Miss SPIRO. No; the Washington chapter officers do not work for the chapter. It is a volunteer organization. He is in business in Washington. Mr. HARRIS. How many members of your Washington chapter do you have? Miss SPIRO. About 700, sir. Mr. HARRIS. What are your annual membership dues? Miss SPIRO. $5 and $10. Mr. ABERNETHY. What State does Mr. Wolinski live in? Miss SPIRO. He lives in the District. Mr. ABERNETHY. Is he a native of the District? Miss SPIRO. I do not think so. Mr. ABERNETHY. How long has he been here? Miss SPIRO. Several years, sir. He was here during the war; then I believe he was out of the country for a year or so. Mr. ABERNETHY. What is his business? Miss SPIRO. He is an economist. Mr. ABERNETHY. You live in the District? Mr. ABERNETHY. How long have you been here? Mr. ABERNETHY. You work for the Government? Miss SPIRO. I did work for the Government. Mr. ABERNETHY. And you live in Maryland, Mr. White? Mr. WHITE. I have two residences. I lived in the District since 1937 and in Maryland since this year. Mr. ABERNETHY. Do you live in Maryland and belong to the Washington chapter of ADA? Mr. WHITE. Well, sir, I have a summer residence in Maryland and a voting residence there. Mr. ABERNETHY. Do you pay dues to the Washington chapter? Mr. WHITE. There is no chapter in the section of Maryland in which I live. Mr. ABERNETHY. That did not answer my question. Do you belong to the ADA in Washington? Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir. Mr. HARRIS. You pay your taxes in Maryland, though? Mr. WHITE. I pay taxes both in Maryland and the District. Mr. HARRIS. Do you vote in Maryland? Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir. Mr. HARRIS. Thank you very much. Mr. Don Parsee, did you want to testify on home rule? Mr. PARSEE. I do not think so this morning, Mr. Chairman. I ap preciate the opportunity. Mr. HARRIS. Dr. G. E. Dawson. STATEMENT OF DR. GILES E. DAWSON, FIRST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE CONNECTICUT AVENUE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION Dr. DAWSON. My name is Giles E. Dawson, and I am the first vice president of the Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association. The Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association, which I have the honor to represent, is the second largest of the citizens' associations in Washington. Mr. HARRIS. Dr. Dawson, do you have a rather lengthy statement that you plan to read? Dr. DAWSON. No, sir; 2 minutes. Mr. HARRIS. Very well, you may proceed. I hope you will understand the reason I asked is because we have already had more than one representative of the Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association here. Dr. DAWSON. Yes. It has 1,947 paid-up members, and its meetings are attended by from fifty to several hundred. In 1950 this association strongly supported the Kefauver home-rule bill. Last year it strongly supported the Kefauver-Taft bill-with one dissenting vote at a well attended meeting. This year, on March 17, the present home-rule bill was approved by a unanimous vote. A copy of the resolution is in the hands of this committee. Every home-rule bill is criticized as faulty in one detail or another. We are told that this bill will not provide true home rule; that the terms of office are too long, or too short; that proposed salaries are too high, or not high enough. The membership of the Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association is by no means in full agreement on all details of the Case bill. What we agree on unanimously is the principle of home rule-that home rule ought to be enacted without delay in the best form obtainable. Complete agreement on details is impossible to obtain, and the insistence upon a bill which will eliminate all conceivable faults-down to the last comma-is simply a way of putting the whole thing off indefinitely. Had the framers of the Constitution of the United States insisted upon complete accord on every clause, that document might well be waiting for the signatures yet. Meanwhile the Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association deplores the fact that nearly a million citizens of the District of Columbia are denied any voice in their own government—a state of affairs no longer tolerated in Puerto Rico, that other stepchild of the United States Government. Therefore we strongly urge the passage of the Case home-rule bill in the present session of Congress. Mr. HARRIS. Does that complete your