DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 1 83 



percent is church and school property, also exempt from taxa- 

 tion. So without the fair and just assumption of a share of 

 expenses by Congress, all the expenses of the District would 

 fall upon 47^ percent of the property, the remainder being 

 held for the benefit of the United States. Property holders soon 

 saw the justice and the fairness of the United States paying its 

 share of the expenses. In the light of this state of affairs there 

 were the great forces at work to secure justice — the old property 

 owners and real estate men who were projecting improvements, 

 the great body of employees in the city, in so far as they were 

 taxpayers, and those citizens from abroad who came here to 

 spend their winters and who paid taxes on their property. 



With stable economic conditions, the cessation of retarding 

 influences through the agitation of the removal of the capital, 

 with a well-employed constituency, with the best street-car ser- 

 vice in the United States, with excellent markets and sources of 

 supply, with ample banking facilities, with strong local insurance 

 companies and opportunities for savings through savings banks 

 and building and loan associations, with the general cost of 

 living as favorable as in other localities, with the attractive 

 suburban developments that are going on, with the extension of 

 streets and the beautification of squares and circles, the District 

 of Columbia, it may be said, now has few, if any, economic 

 problems demanding solution. 



The District is one of the most industrious places in the coun- 

 try. In the United States at large nearly 48 percent of the 

 population over 10 years of age are engaged in some remuner- 

 ative occupation. In the District of Columbia over 53 percent 

 of its population over 10 years of age are so engaged. This is 

 the more remarkable, because the great body of colored people 

 residing here constitute one-third of the total population. They 

 have a few representatives in the clerkships of the Government; 

 they have their professional men, and old families of means and 

 standing — in fact, an aristocracy, which is commendable for its 

 intelligence and progressive ways — but the great body of col- 

 ored people is excluded in a large degree from the higher lines 

 of service. They must earn their living in a hand-to-mouth 

 manner, and in the ordinary occupations connected with com- 



