Evening star., 1915-11-13

1arly that of the site for the Easter
High School. he having been a mem
| tion. He said that the condemnation
proceedings probably give the best in
"Col. Parker" said Senator Works
'if the people Of the District coaIo o, o.
duty in the matter of paying the gov
ernment's share of the capitaIs ex
penses, would they be satlsneo 70 10 o'
away with the half-and-half plan :.
You can't give that assurance, sale
! Col. Parker.
/ But if that assurance could be Civ
| en- said Senator Works.
Then 1 should say Yes" answered
Representative Rafney said that thu
government had never pursued pelic.
which would make the appropriation.
for projects in which the government
was interested fit the revenues IRON
lowstone Park, the operations OF tht
Post Office Department and the gov
ernment operations in Alaska.
Cites Government Park.
'In none of those cases." said Mr.
Rainey, has the government failed tt
appropriate what was required with
out consideration of what the revenue:
would be from those projects. VIII!
should you think that the government
would adopt a different policy with re
gard to the District of Columbia
That's a very nice question. very
nicely put said Col. Parker The
states and territories i'll which those
been interested in those projects.
Congress has always been generou!
to the District of Columbia. up to tn
last two or three years. when tn'
George report was made. The same IN
fluence which has grown up in Con
gress and caused this investig cation ma,
continue to make trouble. II 1t wa
not for that influence, would say tina
you were right :,
Col. Parker testified that he had al
ways opposed suffrage In the Distric.
and that he had never felt any per
sonal loss because he did not have
vote.
He said that he had no doubt bu
what the present assessor was as non
orable and honest ma man t,iat as ef9ne e6ule "
But I have no doubt but what th'
George report had an influence on tn'
assessor in making increases In assess
ments here"
er said that he thought the assessment
of 1915 would have been fair enough
on the whole.
Col. Parker said that he had Otter
thought that the District ought to o.
represented on the floor of the House
by a delegate appointed by the Presi
dent He was opposed to having on
elected because he was against SUI
frage here, he said.
Need of Delegate in the House.
1--WE need some one who knows thu
situation in the District to speak TO
us in Congress- he said. II recall tina
when I was serving once on con
demnation jury a member OF Con
gress rose on the floor of the House
and said that it was possible to pur
chase lard at s400 an acre in Connectl
cut avenue extended, when, as mattel
of fact it could not have been bough
for $4,000. yet there was no one u
deny this in the House"
Representative Cooper here inter
rupted the hearing - state that ne nae
found by personal observation tina
members of Congress would in debate
make statements as being absolutel!
true when they had not investigated
the facts and knew nothing about
them.
81 recall" he said, that one member
of the House attacked bitterly a prom
inent citizen of the District. charging
that he had attempted from year te
year to have Congress buy piece OF
property for use cs a park: that this
citizen had come down in price from
year to year The effort was made to
show that this citizen had attempted
to hold up the government. Yet moth
ing was ever further from the real
facts 1 have since discovered that this
citizen never owned the property in
question, but that the piece of property
he did own had been held at the same
price from year to year.
"I think that after this investigation
the facts that it has developed will
tend to stop attacks by members OF
Congress on prominent citizens in th
District unless the members of Con-
statements on the floor of the House"
A. B. johnson told the committee that
the real trouble was that congressman
were enabled to get up and offer bills
to change the system of taxation in the
District whenever they wanted to,
without reference to what the people
of the District wanted.
Chairman Chiffon said that he would
have to refer to Mr.. Johnson to the
Constitution of the United States for
offer such bills ip the House and
Senate.
Mr.. Thorn on the Stand.
Co-coran Thorn. vice president of the
American Security and Trust Company
member of the citizens joint com.
mittee, the Board of Trade and the
Chamber of Commerce, was the nex1
witness.
Nearly all thes citizens of Washing.
ton with whom I come in contact are
in favor of the retention of the half
and half plan" said Mr.. Thorn. He saio
that he favored the plan because HI
thought on the whole it was fair ant
that it placed a check on taxation II
the District. He said that the Distric
has made good progress under it,
operation.
IF some such plan as suggested b.
the citizens of the District could b.
given an assurance that the govern
ment would pay its full share of th'
expenses of the capital, it would b.
| the ideal plan." said Mr.. Thorn. Blu
| l don't know how that assurance coul,
| be given"
| Taking up the question of a surplus
rolling up in the District under th
| half-and-half plan. Mr.. Thorn said tina
| in his eyes that would be no drawbacl
come in handy for extraordinary i'm
provements in the District. He testi
| fed that taking the assessment of 191
as a whole. it was fair enough. H
| said that he knew of many instance
where the assessment was too high. H
cited the case of his own house. at 1T2
| street, which he bought several year
ago for $4,000 when the basis of as
sessment was over 5000 He sail
| that the assessment was still practical
ly the same, though he had made al
appeal to have it lowered. He spok
also of the properties at 1415 and 141
G street northwest, which he had TIL
management of, saying that they war
assessed at $150,000, on an assessmen
basis of $225,000.
The net return on the assessmen
on these properties" he said, SIS abou
| nor cent and on the assessment ba ST