Evening star., 1947-04-30

AAAANAOAN N
tThe following statements. some Of them
g on sas s H. H4ss .Ss
saving for the District Of coiumbia.l N'
Mr.. Buck (of New York.. Mr.. Chair
man, we believe in self-government and
self determination for the Philippines
for the Germans, for the Japanese, and
for most of the other peoples of the
world. believe charity begins at home
and that it would not be out of order
to allow some elf-government and some
self-determination for the voteless, un-
represented people of the District OF
Columbia.
Mr.. Youngblood tof Michiganl. Mr..
Chairman, the gentleman from Illinois
(Mr Dirksen), chairman of the Com
mittee on the District of Columbia, tells
me that several polls, have been taken
on this subject amongst the people of
the District of Columbia and that they
run as high as IS per cent in favor Of
daylight-saving time.
Personally, it does not make any diff
ference to me whether they use daylight
time or standard time. Who are we to
oppose the mandate of any people at
any time in the United States of Amer
lea? I believe that as members of Con-
gress, we must and should recognize the
wishes and concur in the mandate of the
people we govern, that we should not
oppose daylight-saving time if they SO
desire.
If the District of Columbia had self
y,oy ho n irl,f
saving time at the present time, because
that is what the people desire. I'm
fortunately, they cannot have it because
Congress will not yield 1t to them.
Mr.. Dirksen (of Illinois,. Now, we
come here not with daylight-saving
bill but with bill that is predicated
upon principle of home rule. You do
not say in this bill that there shall be
daylight time for the District of Co.
lunabia. This bill confers authority upon
the administrative heads of the Dis
trict of Columbia, the Commissioners,
who are appointed by the President, to
hold hearing. If they should decide
after hearings that there should be day.
light-saving time in the National
Capital, then they will take the neces-
sary steps in order to provide that
change of time. When you vote for
this bill, you simply confer power upon
the appointive executive heads of the
District Of Columbia, after suitable
hearing, whether or not in their wisdom
and In all good conscience the time
should be changed. I, for one, approve
of it.
Let me leave you with this one ques-
ton, before the time runs out. If we do
not propose to support a bill to confer
upon the District Commissioners the
authority to hold hearings and determine
this sort of proposition, why should
the District Committee come in here and
endeavor to secure any kind of home-
rule proposition in the interest of con-
serving time?
Why should the District Committee
submit to the Congress any proposal
that Is based upon this broad funda-
mental Of home rule, because you would
evidence that no matter what we do still
you would not be in favor of conferring
upon the duly appointed executive heads
OF the Nations Capital the authority
to deal with proposition of this kind.
earnestly suggest that we give these
people an opportunity to represent their
views before their own District Com
missioners in the District Building and
let the determination be made there
whether or not there shall be daylight
saving time for the District of Colum-
bia.
Mr.. HalIeck (of Indiana). May I say
to the gentleman that, as the record will
disclose, voted for the daylight saving
bill for the District when 1t was here
before. However, as understand the
present bill, it simply seeks to invest in
the Commissioners of the District the
option and authority to put daylight
saving time into effect after a hearing
and after fair determination is made.
In other words, that will bring about
a situation spproximating the condi-
ton that prevails in other cities and
towns across the country where deter
mination Is made by local authority as
to what they want to do in respect to
daylight saving
Mrs. Norton (sf New Jersey. AS for
mer chairman of the Committee on the
District of Columbia, am heartily in
favor OF this bill Some such bill has
been In the House on many occasions
before and in different Congresses.
think the people in the District should
be allowed to decide whether or not
they want daylight-saving time. The
debate here today seems to me very
strong argument for home rule for the
District of Columbia.
MIR. Miller (of Nebraska). Mr. Chair
man, it seems to me that this involves
the question whether you want the folks
in the District of Columbia to have the
right to make some decision as to
whether they are going to have day
time You know, the Con-
gress takes up a lot of time with District
of Columbia affairs. Do you know
some of the bills we have had to con-