Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-02-02
The Real Remedy

Yesterdays Star carried full news
reports of the inspiring meeting of
the Committee of One Hundred on
the Federal City and of the plans of
the House District Committee to
obtain from Mrs. Roosevelt. If she
can accept the invitation to testify,
her own story of conditions she found
at the Home for the Aged and Infirm
at Blue Plains, the Industrial Home
School and the Receiving Home for
Children.
One story described the gathering
of patriotic men and women whose
common interest in development Of
the American Capital led to forma-
ton of the Committee of One Hun
dred 1t reported the qualification
expressed by them over progress in
the development of Washington in
the past and the hopes for continued,
greater development in the next
decade.
The other story described in some
detail the drab conditions found by
Mrs. Roosevelt on her visit to some
of Washington's welfare and correc-
tional institutions, quoting from the
records at the District Building to
illustrate the recommendations for
improvement made time and again
by responsible officials, only to be
neglected and passed over when the
appropriations were made.
In her comment on conditions
which in some cases are nothing less
than disgraceful, Mrs. Roosevelt
repeated the suggestion that here in
Washington, as the National Capital,
one should find the model type of
institutions which, by their very ex-
ample, would set the pace for other
municipalities and inspire improve
ment elsewhere.
In the same vein, speakers at the
meeting of the Committee of One
Hundred emphasized the thought
that Washington is the Nations city,
planned and developed as the Capt.
tai of a great Republic, belonging to
the people of the United States.
Judge Cramton, one of the sponsors
of the Capper- Cramton law, cau-
toned his audience not to consider
the Washington plan "as one merely
for the District of Columbia, but for
the whole country"
That is the traditional conception
of Washington. The city was not
planned merely as a community OF
Office holders, or as a place of resi-
dence for the Federal employees. 1t
was prophetically regarded by George
Washington as great metropolis.
It was to be the Nations city, SYM
bolizing in the breath and scope of
it's plan and in the development Of
that plan the spiritual aspirations
of a great democracy.
The failure to comprehend the
significance of this ideal, the lack of
vision which obscures this concep-
ton, jealous provincialism mani
tested at times by unfriendliness to
the people of the District and the
denial of these people of their basic
rights as American citizens are at
the bottom of many of the ugly but
not unusual evidences of neglect in
Washington which Mrs. Roosevelt
complains.
Washington, as community, can
not support from its limited revenues
the construction and maintenance
of the model institutions which Mrs.
Roosevelt has a right to associate
with the Capital of the United States.
Nor can Washington as a community
begin to carry out the broad plans of
development of the District as the
Capital in the many fields touched
on by speakers at the Committee of
One Hundred meeting.
These are tasks which must be
undertaken jointly, in the conception
of Washington as the American
Capital, the community doing its
part, the Nation meeting it's full obli-
cation. They cannot be completed
successfully when an undue share Of
the burden is placed on the wholly
unrepresented community Of taxpay-
ers and non-taxpaying residents who
live here, whose revenues, no matter
how high the taxes, can never equal
the extraordinary demands which
result from the fact that this is the
Capital. When the attempt is made
to do it, neglected. the community
and OF the Capital City-is the In
evitable result.
Divide the financial responsibility
fairly, SO that each partner pays a
just share, and there will be less
neglect of community institutions,
greater development Of the city as
the American Capital.