Evening star., 1946-02-24
Beattie Hopeful
Senate Will Get
Bill
Urges Committee to
Disregard 'FIimsy'
Objections Tomorrow

ing consideration tomorrow by the
Senate Judiciary Committee, James
s. Beattie, chairman of the Central
Suffrage Conferences National Rep
resentation Committee, expressed
trust yesterday that "flimsy obliga-
tlons will fall aside" to permit Con-
gress as a whole to decide the
franchise question.
Urging the Judiciary group to
report the Sumners-Capper national
representation resolution to the
floor, Mr.. Beattie declared "a few
men In committee should not sty-
mie resolution affecting the poll
tical future of half million worthy
citizens"
Chairman McCaTan said yester-
day that the Summers -Capper mea-
sure was one of eight items on the
Judiciary Committees Monday
agenda.
Never Reached Floor.
Mr.. Beattie reviewed and answered
objections to national representa-
ton in a talk broadcast by WRC.
He said the franchise question had
been "hashed over on the Hill MANY
times during the past so years"
without ever reaching the floor Of
either Senate or House, and added:
I'VE believe the question of suf-
frage for over half million people
is a question that Congress as
whole should act on"
Cllmaxing month of campaign
ing for action on the Sumners-Cap-
per resolution, Mr.. Beattie called
attention to past Judiciary Commit
tee delays" pointing out that I'VE
can only hope for action" tomorrow.
Hope Is Reasonable.
He said, however, that such hope
was reasonable in view of the ma
ture OF the measure, which pro-
vldes for constitutional amend
ment granting Congress the priv
llege OF deciding, at some future
date, whether the District of Co.
lumbia may have representation in
that body and among the presiden-
tial electors"
Mr.. Beattie also pointed out that
all legislation under the Summers
Capper resolution would always be
subject to amendment and repeal
under terms of the measure itself,
observing that mot only may Con-
gress decide later what to do about
us, but after they decide they may
repeal their action. Surely no more
reasonable democratic right was
ever asked by an underprivileged
people"
Terming them Excuses for OBJ
jections," he nevertheless raised
and answered the following points
made by opponents of the Summers
Capper measure:
l. That national representation
would give the District Statehood"
Congress Retains Sovereignty.
TT is apparent" Mr.. Beattie said.
that a State has sovereign rights
involved in its legislature and its
courts, none of which the District
has. A State also has inalienable
rights to membership in Congress,
whereas the Congress would always
retain sovereignty over the District
under terms of resolution which
would permit them, by repeal or
amendment, to withdraw our rep
resentation there"
2. That the District should have
representation in the House but not
in the Senate, on the grounds that
the House more directly represents
the people since its members are
elected according to population.
That would only be true If Sen
ators were appointed by the State.
answerable to the Governor and
Legislature and not influenced by
the populace," Mr.. Beattie said.
3. That If Washington received
national representation, should not
such territories as Alaska and Ha-
waii, too?
He said he was not prepared to
question the rights of territories,
stating only that the Districts sit
uation 'is clearly different from
that of these areas thousands of
miles away, and certainly prior"
Better Start Over.
4. That the District should not
have national representation ahead
OF local self government.
IF we have lived beside and with
the legislative and executive func-
tions of our Government for a CEN
tury and half, and are not vet
ready to participate in them" he
declared, we'd better scrap the
whole city and start over"
S. That representation in national
affairs would cost the District the
$6,O00,000 Federal grant.
Questioning whether the amount
OF service provided here for the Fed
eral Government might not be
worth more than six million" Mr..
Beattie suggested that sit might
also be possible that we would be
more able. rather than less. to ex-
tract our just dues from Congress
II we had representation there"
He sad there also was opposition
to the measure which was more a
go jump in the lake" attitude than
a concrete objection, being accom-
panied with the suggestion "if Won
aren't satisfied with your plight
mere, go somewhere else. Or, that
II we wanted the vote here. the
Capital would be moved somewhere
else"
Mr.. Beattie's answer to this atti-
tude was that the country was
founded ito prevent such condi-