statement, Doctor? Dr. DAWSON. Yes, sir. Mr. HARRIS. Are you a medical doctor? Dr. DAWSON. No, sir, Ph. D. Mr. HARRIS. What is your occupation? Dr. DAWSON. I am curator of books and manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Mr. ALLEN. Did your association consider the practice of other elections, particularly with regard to another city where minority rule has been imposed through that system over a number of years? Dr. DAWSON. I do not think that point has been discussed in the association, sir. Mr. ALLEN. Did your association consider the practice of other cities in having councils elected for a longer period than 2 years and having the elections so staggered that they never would have a complete revision of the membership of the governing board? Dr. DAWSON. That point was discussed in a meeting, but no resolution was passed on it; and I just cannot say how the membership would feel on that. Mr. HARRIS. Thank you very much, Doctor. Mr. Frank Tavenner, Young Democratic Clubs of Washington. Will you give your address, Mr. Tavenner? Mr. TAVENNER. The address of the organization or my personal address? Mr. HARRIS. Both. STATEMENT OF FRANK TAVENNER, YOUNG DEMOCRATIC CLUBS Mr. TAVENNER. The address of the organization is 600 F Street NW.; and my personal address is in Arlington. I want to explain. I was president of the club up until about a month ago, and I moved over in Arlington. Mr. Carson is president, and he asked me to come down and speak for the club as my last duty, so to speak. Mr. HARRIS. Very well, you may proceed. Mr. TAVENNER. The Young Democratic Club is unanimously in favor of the bill; and when we voted on it, we did not discuss any changes whatsoever. We feel that the bill is a simple plan to elect 15 local representatives, a 5-man school board, and a nonvoting delegate to Congress; and that Congress in the main would have power to overrule any ordinances passed by these boards and therefore it would not come in conflict with the Constitution. We would like to see these young people have a voice in the Government. We are all good Democrats and want to work for our party. That is the main thought in mind. Thanks for the chance to come here. That is all I have to say. Mr. ABERNETHY. How many members are there in your club? Mr. ALLEN. Did you consider that under this bill you would have a chance to work for your party in the election of a municipal government? Mr. TAVENNER. A very wonderful chance. Mr. ALLEN. You would not go along with the nonpartisan provisions of the bill? Mr. TAVENNER. Not exactly, sir. Mr. ALLEN. In that connection do you think, then, that local issues should be determined on the basis of national issues? And do you feel that in relatively small communities, like the District or its subdivisions, that whether a local official is elected should depend on his loyalty to the national policies of the party or whether he is qualified to understand local problems? Mr. TAVENNER. Well, it is much like, I think, any city. A councilman on a county board or something of that sort, or city board, may be elected strictly on the grounds of whether he is a Democrat or not and whether he favors certain national policies. That has happened many, many times. Mr. SITTLER. Do you think that is a good idea? Mr. TAVENNER. Yes, sir; I do. Mr. HARRIS. What do you do, Mr. Tavenner? Mr. TAVENNER. I am a lawyer, sir. Mr. HARRIS. Here in Washington? Mr. TAVENNER. Yes, sir. Mr. HARRIS. Are you by yourself, or with a firm? 97650-52-15 4 Mr. TAVENNER. I am with two other gentlemen about the same age as I am. We went to school together and we opened our own office several years ago. Mr. HARRIS. What is the name of your firm? Mr. TAVENNER. Tavenner, Hillman, and Nichols. Mr. HARRIS. You moved over into Virginia where you could vote? Mr. TAVENNER. Well, I am a southerner by birth. Mr. HARRIS. Where? Mr. TAVENNER. In Virginia, and I voted in Virginia all my life since I was 21. Mr. HARRIS. You are back home, then. Mr. TAVENNER. That is why I cannot see, on the political end of this thing as I say, personally I am not even a liberal Democrat. I cannot even see why Mr. ABERNETHY. You are out of line, then, are you not? Mr. TAVENNER. I am really, very much so. But I cannot see where this bill would in any way affect anybody or hurt anybody. I think the District of Columbia, if something is not done you go over in Arlington and see the growth over there, and Silver Spring Mr. ABERNETHY. Let me ask you a simple question. An honest, really worth-while vote would be one for