Evening star., 1927-12-08

with the joint action of these three
orga nizations in sending to the Com
missioners a letter expressing their
views on the principles which should
govern the drafting of the budget Tor
the fiscal year of 1929. have created
the erroneous impression in some
minds that for the first time the va
rious citizens orCa MIA tions of the
city have combined in united express
sion OF views on fiscal and budgetarN
matters.
But for - wears the three great or.
CARNATIONS referred to and many
others. including the strong Fedora.
tion of Citizens Associations. have
heen co-nperating vigorously to secure
fair plav for the District in its fiscal
relations.
Old Charges Proven.
Some of the arguments today are
similar to the arguments OF l. years
ago. The principles laid down y
years go by the citizens of Washing
ton hold good today. Statements
made Il years ago aS nropheSleS OF
what would happen if threatened ac-
tions were carried into effect have as
sumed added strength through actual
demonstration Of the result of these
actions.
And for this reason ii ia interesting
to review the work Of an or.a niZation
of Washington citizens which was
formed |" ycars ago by joint action
of important civic associa tons of the
District. which for u years has en-
acted the double role Of alert sentinel
and able counsel. part of the time
noting dangerous tendencies on Capt.
tol Hill. the rest of the time going to
the Capitol to argue them down. The
orga niZation referred to Is the till-
zens' Joint Committee of the District
of Columbia on the fiscal rela tion le-
tween the United States and the Dis
trict of Columbia. The organization
has never been dissolved. ii is at
work today.
The half-and-half system OF appro.
priatinG for the District of Columbia
created hy the organic act of 1873, and
under which the American Capital
was developed from an ugly country
town with unlie ehted. muddy streets
to a city in which every American
citizen may take deserving pride,
for. many years had been held up as
a target for attack in the House. But
1t was in 1915 that these attacks be-
came extraordinarily vicious and were
accompanied by number of radical
and short-sighted proposals to ditch
the half-and-half plan and place the
cost of maintaining and developing
the District on the shoulders of Dis
trict residents alone. Some inf1uen.
tial members of the House seemed
suddenly to become obsessed with the
idea that the half-and-half plan was
a devilish manipulation of figures by
W inI, Trpit NJ
was being imposed upon and defraud-
ed of funds.
Grave charges were made to the
effect that assessments in Washing
ton were ridiculously low and that
the tax rate was far beneath the tax
rate of comparable American COM
munities. The basis for many al
legations concerning the taX-dOdging
procliyities and mendicant activities
of the residents of the District was
the report of committee of the
House. which, in 1912, had adopted
the erroneous conclusions of it's inves-
tigator that fair valuation on Wash
fngton real estate was $1i4,000, 900.
Using this valuation, it was estimated
that if reasonably and justly taxed.
Washington would easily yield reve
nue. of 1000, 900. AS the District ap-
tion-for the fiscal year 1916-only
called for s12. 900 900. this revenue
would exceed it by $4,000. 600. There
fore, it was argued, there was no
longer need for an appropriation Of
Federal funds The District should
he taxed on the basis Of this 1912
valuation of $744000. 900. The $l4.-
10000 thus raised should be turned
into the Treasury.
C0nfiscatiOn Planned.
Twelve million dollars should be ap-
propriated to take care of the needs
of the District. and the balance Of
s., 900. 900 confiscated to the use of the
Federal Government. 1t might have
been used to build a post office in
California or a bridge i'm Texas. For
theoretically the collection of Dis.
trict revenue and the appropriation
of District revenue would be sepa-
rate and distinct transa ctions. and
the people of Washington would ha We
been taxed 1000, 900 more than the
total of their municipal expenditures.
with no right, power or opportunity Y
to find out what bcame OF the con-
fiscated surplus. Although the $744.-
000, 900 valua ton of Washington realty
In 1912 was shown to be grossly exces-
sive. as it had included. instead of
excluding. more than SOS, 900 900 of
personally, and later scientific
valuation i'm 1915 brought the figure
down to S5S5 900. 900, members of the
House continued to base their esti.
mates of Washingtons potential rev.
enue upon this earlier valuation.
In addition to direct proposals, such
as the Crisp bill, based on the mis-
leading valuation of 1912. to do away
with the organic act and the definite
system of fixed ratio in appropriations
all sorts of devices We're resOrte,l to
in the hope Of reaching the same end.
y An amendment to the appropriation
hill for 1916, proposed by Representa-.
tive Johnson of kentucky, for in.
stance, would have done away with
the .proportlonate system and substi.
tuted an indefinite system. This
amendment passed the House. IT was
sustained in conference and WAS de.
feated only by close vote after the
decision by the House and Sena te
in March of 1915 TO. create a select
joint congressional committee EN-.
! powered to investigate the subject OF
, fiscal relations between the Disfri
and the Federal governments and To
report on what proportion should be
borne by each.
District Under Fire.
Before the final decision 10 appoiilt
this investigating committee. how.
. ever, the District was under a con.
i stant barrage of Vindictive fire in the
House. WashinGtonians were repre-.
sented as beggars Of national aims
masqueradng as poor, when in eality
so the assertions went they were
more than we'll equipped to pay en-
tirely for developing the Capital
Representatives declared that the ful
I obligation Of municipal maintenance
and Capital development rested upon
the taxpayers Of Washington One
measure proposed to increase taxes
(. here so per cent. Another one pro
posed 100 per cent. Summing it up
nroninent members of the House