Evening star., 1935-04-14

II Il
Sunday Star of March 13, 1882.
The article has appropriate bear
ing on the situation today.
Editorial Correspondence Of The Star.
THEODORE w. MOVES.
|HE Seventy-fourth Congress,
our new National, State and
Municipal Legislature, is now
functioning vigorously and will
soon make important decisions upon
urgent items of necessary local legis-
lation and appropriation and also upon
unjust legislative proposals which
threaten injury to the Capital COM
munity.
In what spirit will the Congress,
with its large percentage of new
members in both House and Senate,
approach this legislation? In what
spirit will the Capital community
welcome its legislators, new and old,
and cooperate with them in sensible
suggestion of wise and just laws and
in rejection of such as are inequitable?
The Washingtonian, powerless to
participate effectively in his own
| taxation and government and i'm
potent to withstand those individual
| legislators, who, he believes, have
abused their power to tax and govern
him, has in particular instances exer-
cised too freely and extensively the
privilege of the hopelessly defeated
litigant of "cussing the court" And
also in individual instances the Dis
trict's legislators, with all powers IN
their hands to wound and even to
destroy, have taken too great offense
at the verbal Sputterings OF the
aggrieved and helpless and have TOO
vigorously retaliated.
Too many of Washington's legisla-
tors have come to view their constit-
uents as unappreciative, ungrateful,
greedy, selfish and cenSorious, and TOO
many of these constituents, also gen.
eralizing too broadly. have come to
view the legislators, selected for them
by the Constitution, as carelessly
| ignorant of their needs, as contemptu-
ously indifferent to and neglectful OF
| their welfare or as actively hostile.
The crying need of the hour Is a
| change of thought, change OF heart,
a new policy under which each Of the
! capital-building partners shall heed
the injunction put yourself In MS
place!" with the result of substituting
mutual appreciation for recriminatlon.
Fair play and mutual regard are
watchwords of the new policy.
Fair Play for Congress.
The Washingtonian in accordance
with it will render deserved and be-
lated tribute of grateful appreciation
to the long line of Senators and Repre-
senatives, who have faithfully per-
formed the unselfish, difficult and
almost thankless task Of dealing as
considerably and justly with their
Capital constituency as with their
home constituents. Washington knows
and honors these men-its loyal, help
full friends, public spirited workers In
the task of capital building. though 1t
may not have put this appreciation
and honor into words as promptly ana
adequately as it ought.
When Washington puts itself in the
place of Congress and recognizes tne
dif6culties and embarrassments under
which Congressmen labor as Distrlct
LEGISLATORS it will be easier for the city
TO substitute at times appreciation for
fault-finding. The Capital may then
even feel a pride in having as its local
legislature the greatest legislative oooy
in the world; legislature wnlcn,
through neglectful and sometimes
threatening in District legislation, mas
ever in the great crises of the CapitaFs
history acted Justly and wisely ana
sympathetically. Though the Natlon
from the beginning neglected 1tS ooii.
cations toward the Nations CITY, IL
frankly confessed its fault and came
to the city's relief in 1885, when wash
ineton had bankrupted itself in trying
TO perform unaided the Nations TASK
of capital making. So in the seventles
of the last century, with recurrence
of the conditions of 1885, the Nation
mt only shouldered one-half ana
Guaranteed the whole of the bankrupt
ing debt, but undertook, as matter
of equity, to share all the expenses OF
capital-making for the future.
So in 1915, when the organic act o!
1879 was attacked and the people OF
the Capital were described as unoer-
assessed and undertaxed Congress on
the basis of weeks Of searching ana
intelligent investigation by con.
oressional Joint committee vindlcateo
the local taxpayers, declaring them 10
be adequately taxed, and so hanoleo
the question of future taxation t1at
the $3.50 provision OF the organic act
remained unaltered until in 1922, Wnen
the percentage ratio was changed from
$3.50 to 60-40, but the principle OF
definite proportionate contribution by
the Nation was preserved. Ana IN
spite of divergence in appropriation
practice this principle has remained
until this day the substantive law.
If in the new Congress, as seems
likely, another crisis shall arise, WASH
ington might, it would seem, In the
light of the precedents, rely with con-
fidence upon its legislatures ultimate
Justice and sympathetic consideration.
Fair Play for Washington.
As Washington should subject itself
to a rigid self examination to ascertain
whether it has not been lacking In
grateful appreciation, so should indi-
yiduaI members of Congress test the