Mr. KING. I think the people of the District of Columbia ought to have a greater say than they now have in choosing the people who govern them.

Mr. BATES. I am speaking of the government that you now have. Mr. KING. That we now have?

Mr. BATES. Have you any criticism of the administration of the District from an economic standpoint or from the standpoint of efficiency?

Mr. KING. No, sir. All I can do is repeat what I have said. There are some men or things that no doubt, I do not altogether approve of what has been done, but compared to other cities that I have observed, I think it is an extremely well-run city.

Senator CAIN. Thank you. I wonder if Mrs. Robert Wilson, chairman of the District of Columbia Affairs, District of Columbia League of Women Voters, is here?

Mrs. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Senator CAIN. We are delighted to have you with us. Will you give the reporter your correct name and whom you represent.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ROBERT G. WILSON, CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AFFAIRS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

Lrs. WILSON. My name is Mrs. Robert G. Wilson, and I am representing the District League of Women Voters.

We certainly have appreciated the thoroughness and thoughfulness with which you have conducted these hearings.

Our league is an organization of over 650 local women whose purpose is to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. As such, we recognize that we must accept a greater tax burden to effect the improvements which we believe to be necessary.

There are four principles which we consider essential to a revenue program for the District:

1. There must be sufficient revenue to meet an adequate budget. 2. The methods of taxation must be equitable for the whole population to be taxed.

3. The methods of taxation must be readily enforceable.

4. A stable formula for a larger Federal payment is required properly to administer the District Government.

These principles should be applied to our three revenue funds, but our application at this point is only to the general fund since it is in this area that our organization has a background of past experience and present study.

With respect to our first principle, our thinking has been directed particularly to revenue needs for the coming fiscal year. It is of special importance that we have adequate revenue to ease the critical backlog of unmet need for new schools, health centers, and so forth. Also many items for new personnel such as teachers, nurses, welfare workers, and so forth, which were requested by department heads for fiscal year 1948 have been deleted in the budget presented to Congress. Eight million of the $11,000,000, which appears to be the increase

Mr. KING. And following, sir, a resolution of the association at its meeting where I gave them a brief summary of what I proposed to say. Senator CAIN. With reference to my point of view, what you have said in defense of your proposal about the Federal Government's contribution, I would have no questions on that at all. That is a matter for study that we are all concerned with.

Senator, do you have any questions in connection with that part of it?

Senator McGRATH, No.

Senator CAIN. Mr. Bates?

The only other questions all of us are interested in, if you feel that you have legitimate criticisms to make of any portion or any part of the District government.

Mr. KING. If you mean, Senator, adverse criticism, my answer is "no."

Senator CAIN. Good.

Mr. KING. I have lived, as Mr. Bates remarked, for 7 years while a student at Harvard University, at Cambridge, although it was a good many years ago, and you can see by looking at the color of my hair that it is a good many years ago; and I have been stationed at other places as an officer in the Army; on two separate occasions in San Antonio, Tex., and on one occasion in Fort Benning, adjacent to Columbus, Ga., and in Atlanta, and in a camp adjacent to Charlotte, N. C.; for a year at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and I have traveled around a good deal, and I have kept my eyes open in these cities, and stayed in most of them long enough to get some notion of how the cities were run.

Here in Washington I have been a member of the Georgetown Citizens' Association ever since I was a young man. My father was president, and I am myself a past president of it, and while I have never had any official connection with the District of Columbia official government, I have always been very much interested in it. Mr. BATES. How long have you lived continuously in the District now?

Mr. KING. Well, it has been my legal residence all my life.
Mr. BATES. Physically here.

Mr. KING. Physically here since 1938, but I also, during my tour in the Army, lived here off and on when stationed at the War Department. Mr. BATES. You have no criticism whatever as to the administration of the District government here?

Mr. KING. No adverse criticism, except that I do not think it is always quite as responsive to public feeling and opinion as it might be, and perhaps ought to be.

Mr. BATES. Have you noted any extravagance or inefficiency in the administration of the District government and works of the District? Mr. KING. Well, the Commissioners and the heads of the various departments of the District government are human beings and like all human beings, they make mistakes, but compared to other cities where I have lived, I think the District of Columbia is very well run. Mr. BATES. Is there any suggestion you can make as to how we can make the District government more efficient and more responsive to the wishes of the people of the District?

Mr. KING. I think the people of the District of Columbia ought to have a greater say than they now have in choosing the people who govern them.

Mr. BATES. I am speaking of the government that you now have. Mr. KING. That we now have?

Mr. BATES. Have you any criticism of the administration of the District from an economic standpoint or from the standpoint of efficiency?

Mr. KING. No, sir. All I can do is repeat what I have said. There are some men or things that no doubt, I do not altogether approve of what has been done, but compared to other cities that I have observed, I think it is an extremely well-run city.

Senator CAIN. Thank you. I wonder if Mrs. Robert Wilson, chairman of the District of Columbia Affairs, District of Columbia League of Women Voters, is here?

Mrs. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Senator CAIN. We are delighted to have you with us. Will you give the reporter your correct name and whom you represent.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ROBERT G. WILSON, CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AFFAIRS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

Lrs. WILSON. My name is Mrs. Robert G. Wilson, and I am representing the District League of Women Voters.

We certainly have appreciated the thoroughness and thoughfulness with which you have conducted these hearings.

