Evening star., 1915-12-08

'
saults the organic act has served as our
shield and buckler. preventing incon-
siderate and destructive legislation by
the last Congress, and causing the VIA
| issues TO come before a just trlbunaI
the JOINT congressional committees
equitable and intelligent consideration
Looks for No Radical Change.
Whatever notifications in our munic-
lpal constitution for thirty-seven years
the joint committee may recommenS,
| Washingtonians have confidence that
the wise and just principles of the leg
| islat!on of 1878 will be preserved, and
| that equally effective self-imposed
pledges of a full national meeting OF
the capital obligation, and equally ad-
| equate equitable safeguards against
| unjust and excessive local taxation, will
be devised and enacted to take the
place OF the wise provisions of the or
ganic act.
The first president of the Oldest In
habItants' Association came to Wash
| ington in 1901; the latest, the incum-
bent. came here in 1858. Their lives
| overlap. and between them the entire
period of the life of the capital is COW
| cred.
May we, the Washington'an of to-
daS, so play our parts devoted
| WashinStonlans and loyal Americans
| that the president of the Oldest Inhab-
Itants' Association in 1865 may point
| with pride to as wonderful a develop
| ment of the capital and of the nation
! IN the half century then closing as that
! wrought in the last fifty years, the full
appreciation of which thrills and in
| spires us tonight
Previous Warning Recalled. .
Two years ago in this place and on a
like occasion (the forty-eighth ami
versary of the association / sounded
| a metaphorical call to arms to the as
sociation in a campaign in defense of
| our city against the assaults of those
| who would undermine or destroy the
| organic act in order to overburden the
| people of the city with unbearable and
| runous taxation.
II said:
resolution, in the relations of
Uncle Sam and Washington's inhabit-
| ants. old and young. is threatened. The
| equitable compromise settlement of
| 1873 is treated as if it settled nothing,
or rather it is treated if it disposed
forever of all the pre-eXisting equities
of the Washingtonian and left all of
Uncle Sans equities intact One lesis-
lator proposes the repeal of the half
and-half provision Of the organic act,
total reputation of the nations obli-
CATION under that agreement
| Inhabitant that the local community is
no more able today to perform unaided
the nations task of capital building and
maintenance on grand national scale
than it was in the sixties and seventies of
| the last century 1t is more populOuS and
prosperous and has more resources. but
the National Capital standards of lfe
and the municipal cost of living have in
creased in vastly greater proportion.
And l concluded:
u fhn trIf FaI ntl,a
Washingtonian will feel stronger inn
pulse to buckle on his armor and to fight
for Washington, thus assailed, than the
| Oldest Inhabitant and since the impend-
| ing battle is one not Of physical strength.
but of reason, of logic. of equity. the
, rheumatism and other physical ailments
| of the Oldest Inhabitant may not prevent
him from enlisting in this war and from
rendering good service in the cause
Battle Has Been Continuous-