Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-06

there were an Inadequate health serv-
ice and sewer department. not even
national police could protect them from
| a devastating epidemic.
Impossible to Determine Service.
"As practical matter. it is abso
| lutely impossible to determine what
part of the police service, taking the
police service alone, is national and
| what part local. Although the number
of policemen stationed at the White
House is varied from time to time, one
may say that this particular national
service is constant factor. But the
| trict look after federal property and
| not one of them could divide his fed
eral work from his local work.
Take the matter Of the embassies
| and legations. Ordinarily they have
only the police protection provided for
every one else, but since the war in
| Europe there was call for additional
protection. OF course. we had to re-
| spond to the extent that we have placed
| men on a fixed post to watch twenty
four hours day the embassies and ie-
cation buildings of every one OF the
amounts to the withdrawal of a GER
| tain number of policemen from the
| service who were accustomed and mad
| been accustomed for many years to
|
| in another six months we can return
| them to the municipal service. Is IL
| possible now, or has it been possible
at any time, or will it be possible at any
metropolitan police force SO many men
| shall be assigned to municipal police
duty and so many to national police
| duty? The answer must be NO!
| What is true of the police is equally
true of the fire department and health
| department and sewer department 1t
| is equally true of every branch Of the
| District government that l know any
| thing about, unless it be the possible
| exception of the public schools.
| I'm the case Of the public schools, OF
course, free education is extended to
! every child and at first blush 1t might
matter AS matter of fact we have
here between $1,000 and 10000 govern
ment employees, leaving out or the
| equation the 500 members OF congress
reau chiefs. We have thousands OF
| civil service employees and their chill
| dren go to these schools and 1t would
| be quite impossible and certainly
would be unjust and negotiable for the
national government to go, as 1T does
| go. through it's civil service commission,
| into every state and territory and hoid
| examinations and get the best qual1ned
to Washington and do government
work, and bring them here on low
salaries and ask them to have their
| children schooled in the way that rev
| residents of the District OF Columbia
would be willing and able to provide
| for them. So that, II you look at 1t IN
it's broad aspect. even the public schools
| in the District of Columbia. on account
of the peculiar character or the popu
| lation here, and the fact that the only
| great employer here is the national
| government, ought to be provided by
| the federal government.
| Obligation of Employer.
at is no new thing to say when one
| employer employs a large mass OF the
! population in any community that ne
| has a very direct obligation with re-
spect to the education of the children
of his employees. Go to almost any cot
ton mill community in New England or
| in the south, and you will find that the
| mills are not only by law compelled to
| pay a large part of the school taxes,
| but that they often provide better
school facilities than neighboring com
munities provide from the public
funds. l have visited public schools In
| the cotton mill communities in the
| south where the school plant was
erected at the expense OF the COTTON
mills and have visited schools where
| the salaries of the school teachers were
| supplemented by additional contribu-
! lions from the mills
| Take the case Of Gary, Ind. The steer
company owned all the property and
paid ali the taxes. but it didn't think 1t
| was sufficient merely to give the people
| what they probably would have voted
| upon themselves if they were paying
| taxes it went far beyond that and. es-
| tablished the Gary school system,
| which has now become model. At
| this time there is an issue on in New
| York as to whether the Gary system.
| adopted in parts of Manhattan, shall
| not be extended to the whole city of
New York Is it fair, then, to say that
| in Washington. where the big employer
| is the government. the school sys-
| tenn is purely local affair. to which
| the government should not contribute?
| Ought not Congress, after all, in deter
| mining what is needed for the pubnc
| schools In Washington, to determine II
| solely with respect to what Congress
| thinks the children need and without
ever asking how much the people who
| live here can or will or are able to
| contribute?
| at has been said before this com
| mittee that the charge for charities and
| corrections is one that ought to be
borne wholly by the local people, and
| that the national government has noth-
ing to do with it. That assertion is
| National Capital we have to deal with
| an unusually large number of CRIMINALS
| and insane persons who are mere soieiy
| because this is the seat of government
l
| of violations of federal statutes than do
| those of any other city and those who
| are convicted frequently become
| charge against the District. Washing
| ton is the haven of cranks who want to
| collect a claim, poor half-craZed IN
ventors who besiege the patent office,
and brok down petitioners OF the fed
| eral government who often become
! charges upon the District either as IN
1 mates of nm insane asylum or as
| paupers.
| 4 axe the matter, for instance, OF 1u-
| dicial expenditures. 1t might be SAID
| that the community ought to pay from
| its own resources all of the expendi-
| lures required for the administration
of Justice Any one who is at all IA
| miliar with the daily routine of the
| courts of the District of Columbia will
| see at once that this is unfair For in
| stance a large part of the time of the
Court of Appeals, the highest purely Dis
| trict court, is taken up with patent
! cases. In fact, more cases concerning
patents are determined in the jurisdic-
| ton of the District of Columbia than
are determined in all the other federal
| courts in the United States. 1t would
be manifestly unfair to charge to the
| people of the District of Columbia the
! major part Of the cost of patent litiga-
tion of the United States. 1t is esti-
mated that one-third of the time of the
Court of Appeals is taken up with such
litigation.
Applies to All Courts.
| "So ton with resnect to the inferior