ered with great erudition by such distinguished leaders of our bar as Henry H. Glassie, E. C. Brandenburg, and Paul E. Lesh. All of these men have passed on, and had I no other motive for being here today, I would stand here in grateful recognition of their efforts in behalf of their fellow citizens. These hearings, I submit, have clearly demonstrated (1) the overwhelming desire of our people for voting representation in the District; (2) their fitness to exercise that right; (3) their loyalty in peace and war; (4) the degradation of the denial of that right; (5) and that the right can be granted and the stigma of political impotence removed without in the slightest degree affecting the sovereignty of the Federal Government over the affairs of this District. One of the things that the passage of this resolution will accomplish will be to create a new legal climate here, a normal American climate for normal American citizenship. I would point out that in my view this country is what it is today because of the rights laid down in our charters of government. We created avenues for man's free development in every place in the country except right here, and the legal climate here, as it is at present, tends to encourage carpetbagging and indifference to the development of that fraternal spirit which thrives in our normal American cities. It was, perhaps, unintentional, but I submit nevertheless true, that the Supreme Court's decision in the Murphy-DeHart cases (314 U. S. 441) almost put a penalty on normal civic activity here. These cases involved the taxability by the District of Columbia of two Government employees who had resided here 26 and 6 years, respectively, and in determining their taxability the Court laid down this prime factor-their relationship to the churches, lodges, clubs, and other civic organizations in the District. In other words, if they associate themselves with the community life here-many have spent their lives here-under this decision of the Supreme Court they lose their political constituency upon identifying themselves with the normal civic life of this community, and as the Court points out, once lost there is no political constituency with which they may again affiliate when making their homes here. Had they moved to some community in another State they would follow the normal course of taking up their rights in the new community in place of those they surrendered in the old. It is a significant fact that as a result of this decision one of our judges in our highest Court, appointed for life, to be retired for life, resigned as trustee of one of our leading churches and from all other local civic organizations so as not to surrender the birthright given him by his citizenship in a distant State. I mention these facts because I have heard from time to time criticism of the civic spirit in this city, and I think that the answer to whatever apparent shortcomings there may be in the civic spirit of this city will be found in the fact that the people here have utterly no part to play, either in their local or Federal Government, and you have a local situation where, if a nonresident, even though he intends to live here forever, participates in our local affairs, he immediately loses his political constituency, and finds himself in a place where he cannot have any other political constituency in its place. I salute their patriotism in holding on to these rights, while at the same time I regret they are compelled to withhold themselves from our activities in order to do so. Mr. Chairman, I submit that we can let the people have a participation in the government here without in any way changing the Federal character of this government. Willoughby has defined a state as the ultimate source of law for all persons subject to its jurisdiction. Can it be maintained in the light of what Chairman Sumners has said, that having two or three representatives in Congress will in any way alter the sovereignty of the Federal Government over this city? I submit that no one need fear the weight of our representation in a body of 96 Senators and 435 Representatives as a threat to the Federal Government's power over this jurisdiction. We will remain, as heretofore, a Federal District, giving only a right to vote to the bona fide residents therein in the Congress which makes their laws and in the electoral college. I do not know what more can be asked of the citizens here than they have already freely given as citizens of this country. Lieutenant Beattie is an illustration of what has been typical, in time of war, and we know our record as to contributions we have made of our wealth in time of war. * * I am always perplexed as to what answer I can make to the families of those who have given their lives to make the world safe for democracy and bring free government to the peoples of the earth. What can we say to those returning boys, wounded, incapacitated in our wars, upholding the principles of free government *that they must ever be excluded from the enjoyment of the very rights for which they or their fathers offered their lives; that, because of their political impotence, they may never aspire to any office in their Government, either elective or subject to political appointment? It seems anamolous to me to be arguing such a question here. I think it was Burke who said that "an Englishman is the unfittest person in the world to argue another Englishman into slavery." I should think therefore that an elected representative of the people would be the