Evening star., 1925-01-11

| organic act of 1873 for the fiscal
| years 1900 to 1920, inclusive, makes
| the same conclusive demonstration.
! 90 Congress, in 1903, recognized
| that there could be and would be
such things as surplus revenues of the
| District by directing that the ad-
| Vances which it was then making to
meet District tax deficits should be
reimbursed to said Treasury from
time to time out of the surplus rev.
enues of the District of Columbia"
(6) After District deficits had been
converted into surpluses, Congress
| recognized the existence of such sur
pluses in the Treasury by applying
| portions of these surpIuses TO the
payment of alleged ancient indebted
| nesses of the District to the United
| States, by law specifically transfer
ring to the United States sums from
"the amount in the Treasury of the
United States to the credit of the Dis
| trict of Columbia"
surpIuSes and Deficits.
ca The United States has recog-
nized credit items in it's favor accru-
| ing from deficits in District tax rev.
enue created by the operation of the
| half and half law and has reimbursed
| itself from District revenues with in
terest for advances to meet these def
| icits. 1t cannot, legally or equitably,
refuse to recognize the corresponding
debit items in the shape of surpluses
of collected and uneXpended District
taxes.
(S) The United States recognized
this equitable principle in dealing
with surpluses or deficits in applying
for two years (iscaI years 1921 and
1929 the temporary sixty-forty ratio
in District appropriation bills by car
rying over surpluses or deficits into
the succeeding year.
The legal obligation thus created
and thus demonstrated to exist is
not weakened but strengthened by
equitable and moral considerations.
There are no offsets in the shape
of United States credits, either in the
period since 1873 or the period be-
tween 1874 and 1873, other than those
siOnaI joint committee, to make a net
| reduction of the reported amount of
the Districts present tax surplus.
The legal and moral obligation thus
demonstrated to exist is equitably
satisfied only by the application of the
surplus in accordance with the half
and half law, under which 1T was ac-
| cumulated to meet the Districts half
of the expense of neglected municipal
| needs of the war time. which negIects
permitted it's accumulation. AppIica-
tion of the surplus under any other
| ratio is inequitable.
III.
Examination of the wording of the
law which authorized the collection
of the tax money constituting this sur
plus makes perfectly clear the sound
ness of the Districts contention that
this tax money cannot equitably be
appropriated unless accompanied by a
corresponding appropriation from the
Treasury.
Equitable Disposal of Surplus.
There are four alternatives in dis
posing of the District surplus:
l. Apply it in accordance with the
half -and-half law, under which it was
accumulated, to meet neglected mu-
nicipal needs of the wartime which
neglects permitted its accumulation
Preferably apply it in a lump, dupli-
Gated under the half f-and- half law, to
some great and urgent permanent i'm
provement which requires for eco
nomical and speedy completion a
much larger amount than can be
spared from current revenues after
providing for essential current main
tenance; like, for example, the in
crease of local water supply, an urg-
ent vital need, requiring millions to
meet 1t. Or use it to bring our school
buildings up to date in number and
equipment, another need demanding
millions of immediate expenditure.
Or apply the accumulated unexpended
taxes to satisfy any accumulated
unmet needs. Note the reports of
the District Commissioners, in which
they show the extent to which cur
rent needs, both of maintenance and
permanent improvements, have been
neglected during the time in which
this so-called surplus has been ac-
cumulating. The surplus merely rep
resents money that ought to have
been applied in the past as the Dis
trict's proportionate contribution to-
ward meeting the needs to which the
Commissioners have called attention
and failing to be thus applied in the
past. II ought to be devoted now to