Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-06

the District as reasonable, ana all
through the report ran the thought
that Congress should pursue liberal
policy of appropriations IN helping
maintain and develop the Capital City.
With respect to the half-and-haf law,
the Congressional Committee declared
that it was conceived in 1878 "as an
economic necessity to lift the burden
of debt from the oppressed District and
its tax-paying citizens" and that it was
justified by the exigencieS OF the time.
The committee then expressed its be-
lief that the conditions of 1915 and of
the few preceding years were so differ
ent from the conditions of 1878 that
this arbitrary rule-a rule OF then SEEM
ing necessity-need no longer be ap-
piled to District appropriations.
In bringing its report to a close,
however. the congressional group set
forth in these significant words the
principles it believed should govern So
luton of the problem:
"Our unanimous conclusion is that
the rate of taxation in the District
should be fixed and certain; that the
Congress should pursue definite policy
of regular and liberal appropriations,
having in view not only the permanent
moral and physical advancement of
the city, but also its pre-emlnent beauty
and grandeur as the municipal express
sion of the Nations home and its peo-
pies pride"
Fixed Ratio Reaffirmed.
These conditions concerning the syS-
tenn which might displace the half-and-
half system prevented that system from
being repudiated. So far as the sub
stantive law is concerned, that definite
proportion plan of division of expendi-
lures has never been changed. In fact,
it was reaffirmed in 1922, although the
percentage relation was changed from
$3.50 to so per cent from the District
and 40 per cent from the United States.
Early in 1915 Theodore W. Moves,
as chairman of q Special Committee on
Immediate Fiscal Legislation of the
Board of Trade, submitted 10 that or
ganization a report analyzing the find
ings of the Joint Congressional Com
mittee. The following is an excerpt
from that special report to the Board
of Trade:
What are the changes in conditions
which cause the committee to think
that an arbitrary half-and-half rule
may not be necessary today?
THE committee indicates these
CDduR6S- lie Dl6LIlCb 4ldO III 10 lcoo
than half its present population and
burden of debt, which has now been
largely paid. The District no longer
needs, the committee thinks, to be COM
PEELED by law to bear its proper share
of the burden. On the other hand. the
National Government, the committee
indicates has since 1878 recognized the
splendid utility and beauty of the city
planned on a national base; it has
erected many buildings of the very
highest standard of architecture; 1t
has acquired more and more land every
year, holding it for strictly govern
mental purposes and withdrawing 1t
from participation in assessment and
taxation; its increasing needs
in this, its central home, demand, and
will continue to demand, more land,
more buildings, more reservations In
other words, the Capital land holdings
of the Nation and its reasonable pride
in the beautiful city which it has de-
veloped have so increased since 1878
that the compulsion of an arbitrary
law Is not necessary to cause the Ma
ton, through Congress, to bear half Cor
even more than half the burden Of
Capital building.
u. S. Share Still Needed.
1.-The committee does not find that
the Capital no longer needs the ma
tional half contribution On the con-
trary, the committee clearly indicates
that the national half contribution is
needed more than ever, and should, If
altered, be increased. The need of more
than a half contribution by the Nation
is affirmed only the need of law
to compel at least this half contribu-
ton is denied.
In the last Congress, when the Joint
Congressional Committee was created,
there was struggle over the question
the half-and- law should
be killed as unfair or remain in force
pending the report of the Joint Com
mittee. 1t was decided that it should
remain alive, and it is today unrepealed
and in full force and effect among our
statutes.
IF the -and-half law had been
at that time and the function
Of the Joint Committee was to report
new definite proportionate contribution
for adoption, very clearly the indef1-
mite contribution system would, in the
light Of the committees report, neces-
sarily continue. For the committee sees
y
and is unable to suggest any new fig
ureS. But this law was not repealed,
and the Joint Committees report, when
analysed, does not recommend its I'M
conditional repeal, and is distinctly hos
tile to every one of the methods of re-
peal which have been or are now sug-
gested"
The Joint Congressional Committee OF
1915 recommended that the people of
pay tax comparable in
assessment, rate and amount to that
tax paid by the residents of other cities
similar in population and location to
the City of Washington. This, we be-
lieve, is eminently fair, and there should
be no greater eXaction in taxation from
the people of the District of Columbia"
Again, the committee said that with
the payment of such taxes the
responsibility of the residents
OF the District should be concluded"
Board Of Trade Analysis.
In analysing what the congressional
group concluded on the subject of Dis
trict taxation, the Board of Trade re-
port in 1916 made these observations:
The committee further finds that
under the operations of the existing
half-and-half law District residents are
now assessed and taxed up to the limit
of local taxation, which, they say, can
not equitably be exceeded. The COM
mittee declares that the present as
SeSSment valuation of privately owned
real estate in Washington is fair and
reasonable; the payment of taxes on
real estate from the assessments as they
are now constituted is fair and rea-.
S0nable response in S,lch taxation for
municipal benefits received by the citi-
zens OF the District; the annual tax in
washington is approximately SIC per
capita. In the judgment of your COM
mlttee this is a reasonable tax levy at
This time, especially when we consider,
as we must, that large proportion of
the population here pays but a small
amount Of the taxes imposed And
Senator Works adds: The people of the
District are not undertaxed. They are,
IN my Judgment, bearing their full
snare of the burden of the expenses
Oh the District. Just now I
lAlnk they are being taxed too high