Evening Star Newspaper, January 20, 1923, Page 4

CITIZENS STATE CLAIMS TO DISTRICT SURPLUS (Continued from First Page.) Rue under the organic act of 1878 for the fiscal years 1800 to 1930, inclusive, makes the same conclusive demonstration. 3. Congress in 1903 recognized that there could be und would be such things as surplus rev- enues of the District by direct- ing that the advances which it was then making to meet Dis- trict tax deficits should be “re- imbursed to said Treasury from time to time out of the surplas revemues of the District of Co- lumbia.” 4. After District deficits had heon converted into surpluses Congress recognized the exist- ence of such surpluses in the Treasury by applying portions of these surpluses to the pa ment of alleged ancient indebt- ednesses of the District to the United States, by law specifi- cally transferring to the United States sums from “the amount in the Treasury of the United States to_the credit of the Dis- trict of Columbla.” 5. The United States has rec- ognized credit items in its favor aocruing from defielts in District tax-revenue created by - the operation of the half and half Jaw and has reimbursed it- self from District revenues with interest for advances to meet these deflelts, It cannot, legally or equitably, refuse to recognize the corresponding debit items in the shape of sur- pluses of collected and unex- Pended District taxes 6. The United States recog- nized this equitable principle n_dealing with surpluses or deficits, in applying for.two vears (fiscal years 1921 and ) the temporary sixty.forty tio in District appropriation bills, by carrving over sur- pluses or deficlts into the suc- ceeding year. The “legal obligation thus :reated and thus Gemonstrated to exist is not weakened, but strengthened by equitable and moral = considerations. The United States is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, morally as well as legally indebted 8. The existence of this Di ry . credit now confirmed by the troller General of the States and the offici: countants of ke congres: Joint committee, The legal and moral obli- gation thus demonstrated to exist is equitably satisfied only by the application of the sur- plus in sccordance with the balf and half law under which it was accumulated to meet the District's half of*the ex- of neglected’ municipal of the war time, which glects permitted its accumu- latlon. Application of surplus under any other ratio is in- equitable. Part 11 There are no offscts in the shape of | tates credits efther in th ce 1878 or the period be- 74 _and 1878 to make & met veduction of the amount of the Dis trict’s present tax surplus. This conclusion may be justified in either of two ways: Accountants Mayes and Spalding have stated the account between the Tnited States and the District from 1874 to 1911 with the exhaustive full- ness so far as credits of the United States are concerned; and Congress has passed judgment upon these al- leged credits, and, rejecting some. has confirmed others, awholly or in part, and in all cases has rejected or falled to approve interest claima in respect to these alleged debts; and has compelled the District to reim- burse to the United States the full amounts found to be due in examina- tion by Congress of these cleims of indebtedness. The District claims that Account- ants Maves and Spalding, while stat- ing tully every possible credit of the United States, neglected or omitted to state with the same careful full- ness the credits of the District. 1f the conclusions of Congress on the findings of Accountants Mayes | and Spalding are to be treated as| fnal adjudications, disposing of claims to District credits, and not to be reopened, they must also be treat- ed as final adjudications in their re- fusal to allow the United States in- terest upon any of these ancient al- leged debts. Haskins and Sells, the congres- sional joint committee's accountents, ve stated the account between the United States and the Distriet from 1311 to date, and if the accounts for the period 1574 to 1911, as-stated by Accountants Maves and Spalding, are | 1o be accepted av conclusive, the| finding of Accountants. Haskins & Sells of a net balance today to the credit of the District is a finding that the United States is indebted legally and morally to the Dlatrict in this amount as a minfmum. 1t interest were allowed the Dis- trict on its surpluses of accumulated 1axes corresponding to the interest which “the United States collected from it on advances to meet District deficits in seven years between 1900 and 1010, the surplus balance found dus by Haskins and Sells would be correspondingly augmented. If the congressional joint committee mdopts this method of answering the auerles propounded by law concern- ing the statement of accounts since 1874, comcerning the muw ‘the District's credit in the Treasury, and concerning the amount legally and wmorally due from one party to the lother after allowance {s made for equitable interest charges, it cam re- wport quickly and definitely to Con- ®ress its comclusion, and Congress, By adopting its report, will recog- mize as avallable for appropriation the District's surplus as determined By the Comptroller General law of June 29, 1922. (20 Controller's Decislon. 