Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-04
Our Biennial Humiliation.

Today, when enfranchised America
again troops to the polls, is another day
Of humiliation for the residents Of the
District of Columbia. While the rest
Of the country, panoplied in the full
pomp Of citizenship, exercises freemen's
rights to choose their lawmakers, half
q million Neutrality-suspicious. sit mute,
powerless and inglorious. Taxation for
them, as 1t was for the inhabitants of
the Thirteen Original Colonies, is still
taxation without representation. 1t only
adds to the ludicrous irony of the
situation that such travesty on Amer
ican democracy is tolerated at the very
seat of the Federal Government.
It cannot endure. The sense of fair
play inherent in our national character
makes the eternal perpetuation of such
q wrong impossible. The cause of ma
tional representation for the District
Of Columbia must triumph in the end
because right is on its side. Before
Neutrality-suspicious. achieve their purpose,
O campaign of education, country
In its scope, needs to be undertaken.
Amazingly many citizens of the United
States are unaware Of the political
disabilities under which jewellers In the
District are compelled to live. Expert
ence has shown that once these I'M
American conditions are explained, the
more privileged people of the States
are not only ready, but eager, to sup
port remedial action. Washingtons
suffrage claims are unanswerable, be-
cause they are rooted In the funda-
mentals underlying the existence Of the
Republic.
What is it that the disfranchised Fed
eral area seeks? It seeks, by constitu-
ticnal amendment, to have Congress
empowered to clothe its residents with
the right to vote for President and Vice
President and to have proportional rep
resentation in the Congress Of the
United States. 1t also seeks to secure
for its inhabitants the same access to
and privileges In Federal courts that
other citizens enjoy. National voice for
washingtonians in national affairs Is
Ill that washingtonians ask. They
must obey Federal laws. They crave
hand in making them. They must take
part in the Unions wars. They petit
ton for the opportunity to participate
in declaring them. They must pay
Federal taxes. They ask the right to
cooperate in levying them.
What disfranchised Washington does
not want is as worthy of note as what
it strives to get It does not seek
statehood. It does not ask for local
self-government. It does not want to
shake of the control Of Congress, oner-
Gus and unfair in many directions as
such control sometimes Is. 1t does not
want to upset single institution now
maintained for the administration OF
the National Capital. The status quo,
as far as the purely municipal govern
ance Of Washington is concerned. would
not be disturbed by so much as jot
or title were the District Of Columbia
to be granted national representation.
To the country at large, in this hour
when more than fifty million politically
emancipated men ana women are by
their sovereign ballots charting the Ma
tons legislative course for another two
years, voteless Washington submits its
plight. 1t does so in the faith that
Americans win not consent to freeze UNI
Righteousness or stabilize an anach-
ronism. OF what virtue win be the
beauty and dignity Of the projected
Capital Magnificent if its external love-
illness but hides a condition reeking
with the squalor Of injustice7 To build
on the Potomac's banks the fairest po-
liticai metropolis in all the world and
keep it peopled with shackled citizens is
q negation Of that system Of govern
ment whereof America claims TO be the
pre- -eminent exemplar.
The Nation is preparing flttingly TO
commemorate the bicentenary Of George
washington's birth. There could hardly
be a more appropriate way Of celebrat-
ing 1t than to Anericanize the COM
munity which bears his honored name.