Evening star., 1936-07-28
Member of the Associated Press.
Washington's 'Slush Fund.

WashingtOn's 'Slush Fund.
While it is in no wise or degree the
business of the people of Washington
to concern themselves with the selection
of members of the House of Represent
atives frem the States, and while in the
past it has been dangerous for them to
engage in observations regarding the
personnel of selections for those posi-
tions, it is nevertheless in order to ex-
press qualification for the prospect that
the post of Representative from the
seventeenth district of Texas will be
filled in the next Congress by another
than the incumbent. He has just been
defeated for denomination in q primary,
not yet conclusively. but with a strong
likelihood of ultimate defeat in the run
off occasioned by failure of q majority
on the first test.
Even immediate expression of such
qualification over this prospective result
is attendant with some peril, for there
remains the chance that in the run-off
primary the incumbent will secure a
positive majority of votes and in conse-
Quence the nomination, which In that
State is tantamount to election. This
peril is already evidenced by the charge
made by the partially defeated candi-
date that his present discontinue is due
to the eutpouring of IAN enormous slush
fund" sent into his district by 'the
Washington tax dodgers who have sworn
to defeat him. For in the event of his
triumph over his admitted Texas and
alleged Washington foes he would doubt
less wreak his vengeance mainly upon
his easiest marks, the helpless WASH
ingtonians.
OF course, no more prepoSterous accu-
sation could be imagined than that the
people of the District of Columbia have
taken the slightest part in the political
affairs of the seventeenth congressional
district of Texas. For, again of course,
not a dollar has been sent down there
for the conduct of a campaign against
the incumbent. In the first place, there
are no District dollars to spare, and in
the second place, 1t is not the business
of the people of the District of Columbia
to participate in the selection OF the
members of their legislature, those 90
Senators and ABS Representatives who
levy their taxes, appropriate or allocate
their money of maintenance and enact
all their laws
The members of this disfranchised
community may not with security indulge
even in any expression of the feelings
of resentment or grievance which nat
urally arise when they have been treated
unjustly, unreasonably and tyrannically
by the members of the Congress in the
discharge of their constitutionally i'm
posed duties as District of Columbia
legislators and almoners. The part of
the District is that of suffering without
hope OF redress, without the opportunity
to participate in the selection of their
lawmakers and tax assessors, without the
chance, short of insult and the menace
OF costly reprisals, to present its case
even before those legislators.
In the past capital has been made by
District baiters in their home bailiwicks
on the score of the normal, natural and
righteous resentment expressed by Dis
trict of Columbia residents and tax
payers against the tyrannies suffered
IN the course of general and fiscal leeis-
latlon. Let but a murmur of criticism
arise, whatever the cause or provocation.
and the object of it has paraded his own
grievance before his home voters as a
martyr to the cause of legislative JUS
tlce, as guardian of the tax funds of
the people at large against the rapscities
OF the tax-dodging District denizens,
1t is needless to present in any detail, |
even In this hour of prospective relief,
the reason for District qualification that
the tide of politics in the seventeenth
congressional district of Texas appears
to have removed from the legislative
scene one who throughout his service in
the lower house has specialized in q
systematic attack upon the formal and
long standing contract made by Con-
gress with the District of Columbia that
a fixed proportion of the costs Of Ma
tional Capital maintenance and develop-
ment should be borne by the Federal
Government, originally one-half, later
forty per cent and eventually, largely,
If not chiefly, through the persistent
Vaccinations of the incumbent from
that district, whitfield down to a small
and steadily diminishing modicum alto.
gether out of proportion to the Capitals |
necessities and to the resources of its |!
taxpayers.
And it is further needless to 60 into |
any particulars Of the intrusions of the
incumbent from the seventeenth con-
gressional Texas district into the details |
of District municipal administration, in |
the assumption of power not granted |
to any member of the House of Repre-
sentatives or Of the Senate, whatever his
committee status. responsibilities and |
authority. The full record Of such en-
croachments may never be written. It /
is sufficient now to note that If the first |
primary vote Of the seventeenth Texas
district is confirmed y the run-o6 next