Evening star., 1941-03-22

| 6lCoolOlldI vi lClC NoCll
ate document No. 247, SiXty-fourtl
Congress, first session., composed o
Senators Chiffon, Salisbury ant
Works and Representatives Raine!
(afterward Speaker), Gard ant
Henry Allen Cooper:
The National City, the Nations
home, should be district where tht
national authority is not only SUI.
preme, but a district where the JUS
pride of a great people should insis
upon its maintenance in manner
most fitting to the dignity of the
citizens whose manifestation of CEN
tral government it is.
Nothing is clearer to use than il
never was the intent that this Dis
trict should bear all the extraor-
dinary burden of expense incident tc
its plan and occupancy as a ma
tional city and any such proposed
burden would be most inequitable
| and unjust now.
"Our unanimous conclusion is that
the rate of taxation in the District
should be fixed and certain; that the
Congress should pursue a definite
policy of regular and liberal appro-
priation, having in view not only
the permanent moral and physical
advantages of the city. but also its
pre-eminent beauty and grandeur as
the municipal expression of the Ma
tiOn's home and its peoples pride"
I'VE urge upon Congress that its
appropriation for the expenses of
the District of Columbia should
always be in such sum as will not
only continue the City of Washing
ton and the District of Columbia in
every respect as the splendid and
beautiful central residence of this
great Nation, but also cause it to
become and be forever maintained
as a model for all the cities in the
wsrld.'
Within the past week the Senate
District Committee, in favorably re-
porting the Overton plan, has re-
stated, in substance, the bases of
national obligation recognized in the
1915 and other earlier inquiries into
the subject.
notwithstanding the constant
dispute and divergence of opinions
as to the method and sum of the
Federal payment. the Congress has
uniformly recognized the national
obligation of making a Federal pay
ment to the upkeep of the Federal
City" reads the Senate report of
194l. MANY reasons have been ad-
vanced in support of the Federal
payment"
After pointing out that the pur-
pose of the pending bill is to end
the controversy that has marked
the lump sum era, the report, filed
by Senator Overton of Louisiana,
laid down three essentials that
should govern any solution adopted.
1t stated:
"No formula of such payment will
prove satisfactory or successful, or
serve the purpose intended, unless it
is based upon the three following
essentials:
81. The factors of the formula
should be nOn-controversial, fixed,
certain and self-operating.
2. The factors should not be of
arbitrary selection but should rest
upon reasonable and substantial
bases.
"3. The application of the factors
should result in equal justice being
done to both the National Govern
ment and the District of Columbia" !"
The committee took the view that
the Overton formula meets those re-
QuirementS.
Presidents and the Capital.
The thought that the constitu-
tional power of exclusive legislation
conferred upon Congress imposes a
special and peculiar obligation is
expressed in varying forms of words
by many Presidents, including Van
Buren, Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan,
Lincoln, Hayes and Benjamin Harri-
son, combined with their pleas for
recognition of the obligation based
on power, suggestions of another
obligation springing from the ma
tional sentiment and from national
pride. Monroe was especially point
ed in his appeal to national pride
in behalf of the Nations city. Fol-
lowing him in the same line were
Taylor, Fillmore, Buchanan, Grant
and Mckinley.
In a message to Congress, Presi-
dent Coolidge penned a thrilling
paragraph concerning the future
Capital as the city beautiful of our
dreams, to be made real under the
ambitious building program on
which the Nation has embarked.
This program" he said, should
represent the best that exists in the
art and science of architecture.
Into these structures ought
to go the aspirations of the Nation,
its ideals expressed in forms of
beauty" Concerning the wonder
fully attractive Capital which will
result, President Coolidge exclaimed: !:
Let it represent the soul of Amer
ica."
Herbert Hoover. as President, de-
| clared: Washington is not only the
Nations Capital, it is the symbol of
America, BY its dignity and archi-
tectural inspiration we stimulate
pride in our country. We encourage
that elevation of thought and char
acter which comes from great ar
chitecture
Built on National Lines.
The Capital was built on broad
national lines, of which We are now
beginning to see the wisdom. Dur
ing the period when the national
obligation, tardily recognized by the
Organic Act of 1873, was neglected,
the Capital was a national shame,
a byword and reproach. Since the
Nation has returned even part way
to it's original obligation the Capital
has become an object of national
affection, in whose attractiveness
and in whose welfare the whole
American people take pride. In place
of the discreditable, struggling, neg
lected village of the period of ma
tional indifference there has risen
the Capital of today, wherein the
eye is pleased by all that both ma
ture and art have done to adorn the