Evening star., 1936-12-16
The Forgotten Americans.

Today marks the one hundred and
sixty third anniversary of an event
destined never to lose its stimulating
significance for the people of the United
States. On December Is, 1773, nearly
three years before the Declaration of
independence, the patriot Colonists, in
colorful protest against taxation i'm
posed without representation, dumped
into the murky waters off the shore of
Massachusetts a cargo of British tea.
BY that dramatic act, they established
the Boston Tea Party for all time as a
symbol of freemen's refusal to tolerate
a fundamental species of political in
iouity. The anniversary is always an
appropriate time to remind Americans
that the disfranchised District Of Co.
lumbia is a continuing token Of the self
same njustice-taxation without repre-
senta which the founding
fathers so picturesquely rebelled off the
bleak New England coast more than a
century and a half ago.
The enfranchised section of the Ameri-
can people has just participated on the
largest scale in history in a national
election. Close to fifty million citizens
endowed with the right of suffrage
embracing the whole Union outside of
the Federal area on the Potomac-were
enabled to express their preferences for
President. Vice President and the Con-
gress, and to register their choice of
policies to be pursued for the general
welfare. From that great and solemn
quadrennial referendum only the six
hundred thousand liberty-loving, tax
paying, law-abiding, patriotic residents
of the District of Columbia were ex-
cluded. Once again they were subjected
to the humiliating necessity of standing
by, mute and helpless, while the priv
ileged inhabitants of the States pro-
ceeded to mold the Nations destinies.
washingtonians object to this un-
righteously discriminatory denial of their
elementary rights. They consider the
deprivation as un-American as 1t is un-
justified They demand a voice in the
enactment OF laws they are required to
respect and in the imposition OF taxes
they must pay. The perpetuation of
the indignity under which they suffer
Is an enduring negation of the very
essence of democracy. Much is heard in
the United States in these days about
social justice" about the forgotten
man" The time has come to do political
Justice to the Washingtonian, to relieve
him of the stigma of the forgotten
American.
The Democratic National Convention
at Philadelphia directed the National
Committee to seek a congressional in
quiry into the matter of granting ma
tional representation suffrage to the
District of Columbia. 1t Is fervently
to be hoped that the necessary steps
will be taken soon after the Seventy
fifth Congress assemblies in January.
According to present plans the congress
sionsl joint resolution proposing the re-
quired constitutional amendment will be
introduced in the Senate by Senator
Capper Of Kansas and in the House by
Representative Norton of New Jersey.
Washington expects that the moral of
the Boston Tea Party will be in the mind
Of Congress when the proposal to re-
member the forgotten Americans is for
mally presented. Taxation without rep
resentation is still tyranny. 1t has no
logical place in any single sector of this
land Of the free-least of all here at the
seat Of Federal Government and demo-
cratic power.