Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-19
A Threatened National Disgrace

Failure by Congress to function legis-
latively in its exclusive government of
the American Capital has brought the
politically impotent taxpayers Of the
District face to face with an emergency
that threatens disaster
Helpless Victims of conditions over
which they have no control, DETAINED
with ignorant or malicious abuse as tax
dodgers or mendicants when they pro-
test, their dependence upon the Ma
tionsl Legislature to legislate is COM
plete; governed without a voice in their
Government. they pay the penalty when
this Government fails, and they paw it
without appeal.
Throughout the period during which
the Senate and the House have been
deadlocked on the District supply bill
the attitude Of the House has impaled
the District upon the horns of a d.
JENNA from which there was appar-
emily no chance of escape. It was a
question either of being hooked into the
frying pan or into the fire. with no
preference as to punishment left to the
condemned
If the Senate conferees had yielded.
the residents of the District were faced
with the disaster that lies in uncondi-
tlonal surrender to an obnoxious prin-
ciple endangering the few remaining
rights they still possess as American
characterization of that one safe
guard against whimsical or abusive tax
alton by an alien and changing taxing
body remaining to them in the form of
recognition by Congress of the Federal
Governments obligation to share in the
increasing expenses of its Capital City.
Had the Senate yielded it would have
stamped that body's tacit approval
upon a vicious system, intolerable
in its conception and execution, and
would have withdrawn the single bar
rier that heretofore has withstood ef-
forts originating in the Lower House to
extend the evils of this system beyond
what they now are.
The Senate has refused to yield, and
rightly so. The threatened alternative
promises to become an accomplished
fact. The District bill is stricken-life-
less almost beyond the chance of recov-
cry. Taxes will be collected as usual,
but the money collected for purposes
other than mere maintenance will lie
idle In the Federal Treasury. Improve
ments and repairs to streets will halt.
The school building program will come
to an abrupt end, and the so-called
"hve-year" plan of providing Washing
ton school children with adequate edu-
cational facilities will exist only to
mock them. Needed public projects,
such as libraries, extension Of sewers.
extension of water mains, purchase of
parks. purchase of land, traffic control
extension, grade crossing elimination.
bridge replacement. public welfare and
institutional plant enlargement. the
reclamation of Anacostia fiats and other
undertakings will be temporarily aban-
doned. The Nations Capital will be
thrown a full year behind in its i'm
provements at time when it should be
moving at full speed ahead. Men will
be forced out of work who have the
ret to work. Hardships will result of
witch there now is no accounting.
Chaos will be substituted for orderly de-
velopment and progress in municipal
affairs.
Responsibility for this shameful dis
grace lies with the Legislature that re-
fuses to legislate. The innocent suffer-
ers are the men, women and children
of the city; taxpayers of the community
who have no voice in the amount OF
their taxes, the source of their taxes or
the expenditure of their taxes.
It is futile for them to make sugges-
tons, to present demands. They are
unrepresented and without power.
But time yet remains for compro-
mise, the terms Of which the respon-
sible leaders of Congress must decide
In order to prevent the dangers now
threatened. The Senate has offered TO
compromise. Its terms have been fair
enough 1t has been willing to give
something. But If the House persists in
its refusal Of these offers, are all the
doors closed?
illusions made in the House on Tuesday
to the proposed fact-fnding commits
sion and the objections thereto cannot
be taken seriously. 1t is impossible to
believe that they were made seriously.
1t Is impossible to believe that the in
telligent members of the House could
object to linking. with the passage of a
District bill, some resolution binding
them to seek the facts, to acknowledge
that there must be deep and under
lying evil that has brought about this
pitiful flasco by the American Congress
and to approach its discovery and cure
not as heated partisans of a cause, but
as calm and thoughtful statesmen who
have the welfare of their Capital and
its eftizens at heart.