440, January 3, 1914.) There should be & balincing of ac- counts on the half and half basis dur- ing this period. Any money collected under the organic act to be spent un the half and half basis und actually spent on any other basis, (as with full cost from District tax money), should Dbe restored one-half to the District’s credit, and entered in the Treasury account. An equitable restatement of the ac- count between the United States and the District takes note of and cor- rects: tems which should be stated on the half and hulf busis and which are charged full cost aguinst the Dis- trict, including the cost of street ex- tension and, In part, of street im- provement outside of Boundary Street of the original eity. This inequity in- volves an unjust limitation of the application of the act of 1878 to the bounds of the original Washington and a rescinding of it (n certain par- ticulars 8o far as all of the District outside of the original city is con- cerned. IL Items which should be stated Wwholly "as national expenses, but which are actually stated on the half and half basis, or with the unjust im- position of even more than half cost upon the District as taxpayers or consumers. A conmspicuous example of this inequity is the division of the cost of the capital's water supply sys- tem, for the collection, filtration and distribution of Potomac water be- tween the United States as part- owner and consumer on one side and the District as part-owner und water consumer, as taxpayer and water rent payer on the other. Comtroller's Decision in 1914, Controller Downey in his above citsd decision of January 3, 1314, (20 Compt. Dec.) says The proper proportion of appro- priations having been determined by the act of 1878, ‘as cantemplated’, by the act of 1874, the pledge became a pledge to appropriate 50 per cent out of the Treasury of the United States and fAfty per cent out of the revenues of the District. . . . P “It must be observed that under this plan, as outlined in section three of the act of 1878, there is no con- templation that the District’s part of necessary and approved expenditures is to be Daid out of a purse already sufficiently filled and with some to spare. On the contrary, the provision is that after the estimated expendi- tures for the next fiscal vear have been approved by Congress, and to the extent that they have been so ap- proved ‘tho remaining fifty per cent of such approved estimates shall be levied and assessed upon the taxable property and the privileges in said Distric “The extent to which the levying of taxes on the property and franchises in the District was authorized was thus defined and thus limited. This was a so-called organic act. It was an act which provided a form of gov- ernment, created the governing body ind defined 1ts powers and It 1s elor mentary that the created governing body could have ro power except that specifically delegated by its creator or necessarily incident thereto. . . . .. . . The organic act provided for the levying of taxes for the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1879, and subse- quent years, and fixed & maximum ad of a specific rate, but com- no authority (0 levy any taxes in cess of that mecessary to produce fAifty per cent of the approved esti- ated expennes, the levying of which is to be on the taxable property and the privileges In the District “The sundry civil act of June 20, 1878, . . . . provided that the Commissioners of the District ‘shall have power to assess and collect the taxes for the fiscal year 1879 upon the basis of their estimates submitted to Congress, meaning necessarily in connection with the provisions of the organic act itself, to the extent of fifty per cent of those estimates, and no other power to levy tuxes was conferred. . . . “Taxes were to be ocollected during each flacal year with which to meet the Districi's part of the expenses for that vear. Taxes, of course. could not be levied to produce actually and exactly this fifty per cent: the result might be a surplus or a deficit. . 0. . Whether in fact a large sur- Plus or & deficit resulted.in any one vear could have no bearing on the construction of a statute which .au- thorized taxation only to the extent of fifty per cent of a specified amount.” District’s Contentions Supported. Every vital contention of the Dis- trict concerning the construction of the act of 1878 finds powerful support ; in these words of Controller Downey's decislon. The only District of Columbia taxa- tion authorized and directed by law is that given. to the Commissioners to raise one-half of the amount of District appropriations previously made by Congress. If the law is fol- lowed there is no possibility of a sur- plus of District money, unmatched by United States dellars. Indeed, the lat- ter are under the law put up first. But in practice Congress has repeat- edly collected more in District taxes than it has matched. either before or after the levy, and has expended this surplus_withaut duplication in vio- lation of the law. The account of such expenditures should be stated and the amount found in equity to be due the District should be credited to it. In the relations which existed be- tween nation and capital, the nation all powerful, with despotic control of all District assets, and the District impotent, voiceless, negligible, any failure of the nation to meet the self- imposed obligation of the organic act, while that law was permitted to re- main unamended among the statutes, was a violation of law and equity ralsing_an equitable credit' in favor of the District, which it is the avowed purpose of this inquiry to ascertain and_readjust. 