Evening star., 1943-12-10
Could Washingtonians
Vote in Maryland?

I'm opening the hearings yester-
day on his home rule" bill, Senator
McCnrrdn suggested that his state
naents OF the previous day 1Dere mis-
interpreted In a Star editorial. His
remarks are printed In full beloD and
discussed in an editorial today, I'm
tent OF the Founders."J
There appeared in last nights
(WednesdayO Star an editorial which
to my mind makes 1t rather plain that
I did not make myself understood on
the first day of the hearing when I
stated that I doubted very much If the
people who lived in the District of
Columbia at the time 1t was carved out
OF the respective States lost their right
OF suffrage in the respective States in
which they lived
1t would appear as though the writer
OF the editorial in The Star caught
my expression to be that the trainers
of the Constitution intended that the
people living in the District should have
a right Of suffrage within the District.
If I so made myself understood, that
was not my intention.
IN order to clarity it now, assuming
that may have misled some one, which
really think I did not, but I think a
wrong conception of 1t was gathered,
1T Is my judgment Con subject which
have never carried out to full study,
l Will say that the people who lived
in the District of Columbia at the time
1t was formed out Of the State of Mary
land did not lose their right of suffrage
in the State Of Maryland.
1t Is an immature expression on my
part, but there may be much more to
1t than the mere expression, that if the
matter Of the right Of suffrage of the
people now in the District of Columbia
were tested out in the courts it is highly
probable that the courts would hold
that those who live In the District, in
the Maryland side of the District, have
right of suffrage in the State OF Mary
land. They would thereby have the
right to vote for the Senators and Con-
gressmen Of the State of Maryland and
would have the right, having suffrage
IN the State of Maryland, to vote for
the presidential electors for the State
OF Maryland.
I am not alone In that thought, al
though I say again I have not given
1t the study that it is entitled to, but
1t would look as though the editor who
wrote the very fine editorial in The
Star failed to catch my thought.
In other words he seems to have
caught the idea that 1t was my idea
that the people Of the District OF Colum-
bia, after the District was formed, held
a right OF suffrage for a form OF gov
ernment having a State nature in the
District OF Columbia. That I do not
hold.
I think that it was the intendment
of the trainers Of the Constitution that
there should be District setup in
which the Congress Of the United States
should be the supreme legislative power,
and should never lose control of the
political life of that District.
To my mind that is very plain and
very distinct, but at the same time I
don't think the trainers of the Con-
stitution contemplated that the people
who lived in the territory that would
be carved out of some State, or States,
should lose their right OF suffrage In
the State, or States, from whence it
was carved.
I only wish to comment on the edi-
torial II perchance the editor did catch
me wrong. as it appears he did, and
at the hazard OF repetition attempt
to clear myself now.