Evening star., 1916-06-22

full surplus into the Treasury as mis-
cellaneous receipts. and thus devoting
| District funds to national uses.
| Examination of what has been accom-
i plished in past administrations ia mu
nicipal betterment by this District
revenue above the cost of current mu-
nicipal maintenance and Of what the
present Commissioners proposed to ac-
complish with it in such municipal
betterment and of the outstanding
the Anacostia fats reclamation. Great
Falls power development and high
pressure fire-fighting system for the
business section will convince any un-
biased investigator that much more
than the revenues derived under the
organic act can wisely and economical
ly and in the public interest be ex-
pended on the wonderfully developing
capital.
Since the tax burden imposed upon
the Washingtonian by the present sys-
tenn is reasonable. neither too light nor
much too heavy. and since the fund de-
rived from this reasonable taxation,
when doubled. will not exceed the
amount required for capital Mainte-
nance and development, no change OF
disturbance of the existing financial
relation should for q moment be con-
sidered.
Legislation That Washington Needs.
The immediate legislation urgently
needed by Washingtonians is disclosed
in the hearings before the joint commit
tee.
% The law arbitrarily limiting the
Commissioners annual estimates should
be quickly repealed. 1t prohibits the
statement by the Commissioners and
the satisfaction by Congress of the act
ual needs of the District. 1t prevents
the nation, inevitably. from meeting
fully its capital obligation. 1t auto
matiCally inSureS an uneXpended sur
plus of District tax money. 1t accom-
plishes. as Congress applies 1t. no good
purpose whatsoever. The Commission
erS' estimates, in accordance with the
spirit of the joint committees report.
should disclose to Congress Washing
toms genuine municipal needs. both for
current maintenance and for permanent
improvements; and the responsibility
for appropriating all or only part OF
these estimates should Gas it does) rest
solely on Congress.
(2) The effect of the report of the
joint committee is to vindicate in prin-
ciple the treatment of the half-and-half
provision as not necessarily applying
arbitrarily and separately to each year
considered alone, but to the average OF
a series of years. The joint committee
points out that District expenditures
since 1878 have been in the aggregate,
though not in every year viewed sepa-
rately. on the half-and- d-half basis. The
committee expresses the belief that
this fact is evidence of design, not an
accident. and that the nation thus not
only intended to carry out. but did
carry out. it's half lf-and-half promise.
Under the present practice. which
puts local taxation before congressional
appropriation, the half-and- half provi-
sion is not and cannot be arbitrarily en-
forced and literally obeyed in any one
year. But in the long run. in the future
as in the past. this provision can be en-
forced and obeyed.
Why not go ahead in the future in
general conformity with this practice.
thus vindicated in principle by the joint
committee? The only legislation neces-
sary will be a provision to put the sur
plus of District tax money in any year
into the Treasury, not as miscella-
neous receipts, to be merged with ma
tional money and lost to the District,
but, as the joint committees report de-
scribes it. as "a trust fund for the ben
eft of the District of Columbia
to be expended in the government of
the District of Columbia and for no
other purpose"
Repeal of the law limiting the Com
missioners estimates will permit Con-
gress to consider in appropriations the
full needs of the District, and the sur