Evening star., 1931-12-16

to the stand these same witnesses from
fully what they said in 1885, In 1874 (
responsibilities OF the Federal Governnl
Capital City.
At the very outset of It's report, for
example, the Mapes Committee offers
its opinion that the Government Of
the City of Washington, and later the
District of Columbia, has never been
very successful in the management of
its finances when left to its own de-
vices" And, to support this assertion,
the Mapes group inserts this short quo
tation from the Southard report Of Feb
ruary 2, 1885:
The city is involved in pecuniary
obligations, from which 1t is utterly
impossible that 1t can be relieved BY
any means within its own control,
or by any exertions which it may
make unaided by congressional
legislation.
Excerpt Unfair.
While it is true that the infant city
had been left largely to its own devices
during the IS or 40 years preceding
that report, as far as financial as
siStance was concerned, the foregoing
excerpt, singled out for Congress to read
today, does not begin to express the fair
and equitable declarations that were
laid down in that Southland report.
When the Southland report was writ
ten the city faced an accumulated debt
of $l,806,4 ,44259, and, after analyzing
the factors comprising it, that commit
tee concluded Congress should come to
the relief Of the city pointing out that
this could be done without taking from
the Federal Treasury any money which
had been drawn from the people of
the States. In this recommendation
the Southard committee had in mind
using a part of the fund that had ac-
crued to the Government under the ar
rangement by which the Capital had
been established here. such as the pro-
ceeds from the sale of the building lots
donated to the Nation by the original
proprietors of the land.
The report of 1885 emphasized the
magnitude OF the plan for the new Fed
eral City, and stressed the fact that,
necessarily, the city had to be created
in a short space of time. As to the
difficulties that confronted the local
community in those early days, the
Southard report declared:
Founded on Early History.
The expenditure upon the streets
under these circumstances has unques-
tionably been one of the principal
causes of the embarrassment of the
city, and the committee believe that 1t
is one which ought not to have been
thrown on the inhabitants to the ex-
tent which it has been. They found
this opinion upon the early history of
the city. the object of the Nation In its
establishment, and the contracts made
by the Government for the land which
it possesses within its limits
Referring again to the elaborate plan
laid down in the beginning for the Fed
eral city. the Southard report further
declared:
1T is plan calculated for the mag
nificent capital of a great Nation, but
oppressive. from its very dimensions
and arrangements to the inhabitants, If
its execution to any considerable ex-
tent is to be thrown upon them. No
and subsequent support of it out of
their own funds would ever have
dreamed of forming such a plan. It
would have been the most consummate
folly"
The MapeS Committee in its report
yesterday took another excerpt from the
Southard document of 1885, as follows
The design Of the Constitution
and its founders was to create a res
idence for the Government where
they should be regulated and gov
erned by them without the interfer-
ence Of partial interests In the
States, which should have absolute
and unlimited control, which should
be regulated and governed by them
without the interference of partial
interests in the States, which should
be built up and sustained by their
authority and resources, not de-
pendent upon the will or resources
OF any State or local interest"
Comment Quoted.
No one Quarrels with this declaration
of the intention of the founders, but
the Southland Committee went much
further than this meager excerpt would
indicate In setting forth the obligations
and responsibilities of the Nation
toward the Capital City over which 1t
has such complete control.
Continuing where the Mapes report
leaves off, there Is also found in the
Southard document this further COM
ment:
IF this had not been the design q
temporary or permanent seat of gov
ernment would have been selected in
some populous city, or some territory
subject to State jurisdiction. And if
this was the design. it is not easy to
comprehend either the principle which
would prevent the Government from a
liberal appropriation of national re-
sources to accomplish the object or the
policy which would conflne the city to
the means possessed by the Inhabitants
for its improvement. In accomplishing
their object the Union undertook the
guardianship of the District, deprived
its inhabitants OF the right of self-gov-
ernment and Of the elective franchise,
and made them dependent upon the
will Of representatives Of the States, to
whom alone they can look for relief"
The Southard Committee reached the
conclusion that at the outset neither
the Government nor the proprietors
contemplated that the whole or even a
large portion of the burden should be
thrown on the inhabitants of the city
Gave d. C. Land.
"This assertion" the Southland report
continued, 'is amply sustained by two
considerations. In the first place, the
contract between the Government and
the owners of the land gave to the for
mer large extent of public lots, suffi-
cient for all of the edifices and i'm
provements which its convenience could
require. and. in addition thereto, one
half of all the building lots within the
limits of the city, thus making the Ma
ton itself an equal owner of all the
private property, and equally interested
for the benefit of this private property
in all the improvements which might be
made. In the next place, the Govern
rnent assumed, and from that day to
the present time has claimed and exer-
cises. entire and absolute control over
all the streets of the city, so that the
inhabitants or the corporate authorities
have no power either to enlarge or to
diminish them or to open or close
them; but the authority In these re-
spects has been exercised at all times
by Congress"
In the original design of the city, the
space for the avenues and streets were
turned over to the Covenant without
compensation, and during the period
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