last man to argue that citizens so eminently qualified to enjoy these rights should be kept in political bondage. I dare say that there is not a place in this country other than right here where I could raise the issue of the right of qualified loyal citizens to vote but that every member of this committee would rise in rightous indignation. There are those who say we are blessed in our freedom from "politics." If that argument holds water here, before statesmen whose high offices are the result of the exercise by the people of the very political powers we seek, then our institutions are doomed, for it would appear that even those most experienced in our political life have lost faith in our democratic processes. But I am inclined to the view that this shallow argument comes from the lazy and the effete, so absorbed in their own pursuits that they neither trust the people, nor care for the fraternal association with them that suffrage involves. Mr. Chairman, I think we know now, more than ever, that freedom is more than a precept. It is a part of the very nature of mankind. Our citizens, born and raised in the shadow of the monuments to Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, give their lives freely to honor and uphold the principles for which they stood. Democracy is in the very marrow of their bones. This cause may be delayed and suppressed, but it will never be downed. In this country you cannot teach from expurgated histories of America written for this community alone. Tom Paine's writings are well-thumbed in our libraries. Our cause is just, and based upon the very fundamental principles of American Government. Give us a chance to submit it to our fellow-Americans by the passage of this resolution. That concludes my statement. Thank you. Senator HATCH. Thank you, Mr. Jameson. Mr. Suter, do you have any other witnesses? Mr. SUTER. Mr. Chairman, we could continue right along for there are representatives here from approximately 20 or more national organizations, but we have a general understanding, in order to hold the hearing down so that it would not produce a document that would be too bulky, to offer brief written statements to be included in the hearings, but I have had circulated throughout the room a paper on which we have asked all of those who are here who are proponents of this measure to write their names and addresses and the organizations they represent. Senator HATCH. You would like to have that included in the record? Mr. SUTER. Yes, sir. Senator HATCH. That will be included in the record; you may file it with the reporter. (The list of names, addresses, and organizations referred to is as follows:) LIST OF PROPONENTS ATTENDING Lt. (jg) and Mrs. J. S. Beattie, 3256 Chestnut Street NW. Mrs. Herbert Hirscher, 3212 McKinley Street NW., District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. Maurice S. Goodman, 2500 Que Street NW., District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. John B. Martin, Jr., 3721 Upton Street NW., District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. Samuel B. Brown, 4836 Brandywine, District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. Milton Dunn, 4832 Brandywine, District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. E. S. Dulfeld,, Great Falls Road, Falls Church, Va., District of Columbia League of Women Voters. Mrs. Eunice B. Thomas, 3709 Legation Street NW. Mrs. Hugh Butler, 1559 Forty-fourth Street NW. Owen B. French, 4521 Sixteenth Street NW., Cathedral Heights Citizens' Association. Shirley K. Eisenberg, league chairman, National Council of Jewish Women. Mrs. Alfred Goldstein, 6600 Luzon NW., National Council of Jewish Women. Mrs. B. M. L. Ernst, 1192 Park Avenue, New York City, N. Y. Mrs. Edna L. Johnston, 2301 Connecticut Avenue. Mrs. Louis Ottenberg, 1613 Buchanan Street. Mrs. Ted F. Silvey, 3984 East Capitol Street. Proctor L. Dougherty, 3723 Jenifer Street NW. Wilbur S. Finch, Federation of Citizens' Associations. Hugh Miller, 2222 Que Street NW., president, Dupont Circle Citizens' Association. James R. Kirkland, 1519 Underwood Street NW. Marie C. Rogers, Washington Board of Trade. Melvin D. Hildreth, Democratic Central Committee. B. M. McKelway, Washington Board of Trade. Guilford Jameson, Citizens' Joint Committee and Forest Hills Citizens Association. Evan H. Tucker, Northeast Washington Citizens' Association. Calvin L. Beale, history department, University of Maryland. Samuel J. Fusco, department of politics, Catholic University of America. Mrs. S. C. Tupman, Petworth Woman's Club. Sue L. Richwine, Petworth Woman's Club. Viola B. Thomson, Petworth Woman's Club. Laura Perry Arner, District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs. Thomas J. Spalding, Lincoln Park Citizens' Association. Clinton N. Howard, Washington, D. C. Mrs. Edgar B. Merritt, Washington, D. C. John Ray, Washington, D. C. Maurice O. Connell, 1213 Eye Street NE. Muriel Ferris, 726 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C., National League of Women Voters. Senes B. Passmore, Petworth Citizens' Association. Horace J. Phelps, Petworth Citizens' Association. Etta L. Taggart, president, Society of Natives; president, The Washingtonians. Margaret Delano Lafe, member, executive committee, Dupont Circle Citizens' Association. Tomlinson D. Todd, 770 Columbia Road NW., president, Institute on Race Rela tions. Jesse P. Crawford, 4709 Morgan Drive, Christ Church, former president, Connecticut Avenue Citizens' Association, and former delegate to