Evening star., 1937-01-26
-ARTICLE2---
The New Fiscal Issue

'erdepartmental" Services
}. c. Produces Inequities
! Conception of the Na-
ty.
IS of editorial articles discussing
e suggested by the recent report
'e. Yesterdays article dealt t0ith
leSses of the Jacobs Committee
.tal services bet1Deen the District
T0d1y'S article points to some
the actual attempt to measure
e Federal obligation.
eventually becomes represented in the
code. If it is logical to charge them
with printing the code, it is logical
to charge them with the services of the
House Committee on Revision Of
Laws by q partial charge for salaries
of the members; likewise, to charge
the District for the services of the
members Of the House and Senate
District Committees, House and Sem
ate subcommittee on District appro-
priations, House and Senate commit
tees to which are referred other Dis
trict legislation and for the services
of the Speaker and the Vice President,
as well as all members Of Congress in
the enactment Cor defeat) of Dis
trict legislation.
If the services for the District of the
Controller General, the Budget Bu-
reau or the salaries of the Engineer
Commissioner and his Army assistants
are to be charged against the District,
then the services of the President of
the United States, his secretaries and
his staff, when such services apper-
tain to the District, should also be
made the subject Of a special charge.
To have attempted to measure or
to charge for such services, of course,
would have been to reduce the theory
to absurdity. But If one set Of
charges Is logical, then the other set
Is also logical.
Pay National Taxes.
OF course. the people of the District
through their national taxes-pay
their part for such services. In ma
tional taxes they pay more than any
one OF half of the States, more than
| nine of the States combined, and in
per capita amount more than 80 of
the States fiscal year 1856. To
charge the District for the print
ing of the District Code would
be analogous to levying a special
charge against the Department of
| Agriculture Cor the farmers of the
United States) for printing farm leg
islation. The whole theory is made
more fantastic by the fact that some
of the proposed charges against the
District-aS for Budget Bureau con-
troll OF its budget-are for services &C
cepted without recourse by the people
Of the District, but accepted against
their will, as frequent expressions OF
resentment against arbitrary control
Of the Budget Bureau have made clear.
| Two other charges, one of which Is
already levied against the District,
suggest discussion because Of the Pc
culiar points involved.
/. Testing Of street material for
the Highway Department Of the
District government by the Bureau
Of Standards.
z. Testing Of miscellaneous ma
terial for the District government
by the Bureau of Standards.
The first charge is interesting be-
cause of its history. The District
Highway Department formerly main
tanned Its own laboratory for the test
ing Of highway material, at q cost Of
about $11 900 year. The House SUBJ
committee on District appropriations
objected to it and ordered that hence
forth the District highway material be
tested by the Bureau Of Standards and
the Highway Department laboratory
be abolished. The result has been to
increase the cost Of such testing, which
in the past fiscal year amounted to
about $25,000-duly paid over to the
Bureau of Standards. BY legislative
whim cost Of highway material has
been increased.
The testing Of miscellaneous mate
rial for the District by the Bureau
Of Standards is now performed free.
as the organic act of the bureau makes
its facilities available to the State gov
| ernments and Federal agencies. The
District government Is treated as q
State by the bureau. The proposal to
charge the District for this type of
work Is . proposed act Of discrimina-
| ton for which there exists no equitable
basis.
p. w. A. Loan History.
An apparent misconception Of the
history Of the local p. w. A. loans to
the District Is also suggested by the
reports recommendation that the Dis
trict pay 4 per cent interest on these
| loans.
This payment Of interest was waived
for the first three years in the legisla-
ton authorizing the loans as partial
compensation for the unusually severe
terms Of repayment. While in loan
and-grant allotments to other cities,
Congress permits the municipalities to
repay their loans in Is or more years,
and the p. w. A. takes their bonds,
| I.YY