Evening star., 1948-01-11

| ~" - w &siSH
The AuchincloSs Subcommittee
of the House District Commit
tee yesterday set the stage for a
fight for enactment of its plan
for granting limited home rule
to the political poems" of the
National Capital.
1t made public the draft of ISL
page bill to motivate proposals for
an elected city government in the
council-manager form. At the same
| time, one member released a brief
| informal summary of what he con-
sidered the plan was designed to do
and not do.
One outstanding point was the
objective of relieving Congress of
much of its present workload as
Washington's unwieldy "cite coun-
cil.' Another was that while 1t
proposed to give the District an
elected city government. to be SUBJ
ject to congressional or presiden-
tial veto of its acts, the ultimate
legislative power still would be kept
in Congress.
Intensive Hearings Scheduled.
Companion bills are to be placed
tomorrow before both the House
and Senate. Intensive public hear
ings on the charter legislation al
ready are scheduled to be held
jointly by the Home Rule Subcom-
mittees of the House and Senate
District Committees, beginning Feb
ruary 2.
The bills will be sponsored by Rep
resentative Auchincloss, Republican,
of New Jersey, and Senator Ball, Re-
publican, of Minnesota, chairmen
of the Home Rule Subcommittee
of the two bodies,
Representative Cormack
Democrat, of Massachusetts,. minor
| ity whip in the House, predicted
substantial Democratic support for
the measure.
Describing the Auchincloss plan
as the work of a bipartisan, group
OF District committeeman, Mr.. Nc
Cormack called the survey report
very constructive" and real
service"
Favors Elected Government.
"I believe in an elected city gov
ernment for Washington" he told
y reporters, THE District should have
, the same sort of status in relation
to Congress that any city Of the
7 United States has to its State leg
/ islature." He voiced the conviction
l that the District should be given the
S right to elect its own officials, topped
by mayor.
Speaker Martin has given
broad Endorsement of the plan and
has promised to find spot for its
consideration in the House program
if it is reported out of the District
Committee by substantial major
ity
Reports continue to circulate
that some members of Congress
from Southern States will fight the
plan. There are reports even that
several Southern Senators are plan
ming to filibuster If the bill comes
up for passage in the Senate. SEN
ator Ball has voiced belief f1libus-
ter would not develop.
While many Washington civic
groups have indorsed the plan. one
labor organization has protested it
did not assure proper representa-
ton by minority groups, particu-
larly the Negro population, Pro-
ponents of the plan contend the
proposed election system would
give all groups the prospects Of
representation on both the council
of II and the eight-member Board
of Public Education.
Election by City-Wide Vote.
Under the Auchincloss plan all
IL councilmen would be elected by
city-wide vote. But only four would
be nominated and run for election
"at large" The District would be
divided into four equal-populated
areas for the selection of the other
eight-two from each election area.
These District councilmen would
have to be residents of the areas for
which they were candidates.
The same system would apply to
election of members of the school
board, except that there would be
four instead of eight area members.
:, The first election would be held
; (See HOME RULE. Page AID