1188 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
Mr. Hempnuiny. Of course there is a debt due by the District, but 
it is not payable. 
Mr. Ranpauu. The District is in debt to the Federal Government to 
the extent of a million dollars, on account of the expense of the work ~ 
on the aqueduct, and I suggest, if there is any surplus in the treasury, 
the District should devote it to paying that indebtedness. 
Mr. Hempuity. I want to remind the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
that, as I understand, this aqueduct was controlled entirely by officials 
of the United States. 
Mr. Ranpautu. The gentleman was stating that the District has 
$600,000 in its treasury undisposed of. I wanted to say that I thought 
the best appropriation of that amount would be for the District to pay 
something toward the million of dollars advanced by the Government 
on the aqueduct, which has proved an utter failure. 
Mr. Hemputtt. I think before the District pays any money on that 
account there ought to be instituted an investigation to see whether 
the Government of the United States has not swindled the people of 
this District out of a great deal of that money. As I understand, there 
is an investigation now going on at our expense 
A Memper. The committee has reported. 
Mr. Hempuiiu. Yes, the investigation is finished, I believe; and 1 
understand there is a very black report, so far as the Government of 
the United States is concerned. If we have taken the money of the 
people of this District, or at least run them into debt to the extent of 
a million of dollars, and if, according to the report made by members 
of this body, we have misappropriated the money designed for the 
construction of that tunnel 
Mr. Ranpauu. That was done against the remonstrance of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations. 
Mr. Hempumy. That may be true. Yet the District is not respon- 
sible, as the gentleman will admit. It is by the fault of officials of the 
United States Government that this misappropriation has happened, 
and it is not right to visit our sins upon the people of this District. 
Now, Mr. Speaker, they talk a great deal about having a ‘‘monkey 
show” here, and all that sort of thing, just the same kind of language 
we heard when this question was before the House on a former occa- 
sion. We spend a great deal of money in keeping in order the hor- 
ticultural garden down here. The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. 
Breckinridge] very properly says that we ought to provide for the 
preservation of the animals on this continent before they become 
extinct; but I think it much more important that we should furnish 
some outlet, some breathing place, for the poor people of this city, 
who can not get away in the hot weather, and to give them fresh air, 
sunlight, and a chance for health and life. Those who live here and 
can not get away, and those of us who were kept here last summer 
