Evening star., 1932-01-24
Higher Real Estate Levy Held
Inevitable if House Bills
Are Rejected.
SPONSOR OF MEASURES
DECLARES THEY ARE FAIR
Michigan Representative Also AS
serts Capital Residents Have
Strong Voice in Rule.

DlStElCt La1atlOn, Representative MapeS,
Republican, of Michigan, chairman Of
the committee which fathered the
measures, last night declared in a
speech that unless the bills his commit
tee have recommended are enacted into
law higher tax on real estate is in
evitable."
1T is hard to understand" he said,
"how any one who studies the bills rec
commended by the committee from
disinterested point of view, who knows
what they are all about, can, in all
conscience, feel that they are unjust to
the District"
Appearing before the University of
Michigan Club, at dinner at the May
| flower, Mr. Mapes said that in drafting
the proposed legislation, an effort had
been made to levy taxes here that would
be In line with those in other States.
Other speakers at the dinner were
Gen. James E. Fechet, who recently
retired as chief of the Army Air Corps,
and DR. Christian Gauss of Princeton
University.
Gen. Fechet made an ardent plea for
| preparedness and coupled with this 4
defense of President Hoover, whom he
! described as a much maligned man"
| adding that the President is not 20
blame for conditions in the Military
Establishment which bring criticism in
Congress and elsewhere.
| DR.. Gauss discussed modern educa-
ton and said that institutions of learn
ing must give attention to the creative
arts, with which, he asserted, they are
entirely out OF touch"
Says d. C. Has Voice.
Mr. Mapes charged that there is a
! spirit here of "antagonism, approaching
bitterness" against any increase in
/ taxes projected, and scoffed at the con-
ltention of District residents that they
have no voice in the Government. Hear
| ings are granted on every piece of i'm
| portant legislation affecting the Dis
! trict, Mr.. Mapes said. In addition, he
| pointed to the social lobby in the
! District, which has no equal, or any
thing that compares with it, anywhere
| else in the United States
Along the same line he said that the
| trainers of the Constitution in setting
up the District, apparently believed
that the superior rights of the Nation
| required that these who make their per-
manent legal residence here, whether by
choice or otherwise, should be willing, If
need be, to submit to taxation without
| representation and to forego the privi-
| lege of voting"
| When this site was selected for the
| Capital, he said, there was nothing
| within the present limits of the District
outside of the old incorporated town of
Georgetown, except agricultural land
| and there are many who believe now
that the Capital should be removed to
| some other location, that 1t would not
be long again before there would be
| little left except agricultural land"
VIII Still Pay Less.
At the outset of his speech, which
IVES in effect a restatement of the
| Mapes Committee report, Mr.. Mape5
said, Congress is not going out of its
way to harrass or punish the people Of
| the District unnecessarily"
THE House Select Committee" MIR.
Mapes told his audience, adopted the
| formula that the people of the District
| ought to pay, or at least that they could
not Justly complain If they were re-
| Quired to pay, tax comparable with
| that paid by people in other cities Of
similar size and advantage, that Is, un-
| less their tax burden was greater than
| the tax burden of people in comparable
cities outside the District. It may sur
prise some of you when I say that the
| recommendations of the committee. II
| carried out, will not, in the Judgment
| Oh LIle lCAAAC PSOPAC va
| the District to pay as much as the
average paid by the citizens OF
comparable cities, but that they would
| still pay less than people pay in any
| other comparable city in the united
States
Mr.. Mapes described how the COM
mittee concluded that the adjusted tax
rate here was $3.50 per thousand, or
the lowest Ct any of the cities surveyed.
He repeated the committees findings
relating to gas tax motor vehicle tax,
inheritance and income taxes, the
status of such taxation elsewhere. to
show why they should be imposed in
the District.
Feeling Here Bitter.
II the tax bills already through the
House are not passed by the Senate
and the House stands firmly, Mr.. Mapes
warned, an increase In the real estate
tax is inevitable"
"The enactment of the bills into
law" he asserted, will tend to relieve
the home owners or the average man
rather than to increase his tax burden"
District people "do not know what tax
burdens are" and are not alone In
facing tax increases, the speaker said,
pointing to press accounts of proposed
increase in New York and of taxation
protest in York, Pa.
AS TO the complaint of District resi-
dents that they are without voice in
the Government, MapeS said:
well, is that so? know of no other
place in the United States where the
people have as much voice In their
Government, or influence 1t as much,
as they do right here in the District
of Columbia They are invited to ap-
pear and do appear before the commit
tees of Congress to be heard on every
piece of legislation of Importance af-
fecting the District, the same as the
people OF the States. in fact much more
than the people of the States are heard
before the committees of their State
Legislatures, not to mention the social
lobby in the District, which has no
equal or anything that compares with
it anywhere else in the United States.
Furthermore, there is concentrated
public sentiment of opposition here IN
the District OF antagenism, approaching
bitterness, against any step which
Congress may contemplate, looking to-
ward any increase in taxation, un-
equaled anywhere and which makes the
members of Congress reluctant even to
approach the subject"
In fixing taxes here, Mapes said, Con-
gress must be fair to the people of the
States and also the District.
1.-The Mapes Committee, so-called,"
the speaker amplified, feels that in
its findings and recommendations it
has not only been fair, but exceedingly
liberal to the District. In my judg-
ment, no one need be afraid that Con-
gress will ever treat the District OF
Columbia, or the people In it, unfairly.
On The other hand. I see no reason