Evening star., 1916-04-14

7
accomplish that for which We petition, We
are now asking for this very constitu-
| tional amendment.
| The effect Of this amendment il not
to admit the District into the Union
| rs n state, but to give to the 35O.OOO
Americans residing in the "Ten miles
square" under the exclusive control of
Congress the same representation as
citizens of n state In Congress and the
electoral college.
| Not n new state. hut n new political
status In created or evolved. This
amendment operates supplement
fning explicitly in view Of the changes
| of more than a century the political
, sfntus of the residents OF the federal
District. 1t alters the existing law of
conGressfOnal and electoral college rep
resentatfOn and creates a new Ameri-
can constituency with representation in
Congress and the electoral college: not
new state, but politically uplifted
District of Columbia. nm enfranclliSed
ten miles square. already created and
| made unique by the Constitution. This
new factor In our scheme of national
government representation may be un-
usual. peculiar. extraordinary, hut 1t is
not so unusual. peculiar and extraordi-
nary as the original creation and pres-
ent-day retention by the great republic
of the totally unrepresented ten miles
| square. a district physically within the
United States, even containing it's cap
ital. but politically outside Of the Unit
ed States.
The states uniting under the COnsti-
tuition had the power which they exer-
cised of creating this unique unrepre-
sented capital-cOntaining. natiOn-cOn-
trelled District. Two-thirds Of Con-
xress and three-fOurths of the states
have the same power. which they should
exercise, to give to the 35O.OOO people
of this unique District an equally
unique political status.
Political Status Not Unchangeahle.
The problem of square deal
politically for Washingtonians is not
solved by the arbitrary dictum that
their status is Interchangeable. that
their political impotency is incurable,
that their voteless un-American condition
was voluntarily accepted by them more
than a century ago, and is not, therefore,
through all eternity to become AT any
time a reasonable subject of complaint.
The century-old surrender of the Ameri-
can birthrjght of national representation
was only for a time and not for all time.
Are we prohibited from contemplating
| changes in the political status OF the
Washingtonan? Are We forbidden to
| consider what that status should be in
future by the authoritative declaration
that the Washingtonians condition was
unalterably fixed at the beginning of the
republic by the ten-miles-square provision
of the Constitution, and that what he was
after. the Maryland cession he is now and
ever Shall be?
We are told that this SO % that this
provision of the Constitution is in some
unexplained fashion not subject to amend
l IL H.
the laws of the Medes and Persians: CD
that this provision means that the Wash
ingtonian can never exercise any Ameri-
can rights which he did not possess just
after the city was born, and that these
rights are the right to petition and to
emigrate, to supplicate or evacuate, to
beg or get out. these being also the altern-
atives submitted by Castro or a Ze-
laya to his subjects, and that go when
he became d Washingtonian, whether by
birth or by railroad or other transporta-
ton agency, he did with full notice
that the Washingtonians of over a CEN
tury ago had bound him irrevocably to
this status with it's disa bilities, and that
by being born here or railroaded into the
city he accepts these disabilities as per-
petual.
The ten-mileS-sauare provision of the
Constitution is as readily amendable as
any other provision if the conditions have
changed which furnished the reasons for
it's enactment (2) The provision does
not mean what it is construed meaning
and no amendment of it is necessary.
clared but there 4 no prohibition against
future representation of the District in
the Congress which is to exercise this ex-
elusive contres The Marylanders and
Virginians who were marooned in the
District of Columbia were too few in num-
bers to be represented on a state footing
in Congress a separate community,
and. having lost their rights Mary
landers and Nirginians they were never
until recently in a position of population
and resources to ask consideration as Il
distinct community. But the ConStitu-
ton does not prohibit such request or d
ia vora BILE response to it, when the chang
ing and changed conditions justify. tst
The Washingtonian is no more committed
to refrain from fighting to alter for the
better his political. judicial or material
Rican or the Alaskan. There is no solid
foundation for the charge that the Dis
trict (when nearly uninha bited) volun-
tarily resigned its right of distinct repre-
sentation and irrevocably adopted the
whole body of Congress Gncluding its
bitter enemies and its lukewarm friends)
as the representa- yes of its interests.
What was the intent of the forefathers in
respect to the WashinStonidnS, the in
habitants of the ten miles square? Madi-
son. commenting in the Federalst on
their status, said:
LAS they will have had their voice in
is to exercise authority over them: as
a municipal legislature for local pur-
poses derived from their own suffrages
will. of course. be allowed them
every Imaginable objection seems to
be obviated.
Madison's idea was that the com
munity should have a local elected
Legislature. and it did have a shadowy
imitation of municipal selfgovernment
for nearly three-quarters of century
In the beginning the nation had no
great property interests at the capital
which required it to control the local
government in seIf-protection.
At that time it was the impecunious
partner, the beneficiary of patriotic
charity. 1t had at the capital onlv
what was given it in jurisdiction and
money contributions by Maryland and
Virginia and in land by the individual
owners of the soil. The proceeds of
sales of part of the lots thus donated
much more than paid the cost of the
public buildings.
Conditions have changed. The ma
tional government is now very large
property owner at the capital and
halifax payer. 1t feels that for the
protection of it's interests it must dom
mate the local government.
Under these changed col, ditions the
local legislature. which. according to
Madison. would. of course be granted
to Washingtonians. has been denied.
The conditions have also changed in
respect to the local community as an
applicant for representation in Con-
gress and the electoral college The
feeble population of the infant capital
was denied representation because