Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-01-22
Help From the President

ton to Congress on voting rights
for the people of Washington is
plainly an Endorsement of the
procedure to obtain such rights as
outlined in the pending Summers
Capper resolution for a constitu-
tional amendment.
An analysis of the three sentences
which constitute the Presidents
recommendation makes that clear:
/. "The District of Columbia,
because OF its special relation to
the Federal Government, has been
treated since 1900 as a dependent
area"
Dependency, as used by the Presi-
dent, is political, not financial. The
District of Columbia is taxed with
out representation. It's taxpayers "a
small proportion of its population)
furnish over 80 per cent of the Dis
trict appropriations from the general
fund; the Federal lump sum pay
ment does not cover any part of
highway or water system expenses.
Local taxes pay not only the expenses
of the community, but an excess
sive part of the cost of the Nations
Capital. This sort of dependency is
contrary to the fundamentals of our
system of government.
2. eve should move toUard q
greater measure of local self -goUern-
nent consistent 1Dith the constitu-
tional status of the District"
The constitutional status of the
District of Columbia is defined in
Section of Article 1, setting aside
an area (not exceeding ten miles
square) as the Seat of Government
over which Congress is ito exercise
exclusive legislation in all cases
whatsoever" Whatever measure of
local self-government is granted,
therefore, must be consistent with
the Nations control; through Con-
gress, of the seat of Government
Representation in the controlling
body, Congress, is the keystone of
local self government.
3. eve should take adequate steps
to assure that citizens OF the United
States are not denied their fran-
chtse merely because they reside at
the Nations Capital"
The franchise now denied to citi-
zerls of the United States merely
because they reside at the Nations
Capital is the right of representation
in the United States Government
that is, the right to select represent
atives of their own choosing in
Congress and the electoral college.
This denial does not spring from
any explicit constitutional prohibi-
ton. It is the result of a curious
and perhaps unanticipated failure
by the writer's of the original articles
of the Constitution seventeen years
before the Government was estab-
lished here) to specify how the citi-
zens of the future seat of Govern
ment, if they were not residents OF
a State, should vote.
The remedy for this omission is
implicit in the wording of the Sum-
newspaper amendment: "The Con-
gress shall have the power to provide
that there shall be in the Congress
and among the electors of President
and Vice President members elected
by the people of the District consti-
tuting the seat of Government of
the United States, in such numbers
and with such powers as the Con-
gress shall determine. All legisla-
ton hereunder is subject to amend
ment and repeal"
This amendment, when approved,
would give Congress a power now
lacking, power to give the citizens
of the United States who reside in
the District such representation in
Congress and in the electoral college
as Congress may decide, without adj
hitting the District to statehood
and without changing the status of
the District under the Constitution
as the seat of Government of the
United States.