Evening star., 1920-05-16
LAMERICANIzE
WASHlNGTONIANS
CONTINUED from First Page. }

money given or loaned or paid in war
taxes to carry on the war or to care for.
protect and comfort our soldiers and
sailors-in donations. for instance. to
the Red Cross and the united war drive
and in liberty bond loans.
The District of Columbia has over
subscribed every war gift and every
war loan. In the third liberty loan.
for example, 1t was exceeded IN per-
|centage of oversubscription of quota
by only three states, and it headed the
list Of states in percentage of popu-
lation (36To) who We're bond buyers.
More than one in every three Wash
ingtonians thus bought third liberty
bonds. In the great second Red Cross
war-fund drive the National Capital
was first amonl: all the states, terri
tories and cities of the United States
in the combination of both percentage
Of quota raised and percentage Of con-
comparisons of war taxes made by the
internal revenue bureau the District is
shown to have paid in national war and
miscellaneous taxes more than any one
Of Is states of the Urion with 80 sena-
tors and 46 representatives. The Dis
trict has 0 senators and representa-
tives.
Comparative War Sacrifices.
The District was called upon and
readily assented to sacrifice to the
national wartime necessities more Of
constitutional and equitable American
rights than were suspended as a
matter of war-emergency in the case
of any other American community
The obligation of leasing contracts,
| for example. was impaired in the Dis
trict and in no other American COM
| munity, though the evil sought to be
| cured prevailed, the authorities say.
| in ffty-seven other cities. The war
took temporarily from Washingto-
mans certain constitutional and euui-
table rights which they already en-
joyed; and it postponed and DELAYED
serious consideration by the nation of
| equitable rights of the Washingto-
mans to which they are entitled. which
they have never enjoyed, and which
are withheld from them in violation
of vital American principles Among
! these rights are the Washingtonian's
| equitable right to national represen-
| tation in Congress and the electoral
| college and to an equal standing with
| other Americans in the courts of the
United States. The granting of these
rights would have been most timely as
/ ~ of
+: gle to substitute representative gov
! ernment for autocracy everywhere.
But Washington did not press its ap-
peal for political equity while the
battle ragged. The nation was too alb
! sorbed in winning the war to heed
it; and Washington was too busy in
helping to win the war to think of
/ ances.
1 Nation Should Act Voluntarily.
1 Washingtonians have not fought
less vigorously and enthusiastically
for their country because these gross
ly unjust discrimina tions, slurring and
degrading their Americanism, have
not been corrected. They have even
refrained in the national interest from
pushing urgently in the wartime for
a redress of grievances. But will the
nation take advantage Of this unself-
ish devotion to perpetuate an evil
sprfngfng from it's own unpatriotic
! neglect, from it's own lack of apprecf-
| alton of the requirement of the spirit
| of true Americnnism. Will not the
nation, irrespective of the just pleas
of the WashfngtOnlans and purely
as a national concern. abolish the evil
and injury-workins paradox of nom
Representative, un-American govern
ment of the National CAPITAL terri
tory under exclusive national control.