Evening star., 1938-04-23
The Same Objective,

another article setting forth the pur-
poses of the constitutional amendment
which would give Washingtonians the
right Of participating as Americans in
their own governmental right modified
only by the special considerations per-
tanning to the District Of Columbia as
the seat Of National Government.
The amendment which has been in
dorsed by thirty-nine leading local
organizations OF citizens twenty-three
affiliated and regional organizations and
twenty-four national organizations is
the Capper-Norton amendment 1t is
the product Of many years Of thought
and Of compromise between the shades
Of opinion concerning so important a
step as amendment Of the Constitution.
The amendment which has been pro-
posed more recently is the Lewis Ran
dolph amendment.
There is, basically no hostility be-
tween the two proposed amendments
Both share common objective and
each deserves the support of those work.
ing for Americanization of the WASH
ingtonian.
1t is the function Of Congress to choose
between the amendments, or to favor a
new amendment embodying some of the
points of each, or to approve two amend
ments one based on the Capper-Norton
proposal and favoring national repre-
sentation and access to the Federal
Courts and the other based on the
Lewis Randolph proposal, and enlarglng
the power of Congress to delegate in
favor Of local municipal government
what it wishes to delegate Of Its ex-
elusive legislative power in respect to
the District
Both amendments favor national rep
resentation. The Capper-Norton pro-
posal gives to Congress the power to
grant it to the District. The Lewis-Ran-
dolph proposal declares that District
residents shall be entitled" to national
representation. Thus both amendments
propose for the District:
!. Voting representation in the House
IN accordance with its census population
2. Voting representation in the Senate
by one or two Senator'S as Congress may
provide.
The Capper-Norton amendment, how
ever, provides a third alternative in re-
spect to Senate representation, namely,
representation in the Senate "as de-
termined by the Congress or such other
representative in the Senate as Congress
may provide tor." These words were
added on the advice Of vigorous Senate
champions OF national representation
for the District in order to facilitate
Senate concurrence.
If the wis-Randolph amendment
were adopted the people of the District
would receive at least one elected repre-
sentative in the Senate But If the
Senate should oppose any voting repre-
sentation for the District in the Senate
while favoring all the remaining voting
representation in the House and the
Electoral College, then the Capper-
Norton amendment would adequately
meet the situation.
The Randolph-Lewis resolution con-
tains a new proposal which in effect
confers on Congress the power, now
lacking, to set up local government
IN which the people of the District would
effectively participate with powers and
privileges exceeding those which Con-
gress. under the Constitution as inter-
preted by the courts, can now delegate.
The courts have held that the exclusive
legislation" clause of the Constitution
forbids such delegation This new part
Of the Lewis-Randolph resolution in
effect amends the exclusive legislation"
section of the Constitution by giving to
Congress a power which the courts have
held it does not now possess.
If Congress wishes to obtain and to
exercise this power Washingtonians
would probably not object and great
number of them would favor with en-
thusiasm. That is question which
Congress must determine-certainIy 1t
Is no question on which the sincere
advocates Of national representation
should divide their forces.
The proposal of the Capper- Norton
amendment which the Lewis Randolph
amendment does not include is to give
to residents of the District the original
access to the Federal courts which the
Constitution, as interpreted by the Su-
preme Court, denies them, confining
that access to aliens and residents of
the States. There seems to be no sound
reason why District residents in this
respect should be degraded in status
below that Of aliens. But If the in
clusion of this item should endanger
the rest of the amendment, Which
makes available to District residents
voting representation in Congress and
the Electoral College, the amendment
could be omitted.
The differences betYeen the amend