Evening star., 1928-03-11
INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DISTRICT
FAIL TO HIT THE VITAL POINTS

pleted by the Institute for Government
Research
The Institutes study OF the District
will be awaited with interest. n may
contribute information which IN needed
1t may prove ready reference book o!
facts about the District with which
there Is general unfamiliarity. Whether
it goes into the phases Of the local sit
uation about which there Is most dis
cEssion now remains TO be seen. But
unless it does 1t will not represent the
type OF study Of the District that many
believe TO be its greatest need nov
What the District needs most in the
way OF investigations Is a careful and
unbiased study Of the conditions which
result in the annual and tiresome con-
troVersy over fiscal relations. The CON-
troversy is never TO be settled until tire
is general acceptance OF certain fun
damental facts and principles. These
facts are difficult to obtain. The trouble
now is that no agency is after them.
The Board of Trade, 1t Is true. and the
Joint Citizens Committee on Fiscal Re
latiOrS, after long and expensive re-
search, have obtained basic facts upon
which TO rest their arguments But
while the facts themselves are unbiased,
they are presented by partisans. In ad-
dition, they must be dug up anew every
year. Some official agency should be
charged with this task and with keeping
Many of the Investigations into the
various branches Of the District gov
ernment which have taken place
within the last year are important and
many Of them make highly interesting
reading. The personal habits. short
comin2s and characteristics of some
OF our officials, when spread upon
the printed page. are deyoured with
extraordinary avidity by the reading
public. And what man does not feel
glow of civic pride upon learning
that his city's garbage is of much finer
quality than the garbage of the average
American municipality? But along
| with all these investigations there
should be one to determine the facts
upon which Congress might base q
/ fiscal policy for the District. Writing
/ to the Board Of Trade the other day.
/ Luther Gulick. director Of the Bureau
, Of Municipal Research, National Insti-
/ tute of Public Administration. declared:
Il have yet to see any adequate study
Of the economic situation in the Dis
! trict. Of the nature of the govern
mental service rendered. Of the assessed
values and of the tax rates. By means
Of which an intelligent group Of men
/ could arrive a. an unbiased solution
OF your problems. Any one al all con-
versant with municipal government
/ would feel from the start that il &
! not fair to compare Washington direct
| ~ with our industrial cities. and, or
J such crude basis 10 justify either
one policy or another Of distributing
! the burden"
/ Yet Washington suffers constantly
( from just such comparisons. The fact
/ that the tax rate in Washington Is
/ si.70 and that 1t is 81 In the home
OF some Congressman Is taken as con-
elusive evidence that Washirgtonians
are escaping their full share OF taxa
ton. II some agency reaches the con-
| clusion that per capita cost of govern
ment here IS low. and explains In a
| footnote that assessment and tax On
| Intangible property is not included in
/ It's calculations. no one seems to read
| the footnote The fact that Wash
/ ington Is free Of debt, while other
cities are paying their debts OF III
taxes. Is used against Washington 20
show how fortunate is washington.
That debts represent Improvements
/ which Washington lacks is allowed 10
go unmentioned. Such complicats-
AAda(eIS aS OeoucIlOg county ana stare
/ taxes from the tax rates OF other citip>
/ and estimating the benefits enjoyeo
6y the citizen through payment OF his
State and county taxes: such tedious
things as calculating the exten. Of SUBJ
ventions received by cities from coun-
ty. State and Federal government
all these go by the board. and tl1s
Washingtonian IS told to compare his
tax rate with that Of Cleveland. OF
some other industrial city Of compare:
bic size. and forever after hc'd his
peace. Financial statistics on Wash
ington compiled By the District audito:
and those compiled by the United
States Census Bureau do not agree IN
detail. and extensive explanations are
necessary 10 make them agree Nc
two calculations seem 10 agree.
What Washington needs most In the
way OF Investigations IS an impartial
inquiry into such matters. with al the
mulctu6inouS side issues carefully
weighed and considered and the re-
suits tabulated and kept I'D 10 date
from year TO year. Such al inveS.iga-
ton would be worth while