federation. David R. Middleton, 1904 Jackson Street NE. Ernest F. Henry, 4627 Ninth Street NW., Home Builders' Association. STATEMENT OF MRS. LOUIS OTTENBERG, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OF THE WOMEN'S JOINT PROGRESSIVE COMMITTEE Mrs. OTTENBERG. I am Mrs. Louis Ottenberg; I am Chairman of the Committee of Suffrage in the District of Columbia of the Women's Joint Progressive Committee. We have national organizations that are interested in working for the amendment, the National Women's Trade Union League, National Women's Trade Union League, National League of Women Voters, the National Council of Jewish Women, the American Federation of Teachers, the Service Star Legion, and two medical associations, the Women's Homeopathic Medical Association and the American Women's Medical Association. Their statements are here. Senator HATCH. They will be filed. The Women's National Homeopathic Medical Fraternity letter of September 24th to me reads as follows: WOMEN'S NATIONAL HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL FRATERNITY, Senator CARL M. HATCH, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Suffrage for the District of Columbia, Capitol Hill, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR HATCH: This is to add a few words to my former statement concerning the bill now under consideration giving suffrage to the District of Columbia. The Women's National Homeopathic Medical Fraternity, for which I am a delegate to the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, is heartily in favor of granting suffarage to the District of Columbia and is eagerly looking for the passage of the present bill to accomplish this purpose. JULIAN M. GREEN, M. D., Delegate. Senator HATCH. I want to say in behalf of the subcommittee, we greatly appreciate the concise and explicit manner in which you have presented the issues here to this subcommittee. As all of you know, we are more or less busy, and I have suggested to Mr. Suter and stated publicly in the press, that we would appreciate keeping the hearings as short as possible and as much to the point as possible. That you have done, and the committee members appreciate it very much. The chairman of the committee, Senator McCarran, has handed me an adverse report from the Committee on the Judiciary submitted on August 4, 1941, on a similar-although not an exact-resolution. He has asked that this be included in the record, and it is so included. (The adverse report referred to is as follows:) [S. Rept. No. 646, 77th Cong., 1st sess.] The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the joint resolution (S. J. Res. 35) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for national representation for the people of the District of Columbia, after full consideration, hereby unanimously report the joint resolution adversely with the recommendation that its consideration be indefinitely postponed. (Senate Joint Resolution 35 is as follows:) JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for national representation for the people of the District of Columbia "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be proposed for ratification by the legislatures of the several States, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States, shall be valid as a part of said Constitution: "ARTICLE "SECTION 1. The Congress shall have power to provide for the people of the District constituting the seat of the Government of the United States representation in the Congress and among the electors of President and Vice President no greater than that of the people of the States, and to delegate to such government as Congress may establish therein all or any of its power over said District; and the judicial power of the United States shall extend to controversies to which citizens of said District shall be parties the same as to controversies to which citizens of a State shall be parties. 66 ''SECTION 2. All legislation hereunder shall be subject to amendment and repeal: Provided, That no amendment or repeal shall affect the office of a Senator or Representative during the time for which he was elected. 66 SECTION 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within 7 years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.'' SUMMARY OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT The object of Senate Joint Resolution 35, proposing a constitutional amendment, is basically threefold (a) To authorize the Congress, in its discretion, to grant to the District of Columbia national representation in the Congress of the United States; (b) To authorize the Congress, in its discretion, to establish a system of local self-government in the District of Columbia, to be maintained by local suffrage, and to delegate to such government any or all of its powers over the District of Columbia; (c) To extend the judicial power of the United States with respect to diversity of citizenship to controversies to which citizens of the District of Columbia may be parties, just as the same now applies to controversies to which citizens of a State shall be parties. Section 2 of the resolution provides that all legislation which may be enacted under the constitutional amendment shall be subject to amendment and to repeal, with the provision that no amendment or repeal shall affect the office of a Senator or Representative of the District during the term of the office to which he was elected. Section 3 contains the usual time limitation within which the several States may ratify the amendment. |