Evening star., 1950-01-01

Yesterday ended the first hall
Of the second century of the es-
tablisfment of Washington, in the
District of Columbia. as the per-
manent seat of the Government
of the United States of America
The second half will end Decem-
ber 81, 1899. to be followed in 200C
by the celebration of the Bicen-
tennial. The Centennial was ap-
propriately celebrated in 1900.
The first century of the Capital
City was a period of great achieve
ment both here and in our country
at large. In retrospect, it ap-
pears that the past so years have
been even more wonderful than
the entire century which preceded
them. The District of Columbia
has had marvellous growth in
population. wealth and beauty
Expansion of the City of Washing
ton into adjacent Maryland and
Virginia has made it one of the
great centers of the Nation and,
through international activities, it
has become literally the World
Capital.
In beauty and modern facilities.
1t is worthy of its place as recog-
nized by most of the nations of
the world. Yet Washington still
has vital civic problems, some of
them being unfinished business of
the first century of the city's life.
Despite the earnest efforts of
public-spirited and patriotic citi-
zens, organized and unorganized,
and the cooperation of interested
members Of the Congress, to make
this a better place in which to live,
much remains to be done. The
long list of the have not" the
''make-shift," the incomplete
and the positively bad" makes
a catalogue Of woes and vital
unmet needs rivaling in volume
the catalogues of great mail-order
houses.
However, we can look down the
long vista of years since the per-
manent seat of Government was
established and give credit due
these voteless and unrepresented
American citizens of the District
for what they and their predeces-
sors have contributed to make
this great community.
Woes and Needs
In 1900. the National Capital
had no filtration plant; no ade-
quate sewer system: no proper
sewage disposal arrangements, all
the sewage emptying into the
water front of the city, and no
District government building.
Across the Potomac River, the old
wooden Long Bridge over which
the troops had marched in the
Civil War, caused the lower por-
ton of the city to be flooded at
every freshet. Dangerous railroad
grade crossings caused many sert-
Gus accidents. '-'a-
Rock Creek Park and Potomac
Park were just beginning to be
developed: no fine bridges spanned
Rock Creek valley; no modern
bridges were yet projected, like
those (the Highway and Railroad
Bridges) now spanning the Poto-
mac in place of the removed Long
Bridge. There was no municipal
hospital or a proper home for the
aged poor or a reformatory for
minor offenders. and there were
no municipal Fairgrounds.
There was no public library
building or publicly owned manual
training or business high school
buildings, and no plan for other
high school or normal school
buildings.
All of these physical needs Of
the District, however, were sup
piled or planned for during the
first decade of the century.
In 1900 there was no compul-
sorry education law, no child labor
law, no Juvenile Court and proba-
tion law or law for the condemna-
ton of insanitary buildings or
of alleys into minor
No law regulated the sale
of poisons. No laws existed for
regulating numerous other mat
ters for public protection. No law
required registration of tubercu-
losis cases nor was there an effec-
tive law against race track gam
bling.
BY 1910, laws covering all these
subjects and others recommended
by the Commissioners had been
enacted or planned.
No Vote or Representation
District citizens were then and
still are voteless, both nationally
and locally. No elections are held
here and these isolated Americans
are not represented in the Con-
gress, which is both their national
and local legislature. They can
not vote for the President. who
participates in the legislation,
either by his approval or his
veto. and appoints the admins
trative and judicial officers OF
the District. To finish this CEN
tury and a half unfinished busi-
ness and cure this omission,
amendment of the Constitution
is required. A pending proposal
before the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee for such an amendment
Is the Nicely joint resolution,
s. j. Res. No. 1872.
Other unfinished business at
that time was providing District
residents access to the Federal
courts. This right. provided in
Article III, section 2, of the Con-
stitution, opens the United States
courts to citizens of different
States and Ito foreign states,
their citizens or subjects" Such
right was denied District resi-
dents. as not being citizens of a
State. This disability was cured