Evening star., 1935-12-15

solution.
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 extending from Wash
ington to New York. to be graded,
asphalted and supplied with cutters.
curbstones, sidewalks, drains, sewers,
lamp posts and shade trees.
Magnificent Scale Required.
AS the Senate District Committee
(Southard, chairman) said in its re-
port of 1895:
by the public authorities; the dimen-
sions of the streets determined by
them without interference by the in
habitants 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 dimensions and arrangement to
the inhabitants if its execution to any
considerable extent is to be thrown
upon them. No people who antici-
pated the execution and the subse-
quent support of it out of their own
funds would ever have dreamed Of
forming such plan. At that period
neither the Government nor the pro-
priet0rs contemplated that the whole
or even large proportion Of the
burden should be thrown upon the
inhabitants of the city.
1.-THE streets were not only oppres-
sWe from their size and extent in
their original formation, but they
will from the same cause continue
IN their repair. They. must annually
cost nearly double the amount Of
streets of the same length of mod
crate dimensions. The Government
which created this condition Of things
ought not to be very deaf to the COM
plants of those upon whom such bur-
den has fallen"
National or Semi National Projects.
The tax burden imposed by Wash
ington's street plan calls attention
| to other payments made from local
taxes, solely because Washington Is
the Capital, in excess Of what would
be paid IL Washington were the ordi-
nary commercial, self-sustaining COM
munity. Attention Is also called to
the national obligation based upon
payments from the local taxes which
are national or semi-national in char
| acter and impose an obligation to pay
all or half or 40 per cent of the ex-
! penditure and which render made
/ quate 13 per cent national payment
under the present lump-sum appro-
priation. Under this head consider
compulsory local expenditure on our
municipal center, developing on ma
tional scale and to cost, it is esti-
mated, SIS 900 900, when the pres
ent District Building and one or
wo~milliens for additional accom-
m6dation would suffice for a useful
and ereditable municipal building for
Washington, and when eight or ten
millions would provide an adequate
new building Consider also the i'm
position of practically whole cost ex-
! penditure upon Washington taxpayers
( for national parks in the District.
i Absolute National Control.
2. Obligation based upon absolute
national control of the city. ObIiga-
i tiOn follows power. In this connec-
tion, consider obligation springing
from conditions surrounding the
founding of the city.
The true basis of the Nations OBJ
iigation of proportionate contribu-
tions to the maintenance and devel-
! opment of the Capital is not solely
or primarily untaxed ownership of
District real estate (now worth $780,
000000), though substantial and
continuous obligation does arise in
connection with such ownership. The
strongest obligation resting upon the
Nation is equitable in its nature and
based primarily on the circumstances
! of the Capitals creation and the
treatment of the Capital by the Ma
ton ever since the birth of the
Nations city, including the Nations
absolute despotic control of the Ma
tional Capital
From the beginning the Nations
obligation in respect to Capital main
tenance and upbuilding has been in
equity and on principle primary,
dominating and. like its power to
, govern. exclusive and supreme.
Political Power and Financial ObIiga-
tion Coupled.
Primary and full responsibility both
in respect to the control and to the
maintenance and upbuilding Of the
Capital is in Congress, representing
the Nation. Political power and finan-
cial obligation are inseparabIy coupled.
If the Nation controls, it pays; and
! to the extent that it controls, it pays.