Evening star., 1930-12-15


Committee act on the suggestion made
by Representative Simmons of Nebraska
and institute an investigation into the
method by which capitals of other ma
tions are financed-with special refer
ence to the solutions applied to the
problem of support for the cities in
which seats of Government are located
the committee would be retracing
steps that were taken in 1856 by citi-
zens of the District, who presented
comparable data for the information
of the Joint Select Committee then in
vestigating fiscal relations.
But unless there have been drastic
changes in law and a revision of prin-
ciples then discovered as directing the
amount of aid that national govern
mentS furnished their capital cities, the
inquiry would not, as Mr. Simmons
forecasts, show that Washington is the
only city in the world that takes the
position of demanding something from
the Federal Government or the Gov
ernment agencies in their midst"
The Reverse Is True.
The research of 1856 disclosed
facts that are just the opposite gen.
orally speaking. It developed that
Washington is not the only city that
takes the position outlined by Mr.. Sim
mons. But Washington is about the
only important national capital where
the question is ever raised, it being
taken for granted elsewhere that the
national government owes a distinct
debt to support of its capital and in
larger or less degree apprCpriates for
| such purposes generously.
In 1886 DR.. George F. Bowerman,
| librarian of the Washington Public Lii
brary, and John Barrett, the former di-
rector of the Pan American Union, un-
dertook joint survey of the support
rendered other foreign capital cities by
the national governments DR.. Bower
mans research covered, generally speak
ing, the cities of Europe, and much of
his information was compiled with the
assistance of the State Department,
which distributed his questionnaires
through American consuls general. Mr..
! Barrett took the principal cities of
South America. These researches last
ed several months and produced thick
pages of data.
The results of the survey, together
with other data. we're for convenience
arranged in tabular form by Theodore
w. NoyeS for use in his argument and
in the brief presented by the Joint Citi-
zenS' Committee on Fiscal Relations,
enabling the Members of Congress to
determine at a glance the status of
! national-local fiscal relations in other
capitals. as we'll as the political status
Of the taXpaying members of the other
capitals. In addition series of arti-
cleS in The Star developed the points
OF interest in connection with the
specific and extraordinary capital i'm
provement plans followed by other gov
ernments, one of the chief points be-
ing that the American Congress could
with advantage study capital financing
methods of European and especially
South American capitals. The exam
pies in South America were considered
especially apt, in view of the somewhat
similar constitutional provisions setting
aside Federal districts.
Table Summarized Findings.
The table. which appears on page 300
of the hearings (Senate Document No.
247, 1870, divided into five classes the
capitals considered. the first being the
capitals of republics which, like the
United States, have federal districts
under national control the second, the
capitals Of republics which have no
distinct federal districts under some
special national control; the third,
capitals of locally self-governing Brit
ish colonies, and fifth, the capitals of
the then strongly centralized mon
arches, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest
1t was found that the inhabitants
Of all the capital cities paid federal
taxes, as the members of the local
community do here, and with two ex-
ceptions the nations spent literally for
national objects in their capitals The
degree of exceptions noted was merely
that in Switzerland and in the Union
of South Africa, the capital cities of
Berne' and of Cape Town were treated
the same as other municipalities. Most
of the other governments were found
to be contributing "lavishly' to the sup
port of their capitals. It was noted
that in the case of Ottawa there was
dissatisfaction over the amount of ap-
preparations for capital development.
protested as being inadequate. a matter
that development on a fine scale in the
Canadian capital has tended recently
to correct.
Washington an Exception.
1t was found that in every case
with the outstanding exception of
Washington-the national governments
OF other countries encouraged the de-
velopment Of local taxable resources,
such as industrial development, that
would enable the local communities
more easily to bear their individual
tax burdens 1t was pointed out in
I this connection, that "the United States,
alone among nations under a system
attic Though unwritten policy, crippIes
the commercial growth of Washington,
thus reducing to a minimum its taxable
resources and its ability to meet un-
aided the heavy drain of National Capt.
tai municipal expenses"
Interesting extensions of this policy
have been shown recently in the promi-
nent part taken by the National Capi-
tai Park and Planning Commission, the
Fine Arts Commission and other Fed
eral bodies in fighting industrial de-
velcpment in Arlington county, Va, in
an area that lies outside their Federal
city jurisdiction. The commercial de-
velopmentS were of a nature that
would have been Objectionable, in view
| Of the Federal plans for adjacent Wash
ington. The citizens themselves jcined
in the fights, and so far they all have
ended in victory.
Congress" read the argument accom-
panying the table, has historically dis
couraged Washington's commercial and
industrial growth. 1t has deprived the
Washingtonian of the means of self
support found in the local industries
that develop in the ordinary American
city 1t has concentrated the great
local industries, corresponding to the
factories, mills, and manufacturing
| plants of other cities, in the hands Of
the Government and then, by the ap-
! portionment-of-of offices law, shuts out
| from the classified service of these
great national-local industries all who
claim Washington as a residence, in
cluding the growing youth of the city.
! Thus Congress denies the Capital great
industries of its own it shuts out Wash
! ingtonians from the national-local in
| dustries; it drives out from the city the
| growing youth to seek elsewhere the
means of self-support."