Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-14
|PLEASEDAT ACTION
ON D. c. FISCAL PLAN
Henry B. F. mcfarland Com
ments on Senate Restor-
ing HaIf-and-HaIf.
CITIZENS MUST FIRMLY
/, SUPPORT 1T, HE SAYS
Advises That Members of Congress
Be Made Familiar With Sit
uation Here.

Commenting upon the action of the
Senate committee on appropriations re-
storing the half-and-half plan to the
District appropriation bill, Henry B. F.
Mcfarland. chairman Of the joint citi-
zens' committee which has been work.
ing hard for the retention of the pres
ent plan of paying the Districts ex-
penses, said, today:
Gratifying as Is the action of the
Senate committee on appropriations,
we must not rest content with 1t, but
must firmly and actively support it.
The committee has acted wisely and
justly, as we expected 1t would do,
especially after the hearing which it
gave us last month. We are. of course.
hopeful that the Senate, which, on the
recommendation of its committee on
appropriations, killed the similar john
son rider last year by a vote of Al to
20, will adopt the present recommended
ton by even larger majority. But 1t
must be remembered that there are a
number of senators, Including those
who have come into that body since
last year, who are not familiar with
the details of the subject, and would
welcome information from their friends
about it.
1T may we'll be that some of the
senators who voted for the Johnson
rider last year under misleading in
formation as to assessment and taxa
ton in Washington have not read the
report of the joint committee of Con-
gress which destroys the arguments
based on that misinformation and de-
clares that Washington Is now ade-
quately assessed and taxed.
Senators Should Be Informed.
Every senator should be handed by
some one in whom he has confidence
copy of the report Of the Joint COM
mittee of Congress and OF the illu-
minating analysis of that report made
by the Board Of Trade special commit
tee, copies of which can be had at the
Board of Trade Office. Senators who
read those documents, as members OF
the Senate committee on appropria-
tons have done. will readily see: First,
that the proposed legisla ton in the
rider has no place in an appropriation
bill; second. that it is absolutely con-
trary to the tenor and spirit of the
report of the joint committee Of Con-
gress, and third, that the foundation
argument for the similar rider last
blown up by the joint committee OF
Congress when it accepted the fact
presented by our joint citizens COM
mittee showing that Washington as
sessment and taxation is not only ade-
quate, but more than equal to the av-
erage assessment and taxation in
American cities and greater than that
in a great majority of cities having
more than 10000 population in 1913 as
shown by the census bureau reports.
The Johnson rider of last year,
which is practically the same as the
present rider, had no other real argu-
ment than the untrue and misleading
statement of the Henry George. jr.. re-
port to the House in 1912 that Wash
ington was underassessed and under
taxed, and If properly assessed and tax
ed might and should carry the whole
burden of the National Capital With
that argument destroyed by the report
of the joint committee of Congress
there is no excuse for even considering
the radical change in the fundamental
law proposed by the rider. But II such
a revolutionary change is ever to be
made it ought to be considered first in
, the legislative committees of the House
and Senate appointed for the purpose
and to which the rules of both houses
confne the consideration of general
legislation.