Evening star., 1916-07-28
WORKS PROVISION
UPHELD IN SENATE

UuLLU in OLIVHIl
| CONTINUED from First Page.)
Senator Works 'It Is stripped Of all
authority. The District is 4 munich
pality merely in name. The District
government has not power 10 iesis,
late, to collect or pay out money or TO
do anything. The government OF the
| United States, acting through Congress,
has the sole power to do anything In
the District of Columbia"
Would Leave District More Helpless
| Senator Pomerene of Ohio interrupted
to ask If Senator Works did not be-
lieve in granting the people OF the Dis
trict the right to elect delegates to
Congress to represent them on the floor
of the Senate and House.
you would take away tho public
buildings Of the people of the District"
said Senator Pomerene, leave them
without any representation In Con-
gress, more helpless than ever"
proper sense the people OF the Dis.
trict have no public buildings. and that
the District government Is no pro-
lection to the people Of the District.
'I am utterly opposed to anything
like local self-government In the DIS
tuition of the United States, which vests
the sole power in the District in the
federal government, no sucn oouoie
authority can exist"
He added that he did believe the peo-
pie of the District should elect repre-
sentative to Congress, because ne pc,
lieved that all the people of the United
States should have the right to elect
men to represent them in Congress-
Senator Works deplored the contest
which has existed for some years be-
tween the Senate and the House over
the half-andhalf plan. He said that
the House has taken the position that
the people of the District should ne
for the expenses of the District. ana
the federal government should pay
only such part as 1t could not avoid.
Says Only One Side Presented.
He then introduced the subject OF the
hearings before the Joint select COM
mittee of Congress held in the recess OF
Congress, following the fight over the
ha1f-and-half system In the previous ap-
preparation bill debates.
"Only one side of the question was 1:
adequately and scientifically presented,
said Senator Works. land that was the
side maintaining the position that the
half-and- half principle was the just one:
A committee of one hundred was formed
and three able gentlemen from that
committee presented the arguments TO
the joint select committee"
Senator Gallinger interrupted Senator
Works to call attention to the fact tnat
after all the work done by the JOINT
proposed by any member OF the COM
nlittee.
Senator Works continued:
81 recognize there is justice in the
half -and-haH and l am not In sympathy
with the House in the matter at all; but
this is a government affair. There Is
only one treasury and the expenses all
should be paid from it and the people
here should be taxed a reasonable
amount"
Later Senator Works found fault with
the meagre appropriations by the gov
ernment In past years under the nall
and-half.
"The government" he said. has never
half and half has been the bar to proper
appropriations"
Who Should Support the Capital.
At this point Senator Norris offered
the suggestion that there might be no
possible objection to the District of
Columbia paying for the entire ex-
penses of the capital, If the tax rate
is reasonable:
There is no question as to who
should contribute to the support OF the
National Capital" answered Senator
Works. THE government should do 1t,
and the government should levy fair
and reasonable taxes. The people OF
the District of Columbia are afraid
and they have the right to be afraid
nd
then not appropriate the proper amount
of money. There is some foundation
for their fear I want to say that there
are two things which actuate the In
sistence that many of the people of the
District show for the half and-half
One is the fear of overtaxation from
the hands of Congress, the other Is
the fear of inadequate appropriations
Those two things are the secrets of the
insistence upon the half-and- half. They
don't question the justice Of my posi-
tion-in fact many of them say it Is
right-but they are distrustful of Con-
gress in it's dealings with it's own capi-
tai"
Senator Works said that inadequate
appropriations are responsible for Ger
tain slum conditions and hospital con-
ditions in the city. which he bitterly
criticised.
Have Reason to Complain.
There are fire engine houses here in
condition which Is reproach to
Congress" he said. land police stations
in the same condition. So the people
of the District have reason to COM
plain"
He said he had expected the democrat
ic members of the joint select COM
mittee to present legislation to cover
the case as they found it, and was sur
prised that nothing had come of the
hearings and report. He also said 1t
was "a melancholy fact that after Con-
gress had appointed committee and
the committee had worked arduously
for two months Congress- then pays no
attention to the findings"
Senator Chiffon OF West Virginia, q
member of the joint select committee.
asked: rs it not fact that the great
mass of people are against the half
and half?"
people were evidently afraid to express
themselves before the COMMITTEES, fear
ing that it would be unpopular in view
Of the things the committee OF one
hundred was doing. He said that
some people did come to oppose the
half and half and that these made the
Statement that the majority of people
are not in favor of the half and half.
Reads Extracts From Report.
Senator Works read extracts from
the separate report which he had fled
as a member of the joint select COM
mittee investigating the fiscal rela-
,io,s Of the District. While he was in