Our league is an organization of over 650 local women whose purpose is to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. As such, we recognize that we must accept a greater tax burden to effect the improvements which we believe to be necessary.

There are four principles which we consider essential to a revenue program for the District:

1. There must be sufficient revenue to meet an adequate budget. 2. The methods of taxation must be equitable for the whole population to be taxed.

3. The methods of taxation must be readily enforceable.

4. A stable formula for a larger Federal payment is required properly to administer the District Government.

These principles should be applied to our three revenue funds, but our application at this point is only to the general fund since it is in this area that our organization has a background of past experience and present study.

With respect to our first principle, our thinking has been directed particularly to revenue needs for the coming fiscal year. It is of special importance that we have adequate revenue to ease the critical backlog of unmet need for new schools, health centers, and so forth. Also many items for new personnel such as teachers, nurses, welfare workers, and so forth, which were requested by department heads for fiscal year 1948 have been deleted in the budget presented to Congress. Eight million of the $11,000,000, which appears to be the increase

Mr. KING. And following, sir, a resolution of the association at its meeting where I gave them a brief summary of what I proposed to say. Senator CAIN. With reference to my point of view, what you have said in defense of your proposal about the Federal Government's contribution, I would have no questions on that at all. That is a matter for study that we are all concerned with.

Senator, do you have any questions in connection with that part of it?

Senator McGRATH. No.

Senator CAIN. Mr. Bates?

The only other questions all of us are interested in, if you feel that you have legitimate criticisms to make of any portion or any part of the District government.

Mr. KING. If you mean, Senator, adverse criticism, my answer is "no."

Senator CAIN. Good.

Mr. KING. I have lived, as Mr. Bates remarked, for 7 years while a student at Harvard University, at Cambridge, although it was a good many years ago, and you can see by looking at the color of my hair that it is a good many years ago; and I have been stationed at other places as an officer in the Army; on two separate occasions in San Antonio, Tex., and on one occasion in Fort Benning, adjacent to Columbus, Ga., and in Atlanta, and in a camp adjacent to Charlotte, N. C.; for a year at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and I have traveled around a good deal, and I have kept my eyes open in these cities, and stayed in most of them long enough to get some notion of how the cities were run.

Here in Washington I have been a member of the Georgetown Citizens' Association ever since I was a young man. My father was president, and I am myself a past president of it, and while I have never had any official connection with the District of Columbia official government, I have always been very much interested in it.

Mr. BATES. How long have you lived continuously in the District now?

Mr. KING. Well, it has been my legal residence all my life.

Mr. BATES. Physically here.

Mr. KING. Physically here since 1938, but I also, during my tour in the Army, lived here off and on when stationed at the War Department. Mr. BATES. You have no criticism whatever as to the administration of the District government here?

Mr. KING. No adverse criticism, except that I do not think it is always quite as responsive to public feeling and opinion as it might be, and perhaps ought to be.

Mr. BATES. Have you noted any extravagance or inefficiency in the administration of the District government and works of the District? Mr. KING. Well, the Commissioners and the heads of the various departments of the District government are human beings and like all human beings, they make mistakes, but compared to other cities where I have lived, I think the District of Columbia is very well run. Mr. BATES. Is there any suggestion you can make as to how we can make the District government more efficient and more responsive to the wishes of the people of the District?

Mr. KING. I think the people of the District of Columbia ought to have a greater say than they now have in choosing the people who govern them.

Mr. BATES. I am speaking of the government that you now have. Mr. KING. That we now have?

Mr. BATES. Have you any criticism of the administration of the District from an economic standpoint or from the standpoint of efficiency?

Mr. KING. No, sir. All I can do is repeat what I have said. There are some men or things that no doubt, I do not altogether approve of what has been done, but compared to other cities that I have observed, I think it is an extremely well-run city.

Senator CAIN. Thank you. I wonder if Mrs. Robert Wilson, chairman of the District of Columbia Affairs, District of Columbia League of Women Voters, is here?

Mrs. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Senator CAIN. We are delighted to have you with us. Will you give the reporter your correct name and whom you represent.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ROBERT G. WILSON, CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AFFAIRS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

Lrs. WILSON. My name is Mrs. Robert G. Wilson, and I am representing the District League of Women Voters.

We certainly have appreciated the thoroughness and thoughfulness with which you have conducted these hearings.

Our league is an organization of over 650 local women whose purpose is to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. As such, we recognize that we must accept a greater tax burden to effect the improvements which we believe to be necessary.

There are four principles which we consider essential to a revenue program for the District:

1. There must be sufficient revenue to meet an adequate budget. 2. The methods of taxation must be equitable for the whole population to be taxed.

3. The methods of taxation must be readily enforceable.

4. A stable formula for a larger Federal payment is required properly to administer the District Government.

These principles should be applied to our three revenue funds, but our application at this point is only to the general fund since it is in this area that our organization has a background of past experience and present study.

With respect to our first principle, our thinking has been directed particularly to revenue needs for the coming fiscal year. It is of special importance that we have adequate revenue to ease the critical backlog of unmet need for new schools, health centers, and so forth. Also many items for new personnel such as teachers, nurses, welfare workers, and so forth, which were requested by department heads for fiscal year 1948 have been deleted in the budget presented to Congress. Eight million of the $11,000,000, which appears to be the increase