Evening star., 1938-10-16
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Half century ago Washington and
Georgetown were separate cities. The
pr,h,. f dual community bred
1roolem ol many difficulties in mat
Two Cities. tiers of law and order
as we'll as in legisla-
ton. For years efforts had been made
to have Congress unite the two COM
munities, but without success. The fol-
lowing editorial in The Star of October
Is, 1888, stresses the absurdity OF the
situation:
The act OF Congress establishing this
territorial form of government for the
District Of Columbia abolished the three
separate Jurisdictions then existing
within the bounds OF the District. These
were the corporations of the city Of
Washington and Georgetown and the
Levy Court of the county of Washington
the county being that portion OF the
District outside the two cities. While
these separate jurisdictions were COM
pletely wiped out, indicating the ev-
dent intention Of the trainers of the
/ act. and the members of Congress who
voted for It, to deface division lines,
consolidate the two cities and merge
the two corporations and the Levy Court
in one representative government, yet
unfortunately the act did not go far
enough to carry out that intention and
the known wishes OF citizens who urged
passage of the new law, in that instead
of prescribing a new code Of municipal
laws for the entire District, 1t still left
in force the three incongruous and con-
fiicting codes Of the two cities and the
county.
THE act establishing the present form
of local government went still further
in the direction of the object-always
in view-of one municipality within the
District, even wiping out the lines OF
the territorial districts as the former
law had obliterated the city and ward
lines, but it has the same fatal defect OF
perpetuating three diverse codes OF mu-
nicipal laws and regulations, thus keep
ing up the memory of the old divisional
lines in the courts and in the public
mind. What has been the effect? The
post Office authorities, recognizing the
purpose of Congress to merge Washing
ton and Georgetown in one city, wipe out
Georgetown post office, and establish
in its place branch of the Washington
post Office; while at the same time other
departments of the Federal Government
officially keep up the idea of two sepa-
rate communities. One set of District
Commissioners ably second the purpose
of the two acts of Congress to have the
bounds of the city Of Washington CO.
incident with those of the District of
Columbia by extending the names of the
streets and the system of house num-
bering west OF Rock Greek. while an
other set in all their official acts speak
of and treat Georgetown as if it had
separate existence and separate inter
ests diverse from and hostile to those OF
the city of Washington. of which 1T is
part. And so it goes on until con-
fusion is carried into new legislation,
and now we have an offcial construc-
ton Of a recent law lin reference to
overhead wires) that what may not be
legally done in Washington is all right
in Georgetown. The building regula-
tions and .he police regulations, and
the Fire Department regulations, and
the inevitable tax levies apply on both
sides OF Rock Greek. with strict impair
tahty, but while a man is subject to
fine or Imprisonment for an Indecent
exposure of his person on the east side
IT that stream, he cannot be punished
for such an act on the west side"