Evening star., 1934-12-28
Some Reasons Why the Nation
Should Contribute to Capitals
Maintenance'and Upbuilding
Tax.Exempt Realty Holdings Not the Only
Consideration in Determining Federal
Obligation Other Factors Enumerated.
THEODORE w. MOVES.
tising some relief from expense Of

tising some relief from expense Of
municipal Improvements, such as
street opening and improvement, etc.
Not half of the original city
(within old Boundary street) re-
manned taxable.
What an excessively large area of
streets and avenues withheld from
taxation and to be opened and i'm
proved meant to the taxpayers who
owned the remaining taxed fraction
of The city's area Is strikingly pic
tured by imagining Washington's
streets Strengthened into a highway
100 feet wide which would extend
from Washington to New York, to be
graded, asphalted and supplied with
cutters, curbstones, sidewalks, drains,
sewers. lamp-posts and shade trees.
AS the Senate District Committee
(Southard, chAirman) said in its re-
port of 1885:
by the public authorities; the dimen-
sions of the streets determined
without interference by the inhab-
itants or regard to their particular
interest or convenience. 1t Is a plan
calculated for the magnificent Capital
Of a great Nation, but oppressive from
its very dimensions and ARRANGEMENTS
to the inhabitants II its execution to
any considerable extent is to be
thrown upon them. No people who
anticipated the execution and the
subsequent support of it out Of their
own funds would ever have dreamed
nf fnrv1inU Snrh hat
riod neither the Government nor the
prOprietors contemplated that the
whole or even a large proportion of
the burden should be thrown upon the
Inhabitants Of the city"
The streets were not only oppres-
Sive from their size and extent in their
original formation. but they will from
the same cause continue to be an un-
ending source of expense in their re-
pair. They must annually cost nearly
double the amount of streets OF the
same length Of moderate dimensions.
The Government which created this
condition of things ought not be very
deaf to the complaints Of those upon
whom such burden has fallen"
AhooA ~ FhhhNA NAai hu dHu 1T
ginia Suburbs.
Consider also the effect of the in
ability of Washington to extend its
area over surrounding suburbs in
Maryland and Virginia, by annexing
these suburbs as other cities do.
The last decennial census showed
the steady trend of population toward
the suburbs, not in Washington alone,
1t is true, but throughout the Nation.
The difference is, however, that WASH
ington is a city with non-extensibIe
boundaries. Its borders are fixed by
the Constitution itself. OF all the cities
Of the Nation, 1t is unique in its lack
Of power to extend at will its boun-
daries to take in-as Atlanta. Los An
geles, Detroit, Cleveland or Baltimore
takes in-the suburbs, thus enlarging
the taxable area as the city population
enlarges. During the ten years, 1920
1880, the movement of local population
brought the results described in the
Board of Trade Survey of Washington,
as follows:
ut is no doubt surprising to some
of Washington during the last ten
years has been only 48,l45. or an in
crease of IL per cent. During the past
ten years there has been a growing
tendency for Washington residents to
move out into the adjoining suburban
areas. These sections for the most
part are outside of the boundaries OF
the District. AS result many persons
enumerated in the Washington census
Of 1920 were. in 1880, counted among
the residents of the several counties
Immediately surrounding Washington
City. The fact that Arlington County's
growth has been 62.5 per cent in the
last ten years: Montgomery County,
40 per cent; Prince Georges County,
1876 per cent; Alexandria City, 339
per cent; Fairfax County. 165 per cent,
and the entire metropolitan region II
per cent, very definitely indicates the
flow OF population from the city of
Washington into the surrounding
areas"
As far as Washington itself is con-
cerned the non-taxpaying census pop
ulatlon Is at a maximum while the
taxable resources are at a minimum,
these factors reducing the nominal per
capita tax levy with resulting disad-
vantage to the District in per capita
comparisons. If one can imagine De-
troit. or Los Angeles, or Minneapolis,
or other great cities with their largest
industries exempt from taxation, and
with the cities unable to extend their
corporate limits to embrace taxable
assets in growing suburban communi-
ties, one obtains a clearer idea of the
unique situation that is peculiar to
Washington, differentiating it from all
the other cities in the country.
Meanwhile the taxable area within
the city limits is steadily and in some
years largely decreased by condemna-
tons or purchases of privately owned
land and improvements for public tax
exempt purposes. When a steadily
decreasing fraction Of q city's area
must bear the burden of q steadily
increasing tax levy to meet the fast
mounting expenses Of . great and
growing modern Capital an excessive
tax burden Is inevitable.
Ton,orroD's article tpiH discuss
the national obligation based on
absolute control of capital and in
response to demands of American
patriotic pride,