Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-25
VANDENBERG URGES
VOTE FOR DISTRICT
Senator Tells Michigan There
Is Less Home Rule Here
Than in Philippines.

The washington citizen has less
home rule than a native Filipino, .
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Mich
lgan, member of the Senate District
Committee, told the League of Mich
igan municipalities, meeting recently
at Bay City Mich.
Senator Vandenberg, because of his
membership on the senatorial COM
mittee which has to do with the affairs
OF the National Capital has given much
study TO the situation in Washington.
In his opinion the resident of the Ma
tional Capital, who must look to Con-
greSs for every piece of legislation. even
to the naming of street. and who has
no say whatever in the expenditure of
the taxes he pays, is entirely without
DIFFERENTIATION so far as the
character Of his Government is con-
cerned. He favors undermining Wash
f1gton's municipal code"
Duty to Capital City.
In his address to the representatives
of the cities Of Michigan, Senator
Vandenberg said:
Il have a municipal as we'll as Fed
eral function, owing to membership on
the Senate District of Columbia Com
mmittee. which, in part, is the common
council for the City of Washington. If
you sometimes pity the fashion in
which your own cities are hobbled by
your own forms of municipal govern
ment contemplate what your problem
would be If you had 435 aldermen in
one branch Of your city council and
e6 aldermen in the other. I persistent
~ marvel that Washington gets along
as well as it does. Think of a system
OF municipal administration which re-
quires an act of the National Congress,
signed by the President of the United
tatn to 1VAA 60 Ill
street! No greater eXaggeration of
needless burden and complication in
municipal administration could be con-
"And talk about home rule'-the ia
vorite aspiration of every American
city! The Washington citizen has less
home rule than a native Filipino. He
never is permitted to vote, and the only
right of consultation which he enjoys
in the determination of his own taxes
and In the solution of his own problems
Is when he joins an unofficial delegation
to make an appearance before some
committee of Congress which is in
dulging in hearings upon intended
municipal legislation. The nearest he
comes to self-expression and self-oeter-
mination is In the confederation of his
unofhcial neighborhood organizations,
which. under difficult circumstances,
do fine piece Of work.
Lack Of Consideration.
when this citizen of washington
does get one Of these hearings before
a congressional committee he is lucky
If he finds n third of the committee on
hand to hear him. With a few notable
and praiseworthy exceptions, Senators
and Representatives are too busy with
other tasks of more intimate impor-
lance to themselves and their con-
stituentS to take serious and consecutive
note Of their functions as Washington
aldermen do not exclude myself
from this impeachment. Indeed, it is
Just as unfair to q conscientious legis-
lator as it Is to a disfranchiSed citizen
of Washington that so much municipal
authority should be left with Congress.
"Of course, in the last analysis, Wash
ington Is . Federal city--the crown.
jewel In the municipal structure Of the
Nation-and Washington would lose far
more than IT would gain II it did not
retain Q substantial degree Of respon-
siveness TO Federal control. But / have
been repeatedly impressed with the
utter nonsense In the prevailing code
The question Of permitting the
District OF Columbia to vote for its own
Representatives in Congress-a subject
Of constant agitation-may be q moot
matter. But the question Of modern
ling Washington's municipal code
seems to me to be beyond controversy.
Municipal administrators, however
chosen, should be clothed with far
greater powers. Congress appropriately
may be the final arbiter in major re-
sponsibilities, but 1t should cease being
the aldermanic monitor in all OF the
detail which municipal activity in
wolves"