Evening star., 1943-04-23
Terms Need REVISING

|
Terms Need Revising
One argument in support of the
policy of paying off District indebted
ness to the National Government now
is to enable the District to take full
advantage of new loans, or loans and
grants, the National Government
may make available for postwar con-
| struction or reconstruction of public
| works.
But there is one loan to the District
which should be carefully re-exam-
ined as to it's terms before any part
of it is renewed, before or after the
end of the war. Reference here is to
the Capper- -Cramton Act, authoriz-
ing an advance of $l60OO,OO0 for the
purchase of park lands within the
District. Since 1881 a total of
S9,178,700 has been appropriated
under this act, and by the end of the
next fiscal year the District will have
repaid over $7,000000, leaving a debt
of about $2,000,000. There have been
no new advances under the act since
1941.
No single act of Congress has been
more beneficial in the development
of the National Capitals system Of
parks in accordance with an orderly
plan than the Capper- -Cramton Act.
No act of Congress was based on
finer, more patriotic conceptions of
Capital development. But in practi-
cal application of the terms of that
act, the people of the District have
received a poor bargain indeed; one
which its trainers never contem-
plated and which has grown progress
sively worse with time.
This act was written originally to
speed the development of the Ameri-
can Capital by expenditures which
would symbolic the participation of
all the people of the United States.
For instance, the money for this
development was to represent the
contribution of a penny from each
man, woman and child of the Nation.
But, as enacted, money advanced
under the act was to be divided
between the National Government
and the local taxpayer in the same
ratio that the National Government
and the local taxpayer contributed to
maintenance and development of the
Capital through the District appro-
priation bill. That ratio, at the time
the Capper Act was ap-
proved, was sixty-forty; in other
words, of the money advanced for
national park purchase in the Dis
trict, the District would pay 60 per
cent from local taxes, while 40 per
cent would represent the National
Governments contribution. At the
same time, money advanced for park
purchase in Maryland and Virginia
to extend the National Capital park
system beyond the District borders
was made available on other terms,
one-third grant and tWo-thirds loan
for purchase of parks in Maryland;
so per cent loan and so per cent grant
for buying land for the George Wash
ington Memorial Parkway on both
sides of the Potomac in MARYLAND
and Virginia
Terms agreed on for Maryland and
Virginia have remained unchanged.
But the District has been forced to
pay steadily increasing percentage
OF the Capper-Crampton advances,
as the Federal lump sum payment
has become proportionately smaller
part OF the District appropriation
bills. In 1881, for instance, when the
first advances for park purchase in
the District became available, the
lump sum was about 20.92 per cent.
In 1894 the year for which Congress
is now appropriating, the Federal
payment dump sum- will amount to
little over 10 per cent
Other advances to the District.
notably those made under PWA and
the Lanham Acts, have been much
more equitable to the District, being
repaid on terms generally similar to
those prevailing for loan and grants
to other communities. But the
Capper- -Cramton loans, originally
intended to represent the genuine
interest of all Americans in the
development of their Capital by
generous participation of the Ma
tional Government, have become
progressively more burdensome on
the people of the District. The terms
should be revised in keeping with
their original promise, before the end
of the war initiates another great
era of Capital development.