3 (The District auditor’s figures show in detail violations of the half and half principle since 1878, aggregatin over four million dollars, or abou two millions outside of the sums in- volved in repudiation by the natlon of its share of the cost of suburban Congressional Joint Committee’s of cisl accountanta, will wipe th wiean of all the bitter contenti recriminations over claims of indebtedness and will gitve the District a tart to test fairly its financlal w woe gnder its mew orgamic aet 1032, 2. If the wtatement of accoumts from 7 Accountants Mayes and ed because it fully Distriet credits or for any other reasenm, and if the Distriet’s scoount for this peried is 7eopenod and restated fully, taking 4nto acceunt (as the law of 1823 re~ auires) equitable and moral, aa well @y legal indebtednouses, the District’s wurplus will not suffer reduction but bo increased by the diacovery of additional District credits, both legal and equitable. Through etatistics complled by the District suditor and by the citize committee’'s accountants we demo strate that in equity there should be added to the District credits several million dollars. ‘We consider first the sccounts and equitics of the period from 1878 to date; second, of the period between 1874 and 1873; third, of the perio prior to 1874, so far as it furnish murviving equities subsequent to that date. 3 WCCOUNTS AND EQUITIES OF THE PERIOD FROM 1578 TO DATE. The law of 1378 contemplated ad- wances by the United States to the District of Columbla, to be reimbursed in the current year. No equitable or oral obligation in favor of the fted States can arise from faith- fully carrying out the law of 1878, in acoordance with its terms. There can De no obligation of the District, for ezample, to pay interest on advances which are contemplated and com- manded by the law itself. On the other hand therg is an equitable or moral obligation by the United States to make od by reimbursements {perhaps with interest) any violations| By ftaelt of its self-imposed obliga- Ylons under the 1aw of 1678, which Fe. jed the rmanent, substantive law of District, until it was ect T jed by the new fiscal - | Street extension.) $ | Accou! TS AND EQUITIES OF THE PERIOD BETWEEN 1874 AND 1878, 1. All District expenditures between 1874 and 1878 (whether met tempo- rarily and tentatively by (1) local tax- ation, or (2) by unconditional appro- g‘rlnuonl from the Treasury, or (3) by easury appropriations to be treated later as part of the proportional contri- bution of the United States toward capital maintenance, or (4) to be reim- bursed by the District to the Treasury) are to be restated and readjusted on the half and half principle. When the fifty-fifty ratio became the law in 1878 it was inserted retroactive- ly in the blank to be filled (as it were) in the law of 1874 applying to all expenses of the District within this l i !There are apparent other UHE KVENING § period, Including intérest op the funded debt’ (21 Controllers Decisions 595-400- 401, December, 1914). Controller Downey's decision, apply- ing the half and half principle to the funded debt iInterest expense between 1574 and 1378 is so worded as by clear implication to apply to all District expenses within the same perlod. The 1874 declaration of proportion- ate contribution by the nation on a ratlo to be.afterwards fixed applied to all expenwes of the District, in- cluding interest and. sinking fund payments on the funded débt, &nd not to the extent only of interest and sinking fund payments on the funded debt. Controller. Downey's vivil de- scription of chaotic conditions in the District’s _financial affairs between 1574 and 1878 covers all expenditurco in that period and not merely ex- penditures in connection with the funded debt. The same reasoning which caused the latter expense to be readjusted on the fifty per cent basls, though in respect to the two itams in question tull reimbursement by the District had been directed, compels by clear and direct implication a read- Justment on tho fifty per cent Dbasis of the school and juil expenses of that period, of which full relmbursement was directed by the original aets, and which ‘were not long ago fully reim- bursed. What Restatement Would Suow. When the accounts of 1874-78 have been restated and balanced, whatever the District has paid more than one-half of the aggregate expenditures should be entered as an additional District credit in the Treasury account. If re- statement of the account shows that the United States has paid more than ones half of the aggregate expenditure, this excess payment should be entered us a debit of the District in the Treasury account Our figures show a balance due the District of several million dollars as u Tesult of this restatement of account. 