Evening star., 1923-10-15
Wanted-A Decently Clad Capital.


ot next years clothes. Like Uncle
Sam, the personified Washington is
growing with youthful vigor. Last
years suit was too small for both of
them this year, and next year both
Will have outgrown this years suit.
The most expert of cutters cannot cut
down Il garment already outgrown
and worn out without producing a
ridiculous misiit, Il thing of patches
and tatterS. Washington and Uncle
Sam must both be decently and even
comfortably clad.
The wise declared purpose Of the
budget makers is not wautonly to cut
and mutilate estimates, and to deny
arbitrarily the satisfaction of genuine
needs. either national or at the Capt.
al municipal, but to coordinate, sys-
lematiZe and harmonize expenditures,
to prevent Implications, to eliminate
extrdvaganCe and waste and TO secure
for the community 100 cents of well
fare promotion for every dollar spent.
No administration can wisely and
safely cut millions or hundreds of mil
.ious from this years appropriations
70 meet next years needs without find
iuS ana eliminating unnecessary ex-
Dcnditurcs in that amount. Indeed,
lhe total Of next years appropriations
should not be reduced by the full
amount of present unnecessary ex-
penditures, on the theory that the real
needs of next year will be no greater
than those of today. For neither ma
ton nor Capital, both expanding every
day in size, in strength and in needs,
can stand still in provision for main.
tenance and development.
Denunciation Of the improbable ser
want in the scriptural parable sug-
gests divine as we'll as human disap-
proval Of such handling of a trust,
either national, municipal, commercial
or domestic, that the subject matter
IF the trust. metaphorically buried in
the earth, knows neither waste nor
increase.
In its function Of eliminating waste
the Capitals municipal expenditure
The budget bureau finds within its
Jurisdiction many instances of pa
Iriotic and doubtless necessary ex-
travagance in Uncle Sans wartime
outlays. which are not duplicated in
the Capitals wartime municipal ex-
penditures. And there are other facts
and considerations which call for
equitable discrimination between Uncle
Sam and personitied Washington in
the wise application Of the sound prin-
ciple upon which the budget bureau
bases its operations.
Thus in appropriating for the Capi.
tai municipality the budget bureau, as
well as Congress. will in equity keep
in mind a that more than so per cent
of the money which they are appOr-
rj0ning among municipal needs will be
contributed by the people of the mu-
nicipality; t2) that the local taxpayers
have accumulated to pay their share
of the cost of meeting the accumulated
unmet municipal needs of the war
time nearly five million dollars, to
which the nation, under the law of
lated, is under obligation to add for
Capital expenditure like amount; 81
that Congress, the Districts local
legislature. has not Yet permitted the
Capital municipality to increase its
revenues by borrowing money through
bond issues like other American mu-
inequalities, and that the money ap-
pr0priated must pay not only for cur
rent maintenance, but for permanent
improvements on the pay-as-yOu-go
basis; and (4 that the post-bellum re-
trenchment OF the nations war ex-
penses, which the budget bureau is
systematically to enforce, has no ap-
plication to expenditures meeting the
municipal needs of the Capital, which
were necessarily neglected and permit
ted TO accumulate unInet i'm the war
time.
For five years we bore, at first in
directly and then directly, the burden
Of world-war conditions and conse-
quences. War monopolized us, our la
bors and our treasures, in patriotic
and self-sacrifcing service.
We must economize now that the
war is over; that is, we must econo-
mize in those matters which relate to
war-making and war-preparedness. We
have been wisely eXtrava CANT in war
expenditures, and this extravaganza is
now to cease. We have not been ex-
travagant, but scrimping and neglect
ful In outlaws for the CaDitalS munich
pal maintenance and development, and
especially in outlays for permanent
public improvements, which have had
no direct relation to war-making.
These wise projects, both Of just
municipal maintenance and Of per-
manent municipal upbuilding, like
those relating to schools, streets and
water-supply plant, properly pushed
aside in order to give Uncle Sam full
swing in the war making function,
ought now to receive from budget bu-
reau and from Congress the thought
full, liberal and sympathetic considera-
tion which they deserve. In respect to
them, not retrenchment of appropria-
ton but deliberate and substantial
increase is the demand of wisdom and
equity. And in meeting now these
great municipal needs neglected In
war time all the resources of the Dis.
trict ought to be utilized, including
the unexpended tax surpIuses Of the
past, reasonable taxation of the pres