Evening star., 1931-12-16
|ernment which their ancestors helped

| ernment which their ancestors helped
Surely there are the very best of
natural reasons for the people Of this
! District observing this great anniver-
sary, because of the parallel between
colonial conditions and those prevail
ing here and now. II taxation without
representation was tyranny in Decem-
ber, 1773, In the American colonies, 1t
Is none the less tyranny In December,
1881, in this beautiful Capital of these
United States.
Insistence Upon Cure.
We do not propose that our fellow
citizens of the District make their pro-
| test through any overt acts, but we do
insist upon the curing of these politi-
cally unwholesome conditions under
which nearly half million intelligent,
loyal, patriotic and public-spirited
Americans of the Capital community
! live. It seems absurd that 1t should be
necessary humbly to petition and in
| for men and women at the very heart
of the great Republic which in a GER
tain sense was born out of the Boston
Tea Party.
The District Of Columbia has a popu-
lation greater than eight of the States.
We pay in Federal taxes more than each
Of Is States, and approximately as much
as paid by an entire group of 10 States
In time OF war our boys are compelled
to fight, and perhaps to die, at the
country's call. We must obey all ma
national laws. In other words, we are
required and have always loyalty and
cheerfully borne all the obligations of
citizenship, but are not permitted rep
resentation In the Congress which taxes
us and eXpends the resulting tax money.
| which makes the laws that we must
obey and which sends us to war.
We are not permitted to vote for the
President and Vice President and be-
fore the Federal courts our rights are
less than those Of an alien.
Congress Powerless.
And, strange as 1t may seem, Con-
gress in itself is poWerless to cure this
degrading condition. The only remedy
is through an amen5ment to the Con-
stitution which will empower Congress
to grant unto the residents of the Dis
trict of Columbia voting representation
in the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, the vote for President and
Vice President, and a status before the
courts OF the United States equal to
that Of the citizen of the States. To
apply this remedy it is necessary that
a congressional joint resolution, now
pending in both houses Of Congress
and sponsored by our Citizens Joint
Committee on National Representation
for the District of Columbia, be passed
by both houses by a two-thirds vote
and ratified by the legislatures of three
fourths of the States
This Is q great national question
one of extending the rights of national
citizenship to the nearly half million
residents of the Capital community.
This proposition does not in any way
disturb the complete national control
by Congress over the National Capital,
but simply would give voice and vote to
District residents in the Congress which
exercises this exclusive control.
Amendment in Brief.
The following concise statement Is to
make perfectly clear just what this
proposed constitutional amendment is
and does, as we'll as what 1t Is not and
does not:
What it Is and does
l. Permits making Americans Of half
a million people-soon to be million
whose present political prospects are
less than those of aliens elsewhere in
America.
2. Puts into force (though tardily)
the principle of no taxation without
representation" at the center of the
American Republic.
g. Adds representative participation
in government, now denied, to the duty,
always borne of supporting that Gov
ernment by paying taxes and fighting.
A. Removes the present stigma, hu-
initiation and moral and political en-
feeblement resulting from permanent
political impotence Of people more
numerous than the population in each
of eight, or possibly nine. American
States.
S Makes the heart Of our own Ma
ton safe for democracy" having re-
Gently engaged IN a world crusade to
that end; and,
6. Makes it no longer possible to say