2. 1f, however, there is not to be this general restatement of account for this period and the jtems are to be con- sidered separately, then such items, for example, as those for schools and for completion of the jail, which were re- id in full by the taxpayers of 1919 €hould be repaid one-half to the Di trict, since the principle applied by Con- troller Downey's decisions to the inter- cst, etc. on the funded debt applies equitably and consistently to such other District” expenses us those of schools and of jail construction. One-half of these items should be entered as an additional credit of the District in the Treasury account: 2. All the exactions from taxpayers of recent years to reimburse the United States for alleged indebtednesses of the District existing In 1874-78 should be reimbursed in full to the District, and the amount should be entercd in full as another District credit in the Treasury account. The act of 1578 was a settlement in bankruptey (so to speak) which treated District credits and debits as roughly balancing, outside of the spe- cific provisions of the organic act concerning the funded debt, and wiped the slate clean of past debits und credits (21 Controller's Decisions, 405 and 406). Slate Wiped Clean. Controller Downey, December, 1914 (21 Controller's Decisions, pages 405-6), says: “But perfect fairness in the treatment of the question sub. mitted requires the suggestion t there are plausible grounds for an assumption agai the presemt ex. istence of any indebtedmess because of the advances made under the au- thority of the two acts in question. 8. There i very reasonable ground for assuming that when Con- gress passed the met of 1878, the or- ganic act, it was intended to wipe the slate ‘clean so far as the ante cedent peried of uncertainty was concerned and take a fresh start. Legislation during the period be- tween the acts of 1874 and 1878 had not been after any determined or systematic plan. The necessitles of the District had been met as circum- stances for the s seemed to require. The nearest approach to & plan seems to be found in an app: ent intention to require the applica- tion of District revenues to District needs, and to furnish from the fed- eral Treasury whatever additional might be required. The organic act took no account of and made no pro- vision for the payment of any in- debtedness growing out of the trans- actions of the preceding four years between the Government and the District, and that condition was per- mitted to contigue for 35 years. : While these conditions may in ‘a measure tend to support a con- tention that the debt, if existent, had been released, I do not find in them justification for so holding. reasons why the matter should be handled by Congress, where power lies to do what the circumstances of the case may seem to require, unlimited by the necessity of technical constru tion of the fragmentary and uns: tematic legislation of the period volved. If therc 'arc reasons for as- suming that the Congress whicl passed the act of 1878 did mot intes to require an accounting as to o= cedent transactions there is now au- thority in Congress not Yound else- where o to conclude and act. Then every equitable consideration, as well as the cold facts, may properly be given their full weight and a con- clusion reached which not only must be deemed authorized because with authority, but which can be justified because it is the deliberaie con- clusion of competent men authorized to act, inspired only by right mo- tives unhampered by mecessity of technical constructiom and desirous only of accomplishing right and Justice.” Moral and Legal Debts. The law creating this joint congres- sionel committee specifically broadens the scope of the committee's jurls-| diction to consider whether there is indebtedness by one party to the other morally as well as legally. So| that this tribunal is specifically em- | owered to respond to Controller| owney's suggestion that, “unham- pered by necessity for technical con- | struction and desirous only of ac-| complishing right and Jjustice” it: (representing Congress) should as a court of equity examine thoroughly and thoughtfuily the District's con- tention on this point. in respect to which Controller Downey says:: “There is very reasonable ground fo assuming that when Congress pass: the act of 1875, the organic act, it was intended to wipe the slate clean %o far as the antecedent period,of | uncertalnty was concerned and fo| take a fresh start”” | The entire amount of the latter- day exactions of ancient alleged ts from modern tax pavers should be refunded on the ground that the| act of 1878, as interpreted by con- | mporary Congresses and Presidents and by Controller Downey, was in effect a settlement in bankruptcy of | the past debits and credits of the District, was