Evening star., 1924-12-10
The National Park Plan.


1t was appropriate that the sub
3ect of the park development OF the
District should be considered at the
recent meeting of the Association of
Oldest Inhabitants, with the director
or national parks ana the officer in
charge of public buildings and grounds
at the Capital as guests of honor. For
the elder Washingtonians have wit
messed the development OF Washing
ION as park city. ard many of them
have taken active and helpful part in
the process in aiding in securing
legislation and appropriations to this
end. Their memory reaches to the
time when the park development of
the Capital was haIting and slow and
Grudgingly permitted by Congress-
They have seen the evolution of
the grand scheme Of reservations
and drives, which, though yet incom-
plete, will make Washington the most
attractive city in the world in point
OF open spaces devoted to public rec
reation and pleasure.
A new law is in force. creating a
commission for the consideration and
proposal Of park projects, the devel-
opment of existing areas and the es-
tablishment of new ones to complete
the general plan. 1t provides for the ex-
ecuton of these projects by appropri-
ations equal to cent for each inhab-
liant of the United States If Congress
will appropriate at that scale it will
not take many seasons TO complete
the general program.
The Park Commission law was en-
acted upon the basis Of the substan-
tive law relating to the cost of Dis
trict maintenance. which divides the
cost Of Capital support and develop
ment between the District and the
Federal Government in fixed proper
Tion. That substantive law was ig-
nored and departed from at the last
session of Congress in the framing of
The District appropriation bill, which,
for the current fiscal year only, pro-
vided for the payment of a lump sum
Of Federal money in lieu Of the 40
per cent Of the total specified by the
new organic act.
1t is the simplest equity that in car
rying out the Park Commission law, in
terms of executed plans, the financial
basis upon which it was enacted
should be respected; that is to say,
that the money appropriated on the
1cent-per-person scale from Federal
funds should be matched with Dis
trict money on the 1880 ratio.
The sudden, arbitrary and inequita-
hle departure from the fixed ratio
principle last session has a demoraliz-
ing effect in many ways. Departure
from the principle Of definite pro-
portion makes uncertain all plans of
financing the District. 1t affects harm
fully the prospect of the Districts Sc
curing upon proper terms Of accom-
paniment by Federal dollars the
use of its own tax money accumulated
in the Treasury through several years
of non-appropriation.
The present park. development
scheme is broadly national, distinctly
made so by the provision of a ratio
OF Federal appropriation on the pop
illation basis. Each person of the
United States is by this statute to
contribute 1 penny year, for long
enough period to permit the compile
1ion of the project, for the extension
and development of the parks of the
National Capital, the city of all Amer
leans. The District is to contribute
its share. according to the fixed ratio
principle of Capital maintenance es-
tablished originally in 1873 at $3.50
and changed by amendment definitely
in 1922 to 60-40.
- The District confidently expects
that Congress will recognize this
equity in it's execution by enactment
and appropriation of the works rec
arnmended by the Park Commission
which it created and to which it in
trusted the task Of proposing these
Capital-completing works. -