had been unable to ind any valid ar
gument against the position Of Senator
Works. who has suggested that the
District Of Columbia be abolished and
city Of washington directly, without
| any intermediary, and that the taxes
| of the District be paid into the Treas
| ury and the government pay all the
expenses of the capital without refer
| ence to the amount of taxes collected.
Contends Realty Values Are High.
| Mr.. Browne contended that realty
| values in Washington were very high
| in fact, he said that no other city in
the United States could show such high
values. He said that it was immaterial
where the fee to the streets lay; that
the wide streets and avenues were a
| benefit to all private property owners.
He said 1t was misleading to include
! In street areas the wide parkings, m
paved, WHICH eAtenQ DaCk I'd inc OullO-
ing line along the streets Of Washing
| ton.
| Mr. Browne further commended that
the joint citizens committee had made
a grave mistake in presenting their
statistics Of relative taxation to the
joint select committee when they fall
ed to give the statistics showing the
comparative expenditures in Washing
ton and other cities. He attempted to
make the point that cities in the group
similar to Washington in size, includ-
ing Buffalo. San francisco. Milwaukee.
Cincinnati and others, had not been in
Guided In many Of the comparisons
given BY the Joint citizens committee,
| but Mr.. Mcfarland and also members
Of the congressional committee point
ed out to him that in this contention
| he was mistaken.
] "However," said Mr.. Browne, "the
citizens COMMITTEES omitted saying any
thing about comparative expenditures
and about the relation Of Indebtedness.
which were very serious omissions"
Mr.. Mcfarland Explains.
Mr.. Macfarland called attention to the
fact that the citigens' committee had