Evening star., 1916-12-15
A District Referendum.

public sentiment in the District on
vital local issue, it should so frame the
referendum legislation as to secure the
real opinion of the whole capital COM
munity. District residents who are here
as employees Of the national govern
ment constitute numerous, an inteHi-
gent and most valuable factor in the
city's population. The fact that some
of them, denied state and national rep
resentation in the District, have retained
such representation in their home states
has not the slightest tendency to pre-
vent Congress from securing and profit
ing by their opinion in an advisory ref
erendum concerning some local issue,
important to the local community of
which they are an integral part. The
referendum legislation should be so
framed as to facilitate and to assure
participation in the voting by the whole
Of this class of District residents
If the subject of the referendum is
prohibition, involving moral issue and
raising problems which directly affect
the home, it is peculiarly appropriate
that the opinion of the women of the
community should be secured as well
as that of the men.
By adopting in its entirety some ap-
proved system of election machinery
now in operation, or by intrusting the
details of an effective system to be
worked out by reliable local officials,
Congress can further assure that the
vote under a referendum shall repre-
sent the honest conviction of the whole
community on the subject submitted to
its consideration.
In any referendum which may be au-
thorized this community of 100000
Americans will feel that it is on trial
as to its fitness to participate, not mere
ly in an advisory referendum concern
ing single local issue. but on the same
basis as other Americans in the national
councils through representation by con-
stitutional amendment in Congress and
the electoral college.
National necessity requires national
control through Congress of the nations
city, but this necessity should, it is
agreed, be met in a way to involve
minimum violation of the American
principle of representative government.
This principle demands that every
legislature shall voice in legislation the
opinions and wishes of those whom it
represents. Congress as local leglsla-
ture of community which has not
elected it must in equity approximate
compliance with this American and rep
resentative principle by acting as if it
had been chosen by the capital com
Inunity 1t should as a consequence rep
resent in such local legislation reason
able public opinion among its capital
constituents, in due subordination,
however, TO the paramount national in
terest This local public opinion on
legislative issues of sufficient impor-
tance to warrant the trouble and ex-
pense involved is wisely and reliably
ascertained through carefully safe
guarded referendum vote.
The national necessity which requires
that the nation through Congress shall
control the nations city does not re-
quire that the capital community shall
not be represented, like other Ameri-
cans, in the Congress which thus CON
trolls it.
And the questions ON this subject which
Washington has been asking may at this
time appropriately be repeated:
"Who is there in all the world who
does not think that the $50 900 Ameri-
cans in the seat of government OF the
United States are entitled to representa-
tion in the legislature which alone
makes laws for them and taxes them
and may send every man Of them to
war, perhaps to be wounded or killed!
. Who contends that these 800 900 Amer
leans are not as intelligent. as patriotic,
as public spirited, as American in short,
as the same number of Americans any
where else in the United States, or as
the smaller number of Americans col
iected in six of the states9
"What new state has ever been ad-
mitted TO the Union which at the time
of admission had so large, so intelligent
and so thoroughly American popula-
tion as the District! What new state
at the time Of admission, measured as
TO its taxable resources, was raising so
much in local taxes, and contributing so
much in national taxes, as the District
of Columbia! The District TO-DAY is
contributing in national taxes, to be dis
bursed by legislature in which it is
not represented, greater amount alb
solutely than twenty two of the states
and greater amount per capita than
thirty-six of the states.
Though the District can make this
showing of fitness for admission to the
Union as a sovereign state, no demand
for such admission is presented. Our
proposed legislation confirms the ma
fional control of the nations city and
the exclusive legislation clause of the
Constitution is untouched.
"All that is asked is that the Constitu-
fion announce or empower Congress to
declare that residents of the seat of
government are on the same footing as
citizens of the states in relation only to
Congress, the electoral college and the
courts Of the United States.
"This action, though it will Ameri-
canize community, now politically