DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 215 



The powers and authority of government are lodged in a 

 board of three Commissioners, two of whom are civilians, 

 citizens of the United States and actual residents of the District 

 of Columbia for three years before their appointment and having, 

 during that period, claimed residence nowhere else. These 

 two Commissioners are appointed for three years by the Presi- 

 dent and Senate, and the third is an officer of the Corps of 

 Engineers of the United States Army whose lineal rank is above 

 that of captain, although the President may, in his discretion, 

 detail for this duty a Captain of fifteen years' service. This 

 board of Commissioners has all the powers and authority for- 

 merly belonging to the Governor and Board of Public Works 

 of the District, and is, besides, vested with the powers and 

 authority formerly belonging to the Boards of Police, Health 

 and Public Schools. It has the power of appointment and re- 

 moval of all the officers provided for the administration of the 

 municipal affairs, may abolish any office, and may consolidate 

 any two or more offices. Within the limitations of law on 

 the subject, it fixes the rate of taxation, which, however, is 

 applied to assessments of value made by a board of assessors 

 of its own appointing, which latter board acts also as an Excise 

 board for the granting and regulating of liquor licenses. 

 Besides its more purely executive powers, into the details of 

 which it is unnecessary to go, the Board of Commissioners has 

 large powers of a legislative nature : as the powers to make and 

 enforce building and coal regulations (20 Stats. 131), police 

 regulations (24 Stats. 368; 27 Stats. 394), elevator regulations 

 (24 Stats. 580), regulations for public safety on bridges (27 

 Stats. 544), and in theatres (27 Stats. 394), regulations for the 

 location and depth of gas-mains (27 Stats. 544), plumbing reg- 

 ulations (27 Stats. 21), regulations relative to medical and den- 

 tal colleges (29 Stats. 112), and regulations for the occupation 

 of sidewalks and street parkings (30th Stats. 570) and the plat- 

 ting of subdivisions of land (25 Stats. 451). It has also the 

 power to order the erection of fire-escapes (24 Stats. 365), to 

 order work in the nature of special improvements at the cost, in 

 part, of the adjoining properly owners (26 Stats. 296, 1066 ; 28 

 Stats. 247), and to condemn lands for sites for school, fire and 



