Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Arizona, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Wyoming, and Nevada. They send as agents to the National Legislature to make laws for them: District of Columbia, 0; South Dakota, 4; North Dakota, 4 ; Montana, 4; Utah, 4; New Mexico, 4; Idaho, 4; Arizona, 4; New Hampshire, 4; Vermont, 3; Delaware, 3; Wyoming, 3; and Nevada, 3. Rhode Island in 1940 exceeded very slightly the District of Columbia in population. She sends to the National Legislature to engage in the councils of the greatest representative Republic in the world 4 men; District of Columbia, 0 men. Today's voting is not only for a new Legislature, but for a new Executive. To the electoral college, which chooses the President of the United States, each of the 13 States, named above, sends the same number of votes which each has in the Congress. In relation to national taxes the sole function of the 663,091 District Americans is to pay. They have nothing to say, like other taxpayers, concerning the amount and kind of taxes they shall pay and how the tax money shall be spent. PAYS MORE NATIONAL TAXES THAN 29 STATES: MORE THAN 9 STATES COMBINED In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1944, without any representation whatever in the taxing body, the District of Columbia paid in national taxes (internal revenue) for national purposes $406,209,002. (This amount omits "pay-roll taxes”— collections under the Social Security and Carrier Acts-because these so-called taxes are a trust fund for the purposes of these acts, and are not paid for the support of the Federal Government.) The District of Columbia (with no Representative in Congress) contributed in national taxes to be expended by Congress for national purposes in war and peace more than 29 States, including Georgia, with 12 votes in Congress; Tennessee, 12; Alabama, 11; Iowa, 10; Louisiana, 10; Oklahoma, 10; Arkansas, 9; Mississippi, 9; Florida, 8; Kansas, 8; South Carolina, 8; West Virginia, 8; Colorado, 6; Nebraska, 6; Oregon, 6; Maine, 5; Arizona, 4; Idaho, 4; Montana, 4; New Hampshire, 4; New Mexico, 4; North Dakota, 4; Rhode Island, 4; South Dakota, 4; Utah, 4; Delaware, 3; Nevada, 3; Vermont, 3; and Wyoming, 3. The District of Columbia, with no Senators or Representatives, contributed in national taxes to the fund from which the salaries of Senators and Representatives are paid nearly $10,000,000 more than the aggregate of national taxes paid by nine States, namely, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, New Mexico, Vermont, Arizona, Montana, and Wyoming. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION These States combined paid in national taxes $396,445,943 and sent to the National Legislature 33 men to vote for them concerning the amount and kind of taxes they should pay and how the tax money should be spent. The District of Columbia contributed in national taxes $406,209,002 and was permitted to send no representatives to the National Legislature to participate in deciding how the tax money should be raised and spent. A more flagrant case of taxation without representation it is impossible to conceive. In relation to national war the sole function of the 663,091 Americans of the District of Columbia is to fight in obedience to command. They have no voice like other Americans in the councils which determine war or peace. They have no representation in the Government which requires them to fight, to bleed, and, perhaps, to die. SENT MORE SOLDIERS TO WAR THAN SEVEN STATES The soldiers, sailors, and marines furnished by the District in the World War numbered 17,945 (some estimates place this total as high as 27,651) more than were contributed by any one of 7 States-New Hampshire, Vermont, New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona, Delaware, and Nevada. Votes in Congress to make war, to end war, to decide whether our sons shall go to war, are cast by those communities, as follows: District of Columbia, 0; New Hampshire, 4; Vermont, 3; New Mexico, 4; Wyoming, 3; Arizona, 4; Delaware, 3; and Nevada, 3. This contrast was shown vividly, under the Selective Service Act of 1940, between the number of men required of the voteless and unrepresented District of Columbia and the number required of some of the sovereign States. In the 78016-45-4 mobilization by July 1, 1941, of 800,000 men for military training for national defense, the District's quota was 3,982, a quota larger than that of any 1 of 16 States. These States, which furnished fewer men than the District, are Delaware, Maine, New Hompshire Rhode Island, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. In the present global war the District Selective Service has sent into the services approximately 75,000 men living in the District before the war. This figure would rise to 90,000 with the inclusion of men who were commissioned, enlisted, and called to active duty from the National Guard or the Enlisted Reserve Corps. An additional 15,000 men who registered in other communities but came here to work entered the services from the District through the draft. This makes a total of men in the armed forces from the District of Columbia of approximately 105,000. POPULATION OF CITIZENS OF VOTING AGE IN 1940 EXCEEDED EACH OF 13 STATES The District of Columbia population of citizens of voting age (21 and over) in the 1940 census was 474,793* (exclusive of aliens and "citizenship not reported”). It is contended, however, that these figures of citizens of voting age are misleading for the reason that there are thousands of District residents who vote in the States and who might not vote in the District even if they had the opportunity. An October 20, 1940, press release of the Bureau of the Census estimated that in the presidential election of 1940 "450,000 District of Columbia residents of 21 and over will be barred from voting." When the final census figures were released it was found that the estimate .of the total population of voting age in the District was greater by over 27,000 than the final figures. Adjusting the October estimate of 450,000 voteless residents of the District by the error between estimate and actual number revises the estimate of the voteless to 422,793. This latter amount deducted from the total number of citizens of voting age (474,793) would indicate that 52,000 residents of the District, according to Census Bureau estimate, had the