Evening star., 1948-11-02
A Duy of Humiliation

On Page 3 today The Star is reprinting,
with revisions of statistical material, an
article by the late Theodore w. Noyes
which is as timely now as the first time
1t appeared many years ago.
The timeliness of this appeal, in fact,
increases with the years. The whole trend
of current history adds emphasis to the
anomaly of a voteless community at the
heart of our country; sharpens the con-
trast between what we preach to the rest
OF the world and what we practice here
at the Capital.
To the voteless American citizens of
Washington there was bitter irony last
night in the appeals of the leading candi-
dates. They urged, as they should, all
citizens to discharge the fundamental re-
sponsibility of citizenship, to 90 to the
polls today and vote. Here in Washington
We are denied the means to discharge that
responsibility or to exercise the most valued
OF all rights of citizenship.
Over the District line in Montgomery
County today the free citizens of Mary
land are deciding, as free citizens should
decide, the sort of local government under
which they want to live. We in Washing
ton should be doing the same thing. Across
the river in fast-growing Arlington, the
free citizens of Virginia are deciding, as
free citizens should decide, whether they
want to borrow money to build new schools
for their children, whether they want to
increase the political independence Of their
elected school board or whether they pre-
fer things as they are. We in Washington
should be doing the same thing
The citizens of Montgomery County and
Of Arlington County are no better quail
ned, no better equipped to decide such
questions for themselves than are the
people Of Washington. They have no more
at stake than We have here in Washington.
And they have less reason to fear the
decision Of the people who will live under
conditions imposed by their own decisions
than We In Washington have to fear the
solutions advanced for our problems by
those who have no accountability to the
people who are affected by them.'nT
This condition in voteless Washington
cannot last Indefinitely, for 1t is unnatural
and Is contrary to the basic principles Of
our theory of government. A change is on
the way. For the first time in history both
Of the major political parties have repudi-
ated the continuation of such q condition.
The Republicans in their platform favor
self-government for the residents of the
Nations Capital" The Democrats favor
the extension Of the right of suffrage to
the people Of the District of Columbia" :"
The atmosphere in which these planks
were inserted in the platforms associates
them with local suffrage. rather than
national representation. The Star believes
now, as 1t has always believed, that the
result Of continuing study of local suffrage
can only be a general acceptance of sthe
fact that until we have voting representa-
ton in the Congress and the electoral
college, purely local suffrage can provide
no satisfactory answer.
Our real government is the Government
OF the Nation of which we are part. Until
we are represented there, the form by
which Congress chooses to govern us is
OF relatively small Importance Repre-
sentation in Congress and the electoral
college is the logical first step toward
representative form of local government.
Should local suffrage come first our
greatest hope for it should be that it is
q step forward toward national repre-
sentation; our greatest fear, that the step
has been taken in the wrong direction.