Evening star., 1938-04-28
The ''Lesson'' Does Not Fit.

In letter to The Star correspond
ent raises the issue of the Districts ex-
perience under a territorial legislature
u8H-l874 as warning against cur
rent proposals for giving to the people
of the District the right to vote.
The correspondent states that he has
read that "the District House of Dele
gates was composed of forty-four men,
bers, of whom twenty-nine were colored."
The correspondent has been misin-
formed. The Territorial Legislature
consisted of Council of eleven men,
bers, nominated by the President and
confirmed by the Senate, and a House
of Delegates composed of twenty-five
elected members. In the first Legisla-
ture l67D there were two colored men,
bers OF the House of Delegates and three
colored members of the Council, this
number including Frederick Douglass;
in the second Legislature uS72) there
were four colored members of the House
of Delegates and three colored members
of the Council, in the third Legislature
1673) there were four colored members
of the House of Delegates and two COL
ored members of the Council; in the
fourth Legislature 1874) there were two
colored members of the House of Dele
gates and two colored members of the
Council.
The correspondent quotes Representa-
tive Wilson of Indiana in support of
his Characterization of the territorial
legislature experiment as dismal fail
ure"
But he does not give the complete pic
ture OF the causes contributing to this
failure. And, in the opinion OF The
Star, that failure has nothing in the
world to do with the present movement
for District suffrage.
In the first place, the territorial ex-
pertinent was not an adequate expert
ment in government for the Dis
trict The power of the local govern
ment lay with the Federally appointed
and controlled Board of Public Works,
not with the legislature The real power
of the Legislature lay with the appointed
Council, not the House of Delegates.
The Districts bankruptcy was brought
about not merely by the drastic program
Of rebuilding the city and laying the
foundations for its first real develop
ment, undertaken by the Board of Public
Works, but through the failure by Con-
gress to contribute toward the work of
National Capital development, failure
which threw the entire cost upon wholly
inadequate sources of local taxation The
work of the board was done hurriedly,
done roughly, done extravagantly," but
according to the judgment of commit
tees of Congress there was no dishonesty
upon the part of those who conducted
it. And historians concede almost uni
versally that it was this drastic shaking
up and tearing apart under the Board
of Public Works that really started the
development of the Capital that we
know today.
The real issue over local suffrage
should be whether it is wise to establish
in the District of Columbia a dual sov-
ereignty between the local community
and the Nation, not whether the people
Of the District, including an intelligent
colored population, are capable of self
government. And that issue is not di-
rectly raised in the pending Capper-
Norton resolution for constitutional
amendment empowering Congress to
grant the District voting representation
in the House, Senate and electoral COL
lege, with equal status for District resi-
dents in access to the Federal courts.
1t seems to The Star idle to argue the
question whether a community, with
voting representation in Congress (pos-
sessed by every community in the Nation
except the DistricD is in a better posi-
ton to work for self-improvement than
one which is politically impotent, lacking
any voice in its own government.