President and Vice President, would it not? Mr. TAVENNER. Exactly. Mr. ABERNETHY. Which do you think would be more valuable to the people of this District so far as having some voice in what happens in this Government: The vote for President and Vice President, or to vote for a bunch of strawmen-and that is all they are; they are just strawmen- -on this council here? Which do you think would be better? Mr. TAVENNER. Sir, I think the latter is better Mr. ABERNETHY. In other words, you think voting for a proxy council? Mr. TAVENNER. Because we are crawling before we walk in the matter. We do not even have a chance to vote for strawmen. Mr. ABERNETHY. Do you not think you should get up and walk when it comes to voting for President and Vice President? Mr. TAVENNER. That would be done, in other words; but this is one move forward. Mr. ABERNETHY. Are you not really evading the question when you put it that way? Mr. HARRIS. Do you as a lawyer think that under the Constitution the Congress can delegate authority to someone else, regardless of what you might call it-council, local legislature, anything? Do you think that the Congress can delegate the authority to someone else to legislate for the District of Columbia? Mr. TAVENNER. It cannot be delegated. But this bill does not exactly delegate, because it just gives Mr. HARRIS. What does it do? Mr. TAVENNER. It gives these 15 men and the school board and the mayor a chance to pose certain ordinances affecting the people in my block or where my office is or any place in the city; and if they decide it is not good or it is conflicting, the Congress can overrule it. It is more administrative in nature, except for one thing. Those men are elected. The people have a chance to select what people will administrate. Mr. HARRIS. I assume you studied this proposal? Mr. TAVENNER. I have not studied it down to the smallest detail. I have knocked it around in my mind, and I just noted the large provisions, how the election of the 15-man board and the mayor and the school board Mr. HARRIS. The bill delegates authority to raise taxes, does it not? Mr. TAVENNER. It does. Mr. HARRIS. Is that legislation? Mr. TAVENNER. That is, except for one thing. The Congress can overrule it. But the Congress cannot overrule what the State of Virginia legislates on or what Maryland legislates on or the State of South Carolina. That is one provision where the contact is kept. Mr. HARRIS. And you think the Constitution in providing powers of the Congress to legislate or exercise exclusive jurisdiction over legislation of the District means that that is merely the veto right of the Congress? Mr. TAVENNER. I feel that way, sir. Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Tavenner, Members of Congress such as myself come from California and we live in a block here. People come here from the various States to go into offices in the Government and they get a home and live here for 2, 3, 5, or 10 years. Why should that type of person who comes from the other States and who lives in the block, as you say, have a third or two-thirds of the other people in the block tell him how the capital should be regulated, rather than to have the Representatives elected from the several States say how it is to be run? Mr. TAVENNER. Your question is not real clear in my mind. Mr. ALLEN. What I am really saying is: Should the National Capital be controlled by the people of the Nation for the benefit of those who come here to govern? Or should the people who stay here and live here to serve those who come regulate the Capital? Mr. TAVENNER. The latter, the people who live here and make their living here, who have their roots here-this is their entire interest in life, the Washington area. Mr. ALLEN. That what would be the objection to making the whole area part of the State? Mr. TAVENNER. The organization itself has not discussed it. I would rather not say. I think it is getting around the bill. Mr. HARRIS. Thank you very much. Mr. David Whatley. STATEMENT OF DAVID WHATLEY, BETHESDA, MD. Mr. WHATLEY. My address is 7400 Arden Road, Bethesda. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your permitting me to speak briefly on this bill. I favor the bill. Mr. HARRIS. Do you represent any group or organization? Mr. WHATLEY. I am just appearing as an individual, representing no organization. I have lived in the District from 1930 to 1948, during which time I was fortunate to maintain a voting residence in your district, as you know. Mr. HARRIS. At Lewisville, Ark. |