Evening star., 1934-04-22
On Shooting the Piano Player.

Gentlemen who gathered in the
frontier saloons of. past era for
purposes of convivial debate and COM
bat we're, sometimes greeted by a
s5ga which bore an appeal to an
elemental sense of justice and fair
play. 1t was: Don't shoot the piano
player. He does the best he can"
IT, in the verbal shooting matches
and forensic wrestling bouts which
House consideration of the District
bill produces, more attention could
be paid to this friendly admonition
against Gripping the innocent pro-
wider Of entertainment, the latter
might at least expect to emerge whole
and not in tattered parts when the
smoke has cleared and the dust
settled
As it is, the victim of the various
assaults and the gang rushes is not
he who incites them but the wholly
unprotected and unrepresented Dis
trict Of Columbia. The actual pun
ishment is about as serious as it
could be, adding to present disabilities
and rendering painfully acute old,
chronic infrmities. But the manner
of inflicting the damage, in which
the victim is alternately made the
subject of affectionate. almost tear
full, concern for his welfare and then
thrown down and stamped on as pun
ishment for the real or imagined
misdemeaners of others, adds certain
refinements to the methods of the
ancient Inquisition.
Thus, in House debate on the Dis
trict bill, it was with eloquent and
truthful words Of pleading for consid-
Grafton of the extraordinary plight of
District real estate taxpayers that
members protested Mr.. Differs move
to eliminate tax reduction; a move
made in the hope that needed local
improvements might be financed.
But when Mr.. Otter won his point,
thus preventing that tax relief for
which his opponents had ably argued,
the move in retaliation against Mr..
Otter was to strike out viclouSly at
the same taxpayers in a fashion that
makes their plight even more dis
treSSful than in the beginning. Words
pleading the case of the taxpayer
are succeeded by words condemning
him as the recipient of princely
tavors at the hands of beneficent
government, which permits tourists
to pay $50 each for a three-day view
of the cherry blossoms.
One moment defended against the
allegedly hurtful move of Mr.. Otter,
the next moment finds the local tax
payer abused for paying no special
tax on garbage removal. of enjoying
the Memorial Bridge and of paying
nothing to support st. Elizabeth's
Hospital for the Insane. when, as a
matter of fact, he is taxed heavily
on per patient basis-a cost, by the
way, that has increased in these
days of mental stress and strain
engendered by the effort to under
stand what it is all about anyway.
One moment described as unable to
meet his burdensome real estate
taxes, the next finds him pictured
as enjoying special privilege on the
odd grounds that the more land the
Government buys and retires to the
tax-exempt list, the greater will be the
local tax revenues accruing from the
part that is left-for the part is
greater than the whole.
Because the greedy utility cor
porationS have not been forced to re-
duce rates to the extent that some
members of the House believed they
should be, reduced, and possibly be-
cause the literary activity of the
chairman of the Utilities Commission
and the travels of the commission
lawyer displeased others, the funds
for the Public Utilities Commission
are so drastically reduced as to leave
the people of the District at the mercy
OF these same utility corporations.
Between the conflicting views of one
member, who makes the totally erro-
neous assertion that no other capital
of the world than Washington enjoys
financial support from its national
government, and the observation of
another that we treat the District
like it was flag station on the plains
OF Texas rather than the greatest
Capital City in the world" the totally
unrepresented local taxpayer, who
plays the music set before him
whether he likes it or not, becomes the
real target of potshots and flying
furniture when the gentlemen who
legislate in his behalf lose their
tempers and smash things blindly.
He may hope now that time will
cool heated passions and that sense
of fair play and a beiated realization
of some of the more obvious RESPONSE
bilities of serious craftsmanship will
eventually heal his wounds suffered
as an innocent bystander.
Tho Iaauna ond Ianan