Evening star., 1949-02-17
Congress Voice
| C.|sAsked
By TradeBo
Representation Vital
In Suffrage Plan,
CoIIodoy Assertsx
By Don S. Wa

~ ~Sb - WV
A call for voting District repre-
sentation in Congress was voiced
before a Senate subcommittee to-
day by a spokesman for the Wash
ington Board of Trade. He called
it the only way to make a local
suffrage plan really effective.
At the opening of preliminary
hearings before the Home Rule
Subcommittee of the Senate Dis
trict Committee today, Edward r.
Colladay, general counsel and o
past president of the Trade body,
stressed the need for national rep
resentation for the District re-
gardless of what may be done as
to an elected local government.
Score Will Testify.
He was the first of a score Of
witnesses expected to testify at
today's hearings, conducted by
Senator Kefauver. Democrat, Of
Tennessee.
The hearings were designed to
be preliminary to the commit
tees intended plan to draft a home
rule bill of it's own. on which brief
hearings would be held later.
The subcommittee had before it
as basis for discussion two locally
prepared home-rule- drafts.
One was prepared by the District
Democratic Central Committee,
and it was agreed to in general
objectives' by many local suffrage
advocates.
The other was a modified ver-
sion of the same bill presented
today by Ganson Purcell of the
Washington Home Rule Commit
tee. It omitted all reference to
reorganization of the city govern
ment and called for the election OF
a nonvoting District delegate in
the House.
Grant Offers Plan.
A third plan came into the scope
of the hearing when Maj. Gen. U.
IS. Grant, III, chairman OF the
National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission. proposed some
changes. He recommended some
thing closer to the traditional ter"
ritorial form of government. with
an elected council to act on bud
get and taxation, subject to the
approval of Congress-, and a gov
ernor to be appointed by the Presi-
dent to serve as the chief execu-
tive of the city.
Gen. Grant said that while the
Government here has been "eco-
nomical and relatively free OF
scandals" he agreed that the
people should have the right to
say how they shall be taxed and
how their money shall be spent.
He coupled this with warning
of the danger of divorcing the
District entirely from the Federal
Government" The city manager
system is working now in smaller
cities, Gen. Grant said, but I
don't believe that it would work
here in times of emergency"
Hope that Congress will pass
measure granting home rule to the
District, in one form or another,
was expressed at the outset of the
hearings by Senator Kefauver.
He remarked that a Constitu-
tional amendment granting the
District voting representation In
Congress was the first thought In
an approach to the suffrage ques-
ton. He noted that such step
would require a Constitutional
amendment.
Situation Mystifies Miller.
The second phase of the general
suffrage issue. Senator Kefauver
added. was the local home rule
question, which might be divided
into voting for an elected form Of
city government and proposals for
reorganizing the city government
machinery.
A burst of applause from the
audience of about so near the
opening of the session followed q
declaration by Senator Miller,
Democrat, of Idaho that:
ut is mystery to me why citi-
zens of the United States are de-
prived of suffrage by the mere
fact that they reside in the seat
of the Federal Government"
He said he could not quite as
certain the reasons why the peo.
pie living in the National Cap
ital should have been deprived Of
suffrage rights which are given
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