Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-20
regularly and upon some well defined
principle than that they should be

principle than that they should be
Other Plan Suggested.
The only other plan that has been
suggested. SO far as we are advised.
to regulate the contribution which the
general government shall make to the
expenses of the District. is that the
citizens of the District shall be taxed
from time to time whatever Congress
shall deem to be reasonable, and that
II the amount reached by such taxa
ton shall not be sufficient. Congress
shall supply the deficiency by appro-
priation from the funds of the Treas
ury. This may be called the indefinite
contribution plan. 1t was substantially
this plan that was in force from the
time the government removed to the
District in 1900 until 1878. 1t has been
shown above how complete was the
to the District OF Columbia. Particu-
larly was this system on trial from the
time the territorial government OF the
District was abolished by the act of
act Of June II. 1878. establishing the
present "half-and- half system. Mr.
Hendee, in charge in the House OF the
bill which resulted in this act of 1873.
In explaining the measure to the House
said:
up to this time nothing has ever
been done to ascertain and establish
the relative position Of the United
States government and the District, in
relation to this matter: whenever It
has been deemed necessary to make
improvements and pay expenses Con-
Eress has appropriated such sum as IL
saw fit, and the people of the District
have been required to pay the balance
by taxation, in such manner as Con-
gress determines"
Underwood Statement.
We cannot better state our conten-
ton on this point than by the follow
ing quotation from the remarks of Mr..
Underwood. made in the House the 27th
Of February, 1915. when the District
appropriation bill for the current fiscal
year was under considerations:
"It Is manifest that the fact that the
government has this large number OF
government buildings here that must
be maintained. that must be protected
from fire. that must have general po-
lice protection outside of the police
protection that Is in the building. with
the other functions of the city govern
ment that must be performed. so far as
the District property is concerned-it
Is manifest. I say. that the burden of
keeping up the property of the gov
eminent of the United States ought
not to rest in business and fairness. on
only the people who live In the District
of Columbia. They could not carry the
burden. 1t would be an impossible bur-
den, IL it rested on them. and there
ought to be some fair adjustment Of 1t.
The situation tpill remain as IL is. and
1t DiU be a bone of contention Congress
after Congress unless zoe reach some
reasonable, sane, proper settlement of the
difficulty l do not think the proposition
in the original language of this bill in
any way solves the difficulty in a cap
able way. AS l understand the lam
guage in the bill which the gentleman
from Kentucky seeks to adhere to, II
merely provides that the same proper
ton Of taxes shall be levied, or, in
other words. that taxes shall be levied
as under existing law today, and that
then. after that levy is collected. be IT
great or small. the government shall
pay the balance. / think 1 state that
correctly; and II not, l hope the gen.
tleman from Kentucky will correct me
that the government shall pay the
balance after you have levied the taxes
spect to the gentlemen who offered
the proposition, l do not believe that
that Is a fair, just or proper way to de-
termine this question. There Is GER
trict owned by its citizens. There is .
certain amount owned by the govern.
ment
Distribution Of Burden.
1.-THE citizens of the Distric, receive
certain benefits and the government re-
ceives certain benefits You should not
go out and tax a man just because you
can tax him. You should only levy taxes
to the extent that the exigencies of the
government require, and In distributing
the burden it should be distributed not
as matter Of charity to help the Dis
trict out with so much revenue that 1t
cannot pay, but there must be some place,
some line of demarcdtion. Uhere you con
determine that the government ought to
pay certain portion Of the burden and
that the people Of the District ought TO
bear the other portion; and Uhen yon fT
that, then you ought not to Levy dollar
more of tares than the ert0enctes Of the
government require. You do not want to
levy taxes on the people unless your gov
government. Therefore. l say that the
logical way to settle this proposition is
to have determination as to what Is
the fair share for the government to pay.
and after you have sacertained that fair
share then levy your taxes accordingly"
1t Is obvious that If the indefinite con-
tribution plan which was in force prior
to 1878 should be resorted TO in the
future, the same difficulties will occur
which formerly arose Indeed. those diff
culties would be aggravated. because the
amounts involved grow larger and larger
as time goes on. Every succeeding Con-
gress. with it's new members. wholly UNI
acquainted with the subject. will be
startled by having an appropriation bill
presented in which 1t will appear that the
government is paying all the expenses OF
the District government
The Inevitable tendency would be to in
crease the taxes and to lessen the gov
ernnent's contribution.
Uncertainty and Confusion.
The uncertainty and confusion which
would prevail in Congress from year to
year when the District appropriation mat
ters arc under consideration. IL the
indefinite contribution plan should be
adopted. is indicated by the discussions
the Senate in the recent session For in
strongest objection to the indefinite con-
tribution plan is that the citizens of the
District in ''clamoring for appropriations"
would not be held back by the fact that
the District would have to pay half.
The pages of history are full Of illustra-
lions of the principle that where one
body of men have absolute power over
another, that power will be abused. As
was said by Senator Root when this Ques-
ton was under discussion in the Senate
last winter, and he had announced that
he stood for the "old half a nd half PLAN
it is the sole protection OF the people
of Washington against our arbitrary
rule
Senator Lee, on the same occasion,
after stating that he had heard an
eminent representative from Kentucky