treated as such by! Congress and the Treasury Depart- ment for many years after 1878, and ' cannot now be treated otherwise ex- cept in violation of the spirit of the! statute of limitations and of equity. ' Since equitable and moral consid- erations are to enter into this ac- il Sapatans"of e Disrct WHain this | ersilons iro Lo enier Jnio.this 4 e —— oo ]| ‘STANDARD—The Measure of Flattery? o] The Human Element in WE are_ all susceptible to extra attention. Far from Service is sincerely interested in securing your friendship on a lasting basis. The things we do for new depositors today are part of our daily Service Banking it. STANDARD habit of doing a little more for our family of You'll be glad you did. $. GARDINER, President. frien_da. There is room for you and your bank- ing business in this friendly circle. Join us today. H. €. McCENEY, Cashier. Standard National Bank 2 th 'Street at N. Y. Ave. “Plenty of Room to Park” TAR, counting by direction of the itself the taxpayers of today should be relieved entirely of any accounta- bility for ancient resurrected alleged debts. Such of these debits as have been separated from the general account, thus closed, and collected 35 or 40 yoars Jater from District taxpayers, should in eq;;l'.y be repaid in full Our figures call for a' reimburse- ment of several millien dollars to the District under this head. EQUITIES SURVIVING FROM PERIOD BEFORE 1874. Tf the act of 1878 is not to be treated as @ settlement, and ecquities of the | United States prior to 1878 are to be segregated and watisfled then the equities of the District in this period must aiso be revived and enforced, including such equities as that recog- nized by the District Commissioners as existing in 1878 which called for the payment of $16,000,000 by the United States to the District to bal ance an equitable accounting belw the U. 8. and the D. C. from 1791 to date. Com. Report 1878 page 4. PART L INTEREST EQUITIES. ‘provisions concerning interest the act of June 20, 1922, it applied spirit of equity and in accordance with the terma of the law to moral an well an legal Indebtedness will not reduce the District's net surplus. This conclusion follows whether the decisions of Congress upon the re- ports of Accountants Mayes and Spaldigs are or are not viewed as final, conclusive, not to be reopened. If they are final and conclusive Con- gress. in_legislation upon these re- ports of past indebtedness of the Dis- | trict fixed semi-judicially and with- 1 out appeal the amount of reimburse- ment to be justly made, and deter- mined finally whether all or half or none of the alleged indebtedness should be equitably pald, and whether | or not interest should bé charged and paid. The interest provision of the act of June 29, 1922, does not apply to these reimbursdments in respect to which Congress in final semi-judicial settlement has determined specifically or impliedly that no interest charge should be justly made. If these decisions are reopened, and, disregarding the accountings of Ac- countants Mayes and Spalding except as one-sided statements of United States credits, the_equities are to be restated from 1874 to the present time,, the result in respect to interest WASHINGTON, D. C law [ing concrete Dintrict of Columbia ' be rplus should not be correspondingly | deinyed or delayed at all. The doing | of immediate justice by this Congress States. Congress is now and will continue to be in complete and ex- control of all the Districts d assets and ca readjustmen ispute at sny 4 the District shoul fou) to be ind: moraily, in any ai Statex. legally or unt to the United CONCLUSION, The taxpayers of today—that is. of the period 1916-1926 are welghed down with the tax burdens of past. present and future: (1) They are bur- dened with alleged indebtednesses of the remote past, especially those aris- ing from the biunders or neglects of agents of the federal government be- tween 1574 and 1878. Many thousand dollars ‘of such alleged indebtednesses have been thus inequitably collected from them, and they are now menaced {n violation of the spirit of the statute of limitations, with the revi jcation to their injury of debts a; parently settled or forglven more than forty years ago and with de- mand for payment of interest on these alleged ancient debts. (2) They E been burdered with the heavy war taxes of this decade, of which they have paid their full share, more in 19181919 than any one of fifteen states, more than five states combined. They have met all. their obligations in municipal expenditure. They have been taxed municipally go as to raise in addition to what they were permi- ted to spend several million of sur- plus taxes under the half and half Jaw, and now the question is raised whether they shall be permitted to pend for their own bemefit the sur- plus which they have thus accumu- lated, through violation by Congress, their exclusive legislature, of the lit- eral terms of the act of 1878. (3) They are not only thus burdened with the resurrected alleged indebtedness long ago dead, buried and decayed, of the remote ‘past, and are not only thus held from