Evening star., 1933-01-01
Committee Starts House.
cleaning to Simplify and
Weed Out Ordinances.
DEPARTMENT REPORTS
TO BE USED AS BASIS.
Big Clutter Of Regulations to Be
Gone Over Carefully as Result of
Plea From Corporation Counsel.

The District government is celebrat-
ing the new year by giving its municipal
regulations a housekeeping.
Sitting as a sort of subordinate legis-
lature to regulate the conduct of the
residents of the District, the Commis-
sioners, from time to time, acting under
the authority of numerous acts Of Con-
gress, adept regulations governing traf-
fic. the public comfort, peace and
safety, the manner in which buildings
may or may not be built, signboards
put up second hand dealers conduct
their business and a wide sweep of
other matters. From time to time,
these regulations are grouped around
one central theme and published.
Thus there are in existence sets OF
police regulations, fire regulations,
health regulations, a building code, a
plumbing code. set of sign and bill
board regulations. a code of zcning regu-
lations, complicated traffic code and q
code governing electrical wiring.
When citizen is caught in the act
of doing something that seems to be
wrong, it is often tricky legal ques-
ttcn as to which set of regulations gov
erns his case and whether an old regu-
latien has been superseded by later
one, or by an overriding act of Congress
Confronted with many Of these prob
lens during his tenure OF office, Corpora
tien Counsel William W. Bride, in his
annual report covering the 1882 fiscal
year, suggested that all these regula-.
tions be revised and brought up to date.
Act on Suggestion.
The Commissioners, acting on the
suggestion, appointed committee to do
the job. Assistant Engineer Commits
sioner Howard F. Clark was made
chairman. Other members are Capt.
Hugh P. Dram, director of the depart
ment Of inspection; Inspector L. I. H.
Edwards, police departments Fire Mar
shal Calvin G. LAUDER, Assistant Cor
poration Counsel Edward H. Thomas,
Assistant Health Of1cer Edward j.
Schwartz and E. E. Naylor, investigator
CT the Bureau of Efficiency. Naylor
was loaned by the Bureau OF Efficiency
for this study. He is well acquainted
with District municipal problems
through his former position es Assistant
District Auditor.
The committee has held one meeting.
Another Is planned in about two weeks.
The first meeting was primarily an or
EdAlL23LAOAA AhCNEA46s W.T. a AiCtAOA Va
working was mapped out. Each depart
ment will be invited to rewrite its own
regulations, simplifying them and bring
ing them up to date. No new matter is
to be introduced, as the present scheme
Is merely a recodifying of old regula-
tions, and not an attempt to invent
new ones. On the contrary, regulations
whose usefulness has been outlived will
be discarded
When q department is ready with q
report, a general meeting of the COM
mittee will be called and the new regk-
1ations will be read. If there is any
difference of opinion, this will be ironed
out If possible. and a new aset of regu-
1ations drawn which the whole commit
tee will recommend to the Commission
ers for adoption as substitutes for the
old.
Police Regulations First.
The first set to be revamped will
probably be the police regulations.
These cover wide field, as will be seen
readily by few selected exampls.
In the current volume, published in
the time of Commissioners Taliaferro,
Dougherty and Ladue, there are rules
governing the leasing of boats to per-
sons of 16 years of age or under, for
bidding swine to roam at large upon the
public streets, throwing safeguards
around the storage and handling OF
pyroxylin (an explosive SubStance)
forbidding persons to make loud out
cries upon the public streets, but spe-
ciflcally exempting newsboys, who may
cry extras, and scissors grinders. who
may ring bells; forbidding the throwing
of a ball "or any substance" upon a
public street and so on.
Already two sets of regulations have
attracted the attention of Inspector
Edwards and are slated for transfer to
other fields First there are several
pages of fire department regulations
governing the installation of fuel tanks,
the handling of pyroxylin and other
matters. These subjects always have
been dealt with by the fire marshal's
Office. There are many policemen who
would not recognize pyroxylin if they
saw it, and yet, under the police regu-
lations. they would be supposed to be
in position TO detect come technical
violation Of the code regarding its stor-
age. This section will be taken out OF
the revised police regulations and put ir
the fire departments list.
List to Be Cut Out.
Another section Of the police regula.
tions lists the hack stands designated
by the Board Of Commissioners. Sine
the publication of the regulations, how.
ever, Congress, in the license act passec
last July, transferred jurisdiction owe
hack stands from the Commissioners Il
the Public Utilities Commission. s.
this list will be taken out. The list i
incorrect anyway. as the Utilities Com
mission has recently adopted list 0
its own. which differs in many respect
from the one carried in the officia
manual
After all Of the individual sets 0
regulations are revamped they will b
carefully cross indexed, so that in Dor
der-line cases it will be easy for an
one to find whether the commissioner
have passed regulation upon any sub
ject under any of the codes. The com
n1ittee, according TO Capt. Clark, VII
have never ending Job, its idea bein
to keep all codes always up-to-dat
and accurate.