Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-18
D. c. COST OF LIVING
PROBE ORDERED BY
HOUSE COMMITTEE
Special Board Named to In
vestigate Reasons for
High Prices Here.
LAWS PLANNED TO GIVE
CITY HEADS MORE POWER
Favorable Action Taken on Resolu-
tion Making December 26
Legal Holiday.

first meeting today authorized a sub
committee to. investigate the cost Of
living in the District and took a for
ward step toward cleaning up much
of the legislation that has incumbered
the committee in the past and irked
the members of the House generally
when called upon to pass many trivial
measures. A subcommittee consisting
of Chairman Zihlman and Represent
ative Frank f. Reid of Illinois, Z, r.
Gibson of Vermont, Thomas L. Blan-
ton of Texas and Ralph n. Gilbert OF
Kentucky was appointed to act with
similar subcommittee from the Senate
District committee with d view TO re
porting new legislation that would
give the District Commissioners broad
er authority TO pass upon the minor
matters of street and sewer-extensions.
changing the names of streets, author
iZing the removal of bodies from ceme-
teries, etc, without having to come t.
Congress for specific legislation.
Cost of Living Study.
Standing committees to consider all
phases Of the more important legis-
latiVe measures to come before the
District committee We're appointed.
The special subcommittee was au-
thorized to investigate the cost OF
living here by vote Of II to 8.
This investigating committee was
appointed on motion of Representa-
tive Henry r. Rathbone, Republican.
of Illinois, who was named chairman.
The other members are Representa-
tive Keller. Minnesota; Lampert. Wis
consin; Blanton, Texas, and Hammer
North Carolina. Mr. Rathbone said
that he expects this committee to
begin its investigation during the
next week.
When the slate of standing COM
mittees was under consideration
Chairman Zihlman emphasized that
an effort must be made to work out
the fiscal relationship between the
National Government and the District
of Columbia on a basis that will be
fair 10 District taxpayers and salts
factory to Congress. He pointed out
that g. permanent fiscal policy should
be set up before effective work can
be done in passing upon the broad
proposals for development of the Ma
tional Capital can be planned.
List of subcommittee.
The list of subcommittee appoint
ments confirmed by the committee :
as follows:
Judiciary = Beers. Pennsylvania
Reid. Houston, Delaware; Blanton and
Gilbert
Public utilities-Zihlman, Reid, Lam
pert, Wisconsin; Gasque, South Caro-
lima. and Whitehead. Virginia.
Bathing pools, Fairgrounds and
parks-Gibson, Keller, Minnesota:
Bowman, West Virginia; Gasque and
Little, Kansas.
Insurance and banking laws-Under-
hill, Bowles, Keller, Hammer, North
Carolina, and Little,
Public health. welfare and charity
laws-keller, Stalker, New York;
Houston, Mrs. Norton, New Jersey.
and Gilbert.
Fiscal affairs of the District-Stal-
ker, Bowman, Bowles, Blanton and
Sullivan, New York.
Streets, highways and parks-MC-
Leod, Stalker, Bowles, Hammer and
GaSQue.
Police and firemen-Rathbone, Reid.
Lampert, Sullivan and Hammer.
Elective franchiSe-Reid, Bowman.
Lampert, Hammer and Mrs. Norton.
Investigating the cost of living in
the District-Rathbone. Keller, Lam
pert, Blanton and Hammer.
Price of Necessities
The resolution offered by Mr. Rath-
bone pointed out that the price of the
necessarieS of life seemed TO be eX-
ceedingly high in the District of Co
lumbia, thereby constituting an undue
and onerous burden on its people He
called special attention to recent aC-
tivitieS of certain foreign governments
IN maintaining the price Of certain
products of their respective countries
at an unnecessarily high figure and
in limiting and regulating the supply
of the same to the people of the United
States and the inhabitants of the Dis
trict of Columbia.
Running true to form, the District
committee witnessed today verbal
clash between a couple of its members.
! Mr.. Underhill said he believed he
would have to throw the first monkey
wrench into the peace and good will
| atmosphere of the committee. He de
| clared that from 25 years experience
| in public life he had never seen any
good accomplished by these investi-
eating committees. which. he said,
prove exceedingly expensive, lead no
where, and result in nothing. There
are too many matters of vital interest
to the District to be considered, he
said without the committee dissipat-
| ing it's attention on fruitless investi-
cation. He said that in the last Con
gress the District committee had sue
! ceeded in passing more constructive
! legislation for the National Capital
than had been achieved In many years
| because It confined itself to practical
measures rather than wandering into
the realm of fancy. He said that by
pursuing such fruitless investigations,
| the District committee would discredit
itself with the membership of the
| House He also claimed that the &C
| ton of foreign governments in re
stricting shipments of its products and
boosting prices was not within the pre-
rogative of the District committee, and
! that the whole country Is tired of in
vestigations.
Insists on Good Faith.
Mr.. Rathbone vigorously replied that
he thought such language came with
poor grace from the Massachusetts
member. that his resolution was Of
fered in good faith, that the inveSti-
cation would cost nothing. that it
was in support of recommendations of
Secretary Hoover, that there was no
thought of tinkering with the tariff,
that he found the District suffering
from a reign of high prices, and that
he believed much good could be ac-
complished by his subcommittee.
Mr.. Reid, who has been counsel for
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