the use of millions of taxes collected fro: them in the last three years, constituting their tax revenue of the present, but they are menaced with imposition of the bur- dens of the taxpayers of the future charges by the United States will be the same. Interest cannot equitably be col- lected upon any alleged indebtedness of which the principal itself cannot equitably be collected as a moral In- debtedness. We have attempted to demonstrate that the alleged fn- debtedness of the District to the United States upon which interest claims might plausibly be attached are not equitable or moral Indebted- nesses of the District, but that the United States 18 on_the whole morally indebted to the District instead of the District being indebted to the United States. Interest follows prin- cipal. It results that the interest provision of the act of 1922, {f equitably applied and enforced, will increase the District's accumulated surplus and not reduce it. The conclusion under either altern- ative is that the United States holds to the credit of the District several million dollars of accumulated un- appropriated tax surpluses. 1f Con- gress found it equitable to allow the District interest on its surplus of un- expended taxes corresponding to the interest which the nation exacted from the District on advances to meet District_deficits in_seven years be- tween 1900 and 1910 the District's| Treasury surplus, the existence of | which has been demonstrated, as evervone now apparently concedes, would be correspondingly increased. Speedy Action Urged. The Citizens Committee earnestly urges the Joint Congressional Com- mittee to recommend quickly and this Congress to enact promptiy formal | recognition of the existence - ‘Treasury credit ilable for priatioh of the District’s accumulated surplus of revenue ed by the Treasury Departm reported by the official accountants of the C gressional Joint Committee, amounting to $4.076.457.65. We urme that altion by Congress approving this specific finding of the official ac- | countants be taken, whether or not | Congress accepts as final for the period 1574 to 1911 at leant as far as the United States is concermed, the ac- countings of Maves and Spalding, as | approved or rejected by past Con- | gresses. Though final closing of the | accounts stating the it fiscal re- Intions of the United States and the | District of Columbla, and the wiping | out on both sides of claims to equl able credits would, we bave con- tended, mean a loss to the Dis- trict, it may be that this sacrifice would wisely be made to settlement of peace as to fscal rel tions of the past which in conjunc-| tion with the fixing for the future of the definite per: ient ratio of pital contribution of 60-40 will go far toward removing a hurtful, frritating atrife-breedl ue from the rela- tion of nation and capital, This re- sult was, it iv believed, the wise in- tent of our new fiscal organic act of 1922. But if Congress is disposed to keep | alive these issues and to postpone to | another Congress final balancing of these alleged equitable credits, action upon the specific finding of an exist- | by the requirement that in addition to current taxes for current mainte- nance they shall be taxed to raise millions to meet the first half year expenditure of 1927-28 under the new so-called pay-as-you-go policy, ;e“; cently proclaimed by Congress. Pay-as-you-go policy obviously ex- poses itself as really a pay-before-you- & ol £ this at have the taxpayers o decaie to o with the idebtednesses. of 1874-787 What have they to do with the future current expenditures and indebtednesses of 1927-2§? Why hay they not equitably everything to do with thelr surplus of collected, and unexpended because unappropriated taxes, now lying in the Treasury awalting appropriation and npg’ a- tion for the District’s use and bgne fit? n applying under the terms of th rave SEPTH53% the test of morality or equity to alleged indebtednesses the taxpayers of today—of the period 1816-1926—staggering under the heavy burden of the accumulated obligations arising from neglected vital munici- pal needs of the war time, should be absolutely relleved from denr'\lndxg :5 both principal and interest of ancie Pesurrected alleged debts which died and were buried in the last centur: they should be permitted to use to pay in part their proportion of the Costs of meeting the accumulated mu- nicipal war time needs the tax-money collected during the war time but not then appropriated to meet these very neglected municipal needs: and final- Iy instead of being compelied to raise from present taxes several milllon dollars to pay in advance the ex- penses of the first half of the fiscal Vear 1927-28, the benefits to be de- rived by the taxpayers of the future from great permanent improvements about to be undertaken or now under way should be recognized and pro- vision made by government advances to be reimbursed with interest for just psrticipation by the future tax- payers In meeting the cost of these Breat permanent improvements, so beneficial to them. The taxpayers of 19 THAYER SUPERIOR PRINTING Small Work Exclusively