Evening star., 1925-02-03
The District Parks Campaign.

The District Parks Campaign.
The Capital community is deeply
concerned in putting into practical
operation the law providing a park
commission for the National Capital
and authorizing for park development
large appropriations and expenditures.
Washington's policy has ever been
to preserve its priced park heritage,
to protect it's public breathing places
against all injurious trespassers,
whether railroads, individual squat
ters, or the brick and mortar or stone
of public buildings; and to enlarge,
improve and adorn it's park areas.
The report of the president of the
Oldest Inhabitants Association for
1924 (printed, q, in part, elsewhere in
The Starr, quoting from the report of
the president of the Board of Trade of
1899, shows how vigorously and help
fully the Capital community partici-
pated in the park campaign which re-
suited in the original Macmillan Park
Commission, and how actively, and in
the same spirit. Washington has CO.
operated in the corresponding cam
paign of today, which has resulted in
the wise creation of the National
Cty's Park Commission.
rhe Park Commission of 1924 is the
natural supplement of the Park Com
mission Of 1901, and, representing
both Nation and local community,
is to be supplied with the funds neces-
sary to put into effect the plans of
the 1901 commission, so far as they
meet with the approval today of the
powers that be.
How are the park funds, amount
ing to many millions, to be obtained?
The law itself gives specific answer to
this question.
This law by its authorization OF ap-
propriations representing a 1-cent an
nual contribution for every one of the
10000, 900 Of Americans suggests that
the project is so broadly national as to
interest at least to the extent of a cent
a year every man, woman and child
in the republic. The title to the parks
to be secured is solely in the United
States. The jurisdiction of the Park
Commission extends beyond the boun-
daries of the District of Columbia.
The law provides that in financing
this great national project the cost Of
such purchases and improvements as
shall be paid in accordance with the
current ratio of relative contribution
by Nation and Capital, whether 1880
or $3.50: THE funds so appropriated
shall be paid from the revenues of the
District of Columbia and the general
funds Of the Treasury in the same pro-
portion as other expenses of the Dis
trict of Columbia"
Clearly the law never contemplated
the possibility that all of the cents
representing the public-spirited and
patriotic interest and concern of no.
600, 900 Americans in a grand national
project could be exacted from the half
million of Americans of Washington
alone.
Four conclusions follow: o. No
friend of fair play should in en-
thusiasm for the park project, but
In violation of the law, urge Congress
to appropriate the Park Commissions
annual million solely from District tax
money, thus making a false pretense
Of the allusion to a cent-a-year con-
tribution by 10000, 900 Americans,
and shifting a national burden upon
the unrepresented and legislatively
impotent District
(2) When Congress appropriates
this annual million for parks, or any
part thereof, in the regular District
appropriation bill or by special act,
scrupulous care should be taken that
In accordance with the law Capital
and Nation meet this joint obligati ton
80 per cent from the Capital and 40
per cent from the Nation. If the Ma
ton in lieu Of its definite 40 per cent
contribution substitutes a Jumps sum
payment it may save or per cent
of the park contribution from the
Treasury contemplated by the law.
But is this saving worth while? Is it
fair?
(3) When the Commissioners submit
estimates to the Budget Bureau, either
regular or special, for appropriations.
for Park Commission purposes they
will naturally, in accordance with
their own precedents and in this case
in accordance with specific law pro-
pose that the park appropriations
shall be paid in accordance with the
current ratio of relative contribution
by Nation and Capital, or 90 per cent
by Capital and 40 per cent by Nation.
"a There is something radically
wrong in the temporary. substitution
of a lumpsum payment for the def
mite 40 per cent of national contribu-
ton if this substitution threatens, as
In this case, to bring about automat-
'cally by indirection a palpably in
equitable and law-violating result.