Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-05-04
The 51st State?


Historian Irving Brant has added an
interesting and thoughtful variation on
the old theme of retroceding the District
OF Columbia to Maryland-thus gaining
full voting rights of citizenship for near
ly million Americans now deprived of
all such rights by the accident of resi-
dence in the Capital of the United
States.
1t is, in truth, an old theme. Within
three years after the Government moved
to its new Capital in 1900 the proposal
was advanced and debated in Congress.
Georgetown residents vigorously but I'M
successfully agitated the proposition in
1920 Virginians won their argument in
1846, when the District area south of the
Potomac was retroceded to Virginia. In
more recent years the principle of retro
ceSSion has been eSpouSed by such men
as the late Senator McCarran of Nevada;
former Senator and now retired SUI
preme Court Justice Burton Of Ohio. who
proposed a Constitutional amendment
on the subject; DR.. Roy P. Francine,
In learned dissertation published by
the Georgetown Law Journal last year,
and occasional members of House and
Senate who, from time to time, have
advocated the principle, some of them
with tongue in cheek, in opposing the
futile gimcrackS of So-called "home
rule.
Mr.. Brant'S new wrinkle is that ret
recession to Maryland-of all the Dis
trict save small area reserved as the
seat of Government-would be condi-
toned on Maryland's consent that the
retroceded portion become a new State.
The procedure is supported by precedent
and the Constitution. In Mr.. Brant's
opinion, it would require no further
amendment of the Constitution. 1t
might overcome Maryland's presumed
objection to absorbing the Districts
population and the accompanying LA
bilities Going step further, it might
provide highly practical and logical
approach to the increasingly complex
problems of our expanding Metropolitan
area. With Virginia'S, as well as Mary
lands consent, new urban State with
population approaching two million
people would provide an instrument
of sovereign government in meeting
common problems of traffic, tranSporta-
ton, sanitation, public utilities, water
supply, ETC., now becoming so evident
throughout the Metropolitan area.
Mr. Brant'S proposal certainly makes
more sense than the pointleSS and eva
sive schemes advanced in the name of
"home rule" which would solve nothing
Of Importance and would confound the
confusion of divided and competing
authority in Washington today. Home
rule merely substitutes one form OF
second-class citizenship for another; 1t
would still leave the people of Washing
ION unrepreSented in their Government
It would. establish the perfect atmos-
phere for political shenaniganS between
puppet local government and the all
powerful National Government and its
many interests of which it is jealous
custodian. If the fine concept OF the
Federal City, the possession of the Ma
ton which established it, is to be lost,
we should prefer to see it abandoned for
some form of statehood rather than the
illusion of "home rule"
We do not belieVe, however, tnaI
statehood is the best or the wiSest solu-
ton. We believe the concept of the Fed
eral City is worth preserving, and that
concept would be strengthened, rather
than weakened, by giving the people
who live here the right of voting repre-
sentation in Congress and in the
choice of President and Vice President.
The simple and most direct method of
achieving that aim is by amendment Of
the Constitution, granting to Congress
the power-now said to be lacking-to
confer such representation.
This might be done, of course,
without Constitutional amendment.
More radical departures from limita-
tionS, supposedly implicit in the ConSti-
tuition, have become commonplace. If
the idea of voting representation for the
people of the District of Columbia with
out statehood is unique, it is not nearly
so unique as the existing system which
depriveS Americans of the right to vot-
ing representation in the United States
Government merely because they hap
pen to live in the Capital of the United
States.