Evening star., 1928-10-28
BIZ John CLAGETT PRoCToR.

w YITH the great national cleo
ton just nine days OF,
NV Washington reminds me OF
the painting Left Behind,
showing q faithful dog on
the pier sadly observing his master pull
ing into the stream and gradually re-
ceding from view. There will be $4,000
residents of the States domictled in
the District of Columbia who will assist
in determining by their respective votes,
either in person or by mail, who shall
be inaugurated the President of the
United States Of America on March
4, 1929. Five hundred thousand more
of the best people of the country must,
according to iaw-but not according to
Justice stand aside, while the deni-
zens of the slunls of New York, of the
slums of Boston, the Slums of Chicago,
the slums of Philadelphia and the
sluns all over this great country of
ours assist by the ballots of their resi-
dents in telling us who shall be the
Chief Executive Of the republic that
has brought democracy to the world,
but which has failed to bring the great
est of all privileges of freedom, the
ballot, to the National Capital
What laughing stock we must be
to the people of Great Britain with
whom we fought from the battle of
Lexington to the surrender of York
town for what the Declaration of In
dependence sets forth as life, liberty
and the pursuit Of happiness" How
can a people be happy with everybody
III the United States voting-even now
to the Indians-when we here in Wash
ington are denied this sacred right?
If taxation without representation"
was tyranny in 1765, when the Revolu-
tionary War was in the making, is it
not even SO today? The Declaration
tells us that "* all experience has
fflown That mankind are more disposed
TO suffer, while evils are sutferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accus-
toned"
Since the election of Thomas Jeffer-
son in 1900 the people of the District
Of Columbia have been deprived of a
vote for the presidency, and have always
been denied representation in Congress,
except for a brief period from 1871 to
1875, when Gen Norton P. Chapman,
an unusually able man, served as Dele
gate in Congress from the District,
about as useless an Office as could be
accorded to the City of Washington.
We stand ready to prove if necessary
that there is not another community in
the world of the same population which
exceeds in patriotism, in intelligence, in
moral standing or in the producing of
revenue for the maintenance of the
State the people of the District of
Columbia.
SPEAKING of the interested audi
~ ence in front of The Star Office
a few years ago, which listened to the
returns from the congressional elections, |
The Star said: "The crowd was good
natured. Washington, voteless, the |
majority of its residents without fran
ch3se, is loyal, and always takes first |
place for its size, whether in sending |
boys of to war, selling liberty bonds, |
civic pride, or just in handling itself |
as a patriotic American community It |
is estimated that fully $4,000 votelesS |
citizens watched The Stars screen last |
night. Denied the right to vote, they |
wanted to see what was done by those |
who had the privilege"
And so it will be on November s, ex-
cept that the crowd will probably num-
ber twice as many. All Washington |
will turn out that night eagerly, |
anxiously awaiting the news from the |
States telling that one of the principal |
candidates has been elected and the |
other defeated. Each will have his sup
porters in success; each his sympathiz- |
ers in defeat. And while all this is |
going on may the people of the United |
States pause just long enough to look
back to almost the middle of the At |
lantic Seaboard, to the Capital City OF