Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
CAPPER URGES CITY
TOF|GHT FOR VOTE
Greatest Enemy of Crusade
Is Indifference, Kansan
Tells Women.

Jealous and aggressive action by the
people of Washington in their fight for
national representation was urged by
Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas,
chairman of the Senate District COM
mittee, in q stirring speech at a meet
ing of the District League OF Women
Voters In the board room Of the District
Building last night.
I'm my State" said Senator Capper,
''if its two million inhabitants were told
that they S5uld have no voice in the
government which they are taxed to
support, know what would quickly
happen. An army would be organized
and 1t would march across the plains
to the capital of the country and en-
force its rights.
"Of course, do not recommend fol
you an appeal to arms. But you must
all be aggressive to secure for YOUR
selves that which is rightfully yours"
Recalls Early Career.
Senator Capper, who was introduced
by Mrs. Edna Johnston, vice president
OF the organization, started in q hu-
morouS and reminiscent vein by recall
ing that his first political activity as q
young man was drawing up a platform
for q Kansas political club. The first
States Senate, and 1t was adopted BY
acclaim. That's one of the few things
I've changed my mind about" he re-
marked. He then recalled that he was
the first Governor to be elected in Kan
sas by its discriminating women after
they had been given the right to vote u
He gave q resume of the historical
background of Washington'S voteless
condition, tracing 1t to the days ir
Philadelphia in 1888, when the Con.
tinental Congress was forced to remove
from the City of Brotherly Love tC
Princeton, N. j., to escape the soldiers
Of the Continental Army, who turned
upon them in anger because the Con-
the Sufferings they had undergone In
the battle for Americas independence.
Surprising as 1t may SEEM" he said
there are a great many persons in this
city who think that the District had the
right OF national representation until
1878, when the present form of gov
ernment by q Board of Commissioners
was introduced.
mistake" Is 129 Years Old.
"I wonder how many know that, ex-
cept for brief period of four years
from 1871 to 1875, the District has never
AAdN GAL CACSbANC representative III SOIl-
greSS. With the exception of that little
time the Nations Capital has been the
victim of mistake 129 years old.
''Paradcxical though it be, the present
plight OF the citizens of the District is
due. in great part. to a meeting held by
grumbling band of starving, penniless
men in the city of Philadelphia on a
day in June of 1888.
These ragged grumblerS were heroes,
and none shall take their glory from
them. They were soldiers of the Con-
tinental Army, and had undergone the
most gruelling hardships in the face of
almost certain defeat. Lacking suficient
food and clothing, and remembering
the torture of the Winter marches.
when their shoeless feet stained the
snow with scarlet, they now were beset
with piteous pleas for assistance from
their families
Congress had no money with which
to pay them for their services, and
the men, growing impatient, turned
their anger upon those whom they
deemed responsible for their straitened
The Continental Congress, a fugi-
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