Evening star., 1940-02-09

Sees Constitutional Barrier
To Municipal Suffrage
Proposals
To the Editor Of The Star:
The advocates Of local suffrage for the
District Of Columbia have recently occu-
pied great deal Of space in the public
press and have been extremely vocal in
expressing their views. They have ap-
parently tried to create the impression
that the citizens Of the District are al
most unanimously for suffrage. Having
been a resident here for As years, I have
mixed with the average run Of people
including many businessmen. and my
observation is that large majority of
the businessmen are opposed to local
suffrage and so are many other citizens
in all walks of life.
The so-called referendum held recently
in which the suffrage advocates had a
large majority was not fair test because
the votes had no binding force and the
opponents of suffrage took no real inter-
est in casting their ballots. On the other
hand, the suffrage advocates, being inter-
ested in change of government, worked
hard to bring out their votes. Probably
the opponents of suffrage have not been
active enough in expressing their views.
AS one president of citizens associ-
alton, who opposes local suffrage (and
there are many others, desire to set
forth some of the reasons in support
of my position.
Section of Article I of the Constitu-
ton gives Congress the right to exercise
exclusive legislative control over the Dis
trict and to act as legislative assembly
for its government.
1t is thus plain that the founding
fathers intended from the beginning
that Congress, as the representative of
the people of all the States, should have
supreme power and jurisdiction over the
seat of Government. In order that it
might exercise such powers, with as
little local interference as possible. 4
small territory, 10 miles square, with q
very few residents at the time of It's selec-
ton, was procured and set aside for the
founding and building of its Capital.
Some form of local suffrage was tried
for many years in the government Of
the District, with the mayor and some
of the principal officers being appointed
by the President In 1871, a so called
territorial form of government was set
up, which lasted for about three years.
This consisted of governor, a board OF
public works, legislative assembly and
a delegate in Congress. The governor,
the board of public works and part Of the
legislative assembly were appointed by
the President, but majority Of the as
sembly and the delegate IN Congress
were elected by the people.
Other forms Of local government hav-
ing proved unsatisfactory, Congress, in
June, 1874, provided that the District
should be governed by three Commits
sioners, appointed by the President, and
in 1878 this form of government was
made permanent (20 Stat. 10O. This
kind Of government has lasted now for
over go years and, in the opinion Of the
writer, it has proved eminently satisfac-
tory. Senator King, for many years
chairman OF the District Committee, at
a recent meeting of the Board of Trade
declared that he considered it the best.
cleanest and most efficient government
of any Of our large cities. At the same
meeting the president of the Board of
Trade stated that his organization had
never taken action favoring local suf-
frage. This organization is one of the
largest and most influential in the city.
If suffrage should be granted, it would
be very difficult to determine who would
be allowed to vote The civil service laws
provide that Federal appointments
under the civil service system shall be
apportioned among the States, as near
as may be, in accordance with the pOpu-
lation of the several States. Such en-
ployes would not be allowed to vote in
two places and it is not probable that
they would be willing to give up their
right to vote in the States from which
they were appointed. Therefore, large
portion of the residents would be dis
franchised because of the necessity Of
maintaining a residence elsewhere in
order to preserve their rights. These
employees have just as many rights in the
city and just as much interest in it as
any of the natives. 1t would, therefore,
not be right to compel them to be
governed by the votes of the natives and
non-G Government workers. A fair and
just solution of the matter was arrived
at by providing that the Congress,
elected by the people of all the States,
should govern the city and be their legis-
lative assembly. One great advantage
of this system is that any resident Of
the District now has the right and