privilege of voting in the States. The District of Columbia political and partisan leaders in the 1940 election estimated 125,000 residents were then able to vote. Assuming that a number between these two estimates is fairly correct, it is safe to estimate that about 88,000 District residents were then able to vote. If from the District of Columbia total number of citizens of voting age (1940 census) there is deducted an estimate of 88,000 State voters, the resulting District population of potential voters who can vote nowhere else (386,793) would be only 38,083 less than Rhode Island (424,876), 8,388 more than South Dakota (378,405), 28,703 more than North Dakota (358,090), 43,613 more than Montana (343,180), 81,482 more than Idaho (305,311), 88,633 more than Utah (298,160), 90,934 more than New Hampshire (295,859), 111,566 more than New Mexico (275,277), 123,447 more than Arizona (263,346), 172,545 more than Vermont (214,284), 214,937 more than Delaware (171,856), 236,762 more than Wyoming (150,031), 316,466 more than Nevada (70,327), and only 5,421 less than the aggregate of Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada. But whether the District in its unused, and at this time unusable, reserve of voting power surpasses 13 or only 12 of the States, its showing of potential political strength entitles it to respectful consideration. After suffering all reasonable, carefully calculated reductions, the potential voters of the District constitute a substantial army for whose favor the world wise, far seeing politicians will some day compete with sincere display of sympathetic, helpful consideration, instead of slurring it contemptuously, imputing to the community incurable political unfitness, and to the Nation impotency to cure this evil. HURTFUL AND UNAMERICAN INCONSISTENCIES What gross inconsistencies are evident in present conditions! By Americanization schools and otherwise we Americanize the immigrant aliens who flock here as to a haven of refuge, yet inconsistently neglect the Americanization of over half a million residents of an integral part of the original United States. * For purposes of exact comparison 1940 census figures are used throughout. The latest Census Bureau estimate of the District of Columbia population was November 1, 1943, placing the figure at 816,982. On every national election day the air is filled with appeals to and denunciation of the millions of voters who fail to vote. In the election of 1912 the army of stay-at-homes under control of General Apathy outnumbered in millions the army under the leadership of Gen. Woodrow Wilson who marched to the polls and elected him President. The patriotic Americans who are proud of the right to participate in the exercise of American sovereignty scorn the recreant Americans before whom the pearls of voting opportunity are cast in vain. Uncle Sam appeals to the patriotism of nonvoting Americans; he denounces and threatens them. But how can Uncle Sam appeal to or denounce or threaten them with any effectiveness, when he himself, at the seat of government, sets the example of contemptuous slurring of the basic principles of representative government? How can he lash the stay-at-home potential voter when he himself arbitrarily bars from the possibility of participation in their National Government a community of over two-thirds of a million Americans, with 422,793 (Census Bureau "adjuste" estimate) residents of voting age who cannot vote in the States, and who constitute one of the most intelligent, conservative, and progressive communities in the Republic? NATIONAL REPRESENTATION A DISTINCTIVE BASIC RIGHT National representation is a distinctive basic right of the American citizenin a government of the people, by the people, for the people-in a government which roots its justice in consent of the governed-in a representative government which inseparably couples taxation and arms-bearing as a soldier with representation. Since the 663,091 Americans in the District pay national taxes, obey national laws, and go to war in the Nation's defense, they are entitled on American principles to be represented in the National Government which taxes them, which makes all laws for them and which sends them to war. How is it that District Americans do not exercise this right and power, a vital part of their American heritage? The Constitution makers unintentionally omitted to fix the political status of the future residents of the 10-miles square, constituting the seat of government, and unintentionally failed to give Congress the power, analogous to that which it possessed in relation to the admission of territories to statehood, of granting representation in Congress and electoral college to the population of the District when it became fit. Amendment of the Constitution is required to correct this unintentional omission. Under such amendment it is proposed that, without making a State of the District of Columbia and without depriving Congress of an atom of its constitutional exclusive legislative control of the National Capital, Congress would be empowered to grant to the people of the District voting representation in Congress and the electoral college. This power would be exercised by Congress whenever, in its judgment, the people of the District of Columbia are fit to enjoy this fundamental right. The pending Sumners-Capper proposed amendment would cure this omission in the Constitution by adding the following language: "The Congress shall have power to provide that there shall be in the Congress and among the electors of President and Vice President members elected by the people of the District constituting the seat of the Government of the United States, in such numbers and with such powers as the Congress shall determine. All legislation hereunder shall be subject to amendment and repeal." DISTRICT FIT FOR NATIONAL REPRESENTATION Are the people of the District fit in numbers, intelligence and resources, to enjoy these national rights and privileges of citizens of a State? Yes. They are American citizens assembled "in sufficient numbers in a limited space," and they meet all the territorial requirements of the community about to be admitted to full statehood, though they are not in this constitutional amendment asking statehood for themselves. The District exceeds in population every new State in the Union at the time of its admission, except Oklahoma. The community in intelligence, in