Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-26
The Meeting at Rapidan.

This week end at the Rapidan camp
Is being dedicated to the District OF
Columbia and with the President talk
ing 1t over with the Commissioners
and Col. Grant, something should
come of it,
Commissioners Reichelderfer and
Crosby have been unusually fortunate
IN having witnessed, from the inside
one of the hardest fought battles that
ever took place between House and
Senate over the matter of District ap-
preparations, and both of them, through
participation in framing the next years
budget, have doubtless familiarized
themselves with District needs. Col.
Grant, representing the National Capt.
cal Park and Planning Commission,
which has come to assume position
Of increasingly vital Importance In de-
velopment of the Capital, has grown
up" as it were, with his job. The
President should be able to obtain
first-hand information that will be
helpful to him in adopting policies
concerning the administrations rela-
lions to Capital growth and its munic-
tpal government.
President Hoover's idea from the first
was to wipe the slate clean, in so far
as the municipal government was con-
cerned, and to deal with Washington
affairs through a Board of Commits
sioners of his own choosing. This
meeting at the Rapidan Camp will
afford him his first opportunity for
lengthy conference with the new Com
missioners, the last of whom, Maj.
Gotwals, has been in Office only few
days.
The Commissioners by this time may
have formed plans for certain con-
templated changes at the District
Building, not as they concern person.
mel, necessarily, but as they affect
practice and system in some of the
municipal departments. If so, they viii
probably discuss the matter with the
President and obtain his views on con-
templated reorganization.
But the vital subject that should be
considered by the President, the Com
missioners and Col. Grant-for it affects
every phase of District business-con
Germs the system of sharing expense
for Capital maintenance and develop
ment between the local community,
taxed by, and unrepresented in, the
governing establishment, and the Fed
eral Government.
There Is going to be o lot said, and,
Il is to be hoped, something accom-
Hlished in this connection at the next
session of Congress. The Commissioners
ought to take an active part and dis
play a positive interest In the dis
cussions. Between now and the time
that the authorized House investiga-
ton of the financial relationship be-
gins, the Board of Commissioners. should
be preparing TO appear as informed
spokesmen of the community, ready to
align themselves with the best interests
of the people of Washington as well as
to furnish facts upon which decisions
will be based.
LIE EItStOcnt HlASAl1 Him. IA AAAo NNAA
ference with the Commissioners and Col
Grant an excellent opportunity to make
plans for representation of the execu-
tive branch of the Government in the
pending investigation of District
finances. Congress, of course, has sole
responsibility and the exclusive say
In what will be done. But the intimate
connection between fiscal relations and
every other problem confronting ade-
cuate development and growth OF the
Capital is such that, leaving aside en-
tirely the matter of equity and fail
dealing to the people of Washington
it is important that the President, OIL
his constituted representatives, be ade-
quately prepared to suggest and advise
Failure to settle the problem of fisca
relations means failure to remove what
has always been a handicap anc
q stumbling block to Capital develop
nent.