Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-05-16
The Issue Is Clear.

The Issue Is Clear.
Hearings on the King bill to ban nui-
sance industries from the National Capt.
tai have served admirably to crystalline
public sentiment in support of this neces-
sary legislation. What is more, the real
issue at stake has been clearly estab-
lished
The question is not whether the
elaughtering of animals, the processing
and rendering of the products, is legiti-
mate industry. OF course it Is. The
question is not whether the Gobel firm
has the legal right under existing regu-
lations to set up its plant in the District.
That right has been recognized. The
question is not whether citizen is to be
deprived OF his property without due
process OF law. Nobody is proposing to
conf1scate private property or to rewrite
the Constitution.
The whole question at issue is whether
a slaughter house, rendering plant or
other nuisance" industries are to be
given the continued right OF location
within the narrow confines Of the Amer
lean Capital, when their presence here
manifestly places in jeopardy continue
ton of the policy OF developing WASH
!ngton as the Federal City.
But is this bill aimed at a single in
dustry? Why pick on the slaughter
house?
The bill is not aimed at a single in
dustry. 1t is aimed at all nuisance in
dustries. The slaughter house proposal
has merely emphasized the danger OF re-
peating errors of the past, brought the
whole issue in relation to National Capt.
tai development to head. Because
errors have been made in the past must
they be perpetuated, ad infinitum, by
addition Of new mistakes? An awakened
public sentiment is conscious Of the dan
ger threatened by the slaughter house
and demands that 1t be averted by
prompt enactment OF the necessary leg1s-
lation.
Testimony has shown plainly enough
that the proposed slaughter house and
rendering plant will adversely affect
an area Of the city which the National
Government is planning to develop and
will tend to depreciate the Governments
investment already made in contiguous
territory. The time to remove this threat
is now-not in the future when city plan
ners will be forced to spend great sums in
the correction of a serious mistake, just as
they have been retarded in the develop
ment Of Washington by other mistakes
OF the past.
IT. required years of persevering effort
to get the railroad tracks off the Mall
1t required other years to transform the
banks Of Rock Creek from an ugly dump
TO the beautiful parkway it has become
today. Years ago the location of a
slaughter house in Northeast Washington
was tolerated, just as the railroads of
the Mall and the pigs on Pennsylvania
Avenue were once tolerated
But this is another day. Washington
has grown rapidly in the past and this
growth continues. The plain fact is that
there is no longer any room for such
industries as slaughter houses and rem
dering plants within the limits of the
District unless the traditional concept of
the citys development as the Capital is
to be thrown overheard The whole tend
ency in city planning now is to prevent,
by wise foresight, the creation of the
blighted, rundown districts which are
such eyesores today. The creation of such
districts within Washington, where the
city limits are fixed and worcestershire,
is a more serious mistake than in any
other city.
The opponents Of the King bill are
actuated by their own interests. The
proponents of the measure are working
to preserve the character of the Federal
City.