Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-05

ing from washington 10 new 1OTk W
be graded, asphalted and supplied with
cutters, curbStones, sidewalks, drains,
sewers lamp posts and shade trees. As
the Senate District committee said Ill
its report of 1885:
1.-THE plan of the city was formed by
the public authorities: the dimensions
of the streets determined by them with
out interference By the inhabitants or
regard to their particular interest or
convenience. 1t is plan calculated for
the magnificent capital of great Ma
ton, but oppressive from its very dimen-
sions and arrangements to the inhabi-
tants, If its execution to any consider
able extent Is to be thrown upon them.
No people who anticipated the execution
and subsequent support of 1t out of their
own funds would ever have dreamed Of
forming such plan. At that period
neither the Government nor the pro-
prietors contemplated that the whole or
even large proportion of the burden
should be thrown upon the inhabitants
of the city.
THE streets were not only oppressive
from their size and extent in their orig
inal formation, but they will from the
same cause continue to be an I'M
ending source of expense in their repair.
They must annually cost nearly double
the amount of streets Of the same length
of moderate dimensions. The Govern
ment which created this condition of
things ought not to be very deaf to the
complaints of those upon whom such
burden has fallen"
Under the royal street plan designed
by the Nation for the Nations
city every avenue and every street
was an imperial highway, made broad
and magnificent by deliberate policy and
with title in fee simple in the Nation by
gift of the original proprietors, who also
gave other lands to the Nation to be de-
voted in part to the improvement Of
these national streets and avenues.
The Nation shirked its obligation In
respect to the streets and avenues given
to it, and endowed by the donors. For
more than thirty years, during which
period 100000 had been realized from
the sale of lots pledged in part for the
benefit of Improvements, its eXpendi-
lures upon streets and avenues, which
were its exclusive property, were less
than $700 per year, and its annual ap-
since that time until 1878
had been widely varying in amount and
at the best inadequate. In other words,
having secured the magnificent dona-
ton of more than 10 per cent of the
soil of Washington on the promise that
part of the proceeds of the sale of do
mated lots should be applied to street
1t practically abandoned
the work of street improvement to the
scanty resident population. Up to 1871
it expended on street Improvements only
$1,00O,000, while during the same period
the local government expended on
streets more than nine times that
amount. The fragrant injustice of the
Mott IN, n11o nf
reasons for the enactment of the or
ganic" act of 1878.
az Fiscal obligation based on abs0
lutte and exclusive control Of District
and upon circumstances Of creation Of
Nations city.
In considering the character and
amount of the Nations expenditure
of nine or ten millions annually for
Capital maintenance and development
it appears that the Nation pays in
subsidies to some Of the small States
more in proportion to their cOntribu-
lions to national taxes than to the
District of Columbia; that other cities
receive substantial subventiOns from
the State corresponding to that which
receives from the Ma
tional Government in the relation to it
of State, and that Washington con-
tributed to the fund of national taxes,
from which the Capital maintenance
money Is derived, more in 1924 teven
after the subtraction of an abnormal
of nine millions of back taxes
than % of the States and more than
nine States combined.
All Nations Foster Capitals.
Not only does the Nation contribute |
to a number of the States a greater per- |
centage of the money paid by these |
States in Federal taxes than 1t pays |
from the Districts Federal taxes in up
building the National Capital, but these
upon the Nations CITY
are more Enthusiastically constitutional.
more distinctly appropriate as national
outlaws. and more in accordance with
the precedents set by other nations than
most Of the subsidies paid to the amount
of hundreds of millions to the States.
Most of these subsidies have been Wig
orously opposed as national outiays not
by the Constitution ana
not iustifiable on their merits as APP
nronTiate national expenditures and not |
in accordance with the precedents set
bv any other Of the highly clvillzeo
nations.
The United States, however, IS not
among nations in providing I!
literally as proper national eNpenoi-
ture for the maintenance and upbulld-
ing of the National Capital. All the
great nations OF the world appropriate
largely for their capitals without de-
nving the residents of the capitals any
rights or privileges. political or 1u-
dicial. which are enjoyed by other ma
tlonals. (See table and comment III
argument before joint fiscal commit MT
tee in 1915, Hearings, Vol. l, pages @''
TO 3l3.
Nations Peculiar Obligation.
There is a special equitable obliga--
tion upon the Nation to maintain and
develop the Capital. This peculiar ma
tional obligation is double obligation,
extraordinarily heavy in relation TO
washington under each head: % That
arising from the circumstances OF the
creation of the Capital, and 90 that
which is coupled with and measured
by the Nations absolute control OF
the Nations city. The Nations CO.
legation to Washington under the nrsG
head is not duplicated in the case OF
any other of the worlds capitals, eX-
cept Canberra, the apital-that-is- to-pe
of Australia, which has just begun 10 eX-
ist In respect to a few other capitals
Mexico, Paris, Rio, Buencs Aires,
Athens, Rome1 a national obligation
of the second kind is recognized, meas
ured by the degree Of peculiar control
exercised over them in each case by
the nation. This equitable obligation
Is substantial in the case of Mexico
and of Paris and much slighter in the
case of Rio, BuenoS Aires, Athens and
Rome. But even Mexico and Paris fall
far behind Washington in the height
and breadth of this obligation.
The true basis Of this Nations Obli-
CATION of prOpOrti0nate contributions
toward the maintenance and develop
ment OF the Capital is not solely or pri-
mariIy untaxed ownership of District
real estate. though a substantial and