PHONE MAIN 1816 909 12th St. N.W. HOWARD S. FISK, Manager ST EDMONSTON’S STACY-ADAMS & CO. SHOES FOR GENTLEMEN Men’s Shoes of Recognized The Idea of these Shoes is HOW GOOD can shoes be made. Fitis guaran- teed by the fact that it is attended to by Experts. In all, Stacy- Adams Shoes for Gentlemen represent the respects. Superiority STACY-ADAMS The first thought —Quality of terials is guaranteed by experienced ex- pert selection. The next is De- signing of Lasts— anatomical correct- ness that at the same time embodies appealing elements . of style, " ma 1"5 Then Boot! by the most craftsmen that can be employed. very limit of value in all Priced $12.50 to $14.50 We Are Sole Representatives for Stacy-Adams Shoes in Washington EDMONSTON & CO. (Incorporated) M : : Andrew Betz, 1334 F Street anager Ad¥isers and Authorities on All Foot Troubles should not SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1y uired to pay from thelr current tax funds,- every cent of which is eded to meet the cost of today's ital maintenance wnd upbuilding. t a million or thre uarters of a ho taxpayers of 1927-28 on a s vl EO or cash basis. On the contrary the taxpayers of 1937-28 should pay part of tho cost of today's water supply, #ohool construction, street and sewer improvements, by which the District of 1927-8 wil} profit even more than the District of 1932.23. THEODORE W. NOYES, E. F. COLLADAY, B. O, BRANDENBURG, JAMES T. LLOYD, ‘WILLIAM L. BEALE, Brief Committee, NAVY ASKS MORE CASH. Increased Outlay Needed to Com- plete New Warships. ‘The Navy Department has asked Congress (o enact special legislation {ncreasing the limit of cost hereto- fore authorized. for completion of the battleship Colorado, two scout eruisers and & destroyer tender. Cost of the Colorado would be increased from $17.000,000 to $17,600,000; scout cruisers Nos. 9 and 10, from $8,250,000 o $8,400,000, and the destroyer tender No. 3, from $3,400,000 to $4.500.000. The four ships are part of the 1918 bullding progr: ince the esti- mates were made, jt was pointed out at the Navy Department, cost of a number of the elements entering into construction have fmcreased. In the case of the Colorado, the Washington arms conference had the effect of slowing up construction work, it was sald, the delayg necessitating a heavier outlay for completion of the craft. But No Readers. ‘Wrottles—I understand he is begin- ning to make good as an author. Writtles—Yes, he is reading all his old rejected manuscripts over the radio and ‘has hundreds of listeners. democrat, Mississipp| congressional commi REFORESTRATION IS O.KD. |forestation methods and recommend S5 Sadiiiin’ +¢ Ganitor rison, | 1Bislation to Gongress, was report:d e urnmm""‘,, foint | favorably yesterday by the Senate ex- on o study re- | penditures committee, FEERLESS ¢Passenger Touring Phacton Completely Equipped There is a buoyancy and spirit, a dash and effortless ease about the Four-Passenger Touring Phaeton that delight those motorists who place a premium on performance. Peerless Motor Car Co. 14th at P Main 8077 THRIFT WEEK START AN ACCOUNT NOW BUILDING Highest Interest Rates Paid on Monthly Deposits Exemptions This kind of investment helps to solve the housing problem, as the money you deposit assists some one to get a home. Over $35,000,000 For further information phone any of the following associations: American Building Association 300 B Street S.E. Lincoln 131. Columbia Building Association 716 Eleventh Street NNW, Main 6543. Columbia Permanent Building Association Seventh and E Streets S.W. District Building and Loan Association 819 Fifteenth Street N.W, Main 8416. Eastern Building Association i 336 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E. Lincoln 1447. £ Enterprise Serial Building Association, 643 Louisiana Avenue N.W. Main 350. ~ Equitable Home Building Association 2006 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W, Main 5808. Home Mutual Building Association 631 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Main 4131. Metropoli 201 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E, Lincoln 1648. Mutual Serial Building Association, 306 Seventh Street S.W. 915 F Street N.W. JANUARY 17th-23rd AND LOAN ASSOCIATION From Federal and Municipal Tax Invested in Building Associ- dtions in the District of Co- lumbia, which are under su- pervision of U. S. Treasury Main 353. Co-operative Building Association Main 1741, Building Association, Main 2385. National Permanent Building Association 929 Sixth Washington MOVING PICTURE “Own Your Own Home” Will Be Shown at the Following— " Saturday, 8 P.M,, Y. M. C. A, Service Club, 1004 E St. NW. Sunday & Monday, Circle Theatre, 21st & Pa. Ave. Northeast Building Association ° 20th and Rhode Island Avenue N.E. North 7188. Northern Liberty Building Association 511 Seventh Street N.W. Main 8171 Oriental Building Association, Perret\ul Buildin%Auocinfion Elevent! Ninth Street NNW. Main 1381, and F Streets NNW. Main 2163. Cor. E Street NW. Main 1316. 6% Permanent Building Association 629 F Street NW. Main 5395 ADMISSION, FREE CITY CLUB (Members Only) Friday, January 19, at 8 P.M.