Evening star., 1932-06-19
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

The Districts relations with the Fed
water supply
Districts Share hav. been a
Of Water Expense. perennial mat
ter of dispute.
Fifty years ago 1t was particularly in
evidence in the consideration Of meas
ure for the increase of the supply. The
Star CT June 13. 1882. records the pas
sage by the House of Representatives OF
a bill providing for this work. An
amendment to put half the cost of the
project on the District Of Columbia was
withdrawn ana replaced by an amend
nent to charge against the District tax
levy interest on the cost at the rate of
365 per cent annually. The Star OF
the sane date said editorially:
The water works are owned by the
Government of the United States, solely
and entirely. and the Government will
not part with its title or share the
ownership of the property with anybody
else. Therefore, should the District put
money into an improvement or eXten-
sion of the property 1t would only be
donating the money so invested to the.
is manifestly unjust to require the Dis
trict to bear a part of the expense of
improving the property. 1t is true the
residents are supplied, inadequately,
with water from these Government
works. but they pay regular water
rate notwithstanding the fact that they
have been required to pay for laying
nearly the whole of hundreds of miles
of mains in the City of Washington.
If the District could obtain ownership
in the works, by such investment, 1t
might not be unreasonable to require it.
Sucn ownership would necessarily leave
to the people of the District the right
of exercising some voice in the control
CT the works and direction of the water
supply"
Another point of protest arose in con-
necticn with this measure, eliciting the
following from The
Flsh-Way at Star in its issue Of
crec+ Falls June Is, 1882:
oleo' 1oAio' 1t seems to be set
tied that Congress has the power to put
such burdens as it may please upon the
people of the District Of Columbia and
to deprive them of such rights as it
may choose, and that the latter have
only to submit, whether they like it or
not. It will, however, be exceedingly
difficult to convince them, or any other
fair-minded community, for that mat
ter, that there is any proprlety or JUS
tice in compelling them to share with
the general Government the $4,000
expense of building fish-Way at the
Great Falls of the Potomac, as proposed
by the Garrison and Hewitt amend
ments to the water supply bill. That
point is a long way outside the limits
Of the District and nearly % miles
from the City of Washington, and its
people have no more jurisdiction over
it than they have over the falls OF the
Ohio at Louisville or of the Mississippi
at Minneapolis. As the Potomac there
and for many miles above and below
constitutes the dividing line between
the States of Maryland and Virginia and
West Virginia, there might be an ap-
parent show of excuse for requiring the
people of those CON monwealths to pay
a portion of the expense of the contem-
plated improvement, if the general Gov
ernment felt that it could not afford to
pay the whole BILL but their repre-
SentativeS in Congress would doubtless
successfully resist such spoliation, on
the ground that the advantages arising
from a f1sh-way there are general and
not local in their character.
THE people of the District, being by
the Constitution under the exclusive
Jurisdiction Of Congress. can, however,
only suffer what they have not the
power to prevent. Still, one would nat
urally think that in dealing with the
citizens of Washington that body should
not ignore all regard for decency and
all the principles of justice. To make
then, nav a mart of the cost of the prO-
posed work in question is precisely as
if the people of st. Louis were COM
PEELED by act of Congress to pay half
the bills for improving Fox River. up in
Wisconsin. They have the same kind
and degree of special interest in the
hoped-for results of that expensive
work that the people of the District
have in the prospective benefits of
fish-way on the upper Potomac. In
morals there is no essential difference
between the passage OF there amend
ments as proposed and the stand and
deliver Of a brutal and well armed
highwayman."