public spirit, in patriotic devotion, in every distinctive American characteristic is unsurpassed in the United States. The distinctive American privilege of national representation decorates the American with a badge of honor and arms him with power. Its lack slurs the Washingtonian as unfit and defective, classifying him politically with the convict and the lunatic, and slurs the Nation as in this respect un-American and impotent. What the amendment proposes is equitable in itself and compulsory in accordance with American principles and traditions. WASHINGTON ONLY CAPITAL IN THE WORLD WITHOUT SAME REPRESENTATION AS OTHER CITIES National representation of the District will proclaim to the world that the great Republic is as devoted to the principles of representative Government and as capable of enforcing them as other republics with capitals in nationcontrolled districts. These nations have not found themselves impotent to give full national representation to the people of their capitals. It will proclaim to the world that the people of Washington are as fit to participate in national representative government as are the people of any national capital. Other nations have not discriminated, as to political rights, between their national capitals and other cities. Washington will cease to be the only Capital in all the world whose people, slurred as tainted or defective, are unworthy to enjoy the same national representation as that enjoyed by all other cities of the Nation. National representation will clothe the Washingtonian with a vital American privilege to which he is undeniably in equity entitled; will cleanse him of the stigma and stain of un-Americanism, and, curing his political impotency, will arm him with a certain power. It will relieve the Nation of the shame of un-Americanism at its heart and of impotency to cure this evil. It will inflict no injury or hardship upon either Nation or Capital to counteract these benefits. After 4 years have passed Americans will again repeat this day of patriotic pride in exercising the highest privilege and power bestowed upon the citizens of the world's greatest Republic. Shall election day in 1948 be permitted, as today, to be a day of undeserved humiliation to the people of the District? A striking contrast is shown between the fighting men from the States and those from the District of Columbia when it comes to exercising the voting privilege in the 1944 national election. They undergo hardship, fight, bleed, and die for their country side by side. But when the application cards for absentee ballot were passed out, it only meant to the District fighter that its use would bring him no ballot. The orators in the Congress were insistent in their pathetic pleas that every fighter on land or sea should be insured the right to vote, but little or no thought was given to those from the National Capital, for whom there was no constitutional provision for a vote. NATION'S SHAME OF UN-AMERICANISM AT ITS HEART An evil condition maintained by the Nation at the Nation's Capital is rightly viewed as typical and characteristic. The shame is national, not local. Autocratic, nonrepresentative government in the only American Territory governed exclusively by the Nation brands the Nation itself distinctly and indelibly as un-American. As is the Nation's city so is the Nation. The Capital is the Nation's heart. If the Republic is tainted with un-Americanism at its heart, the whole of the body politic is thus tainted. Should not the Nation, irrespective of the just plea of the Washingtonians and purely as a national concern, abolish the evil and injury-working paradox of nonrepresentative un-American Government of the National Capital territory under exclusive national control? Will not the people of the United States respond so vigorously to the District's appeal that before the next national election this unjust and hurtful discrimination shall be removed? PERTINENT FACTS FROM TEXT OF UNITED NATIONS CHARTER DRAWN AT SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE PREAMBLE * "To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small." CHAPTER I. PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES PURPOSES "ARTICLE 1. The purposes of the United Nations are: * "2. To develop friendly relations among nations, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; "3. * in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for the fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." CHAPTER IV. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY COMPOSITION "ART. 13. The general assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of: "(b) ** * assisting in the realization of human rights and basic freedoms for all, without distinctions as to race, sex, language, or religion." CHAPTER IX. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COOPERATION "ART. 55. With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations, based on respect for the priniciple of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote: "(c) Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedom for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." CHAPTER X. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL COMPOSITION "ART. 62. It may make recommendations for the purpose of promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms." PROCEDURE "ART. 68. The economic and social council shall set up commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights, and such other commissions as may be required for the performance of its functions." CHAPTER XI. POLICY REGARDING NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES "ART. 73. Members of the United Nations which have or assumed responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government, recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories, and "(a) To insure, with due respect for the culture of the people concerned, their political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment and their protection against abuses; "(B) To develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement." CHAPTER XII. INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM "ART. 76. The basic objectives of the trusteeship system in accordance with the purposes of the United Nations laid down in article I of the present charter shall be: "(B) To promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development |