1190 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
which the United States has assumed and is paying to the sinking fund 
one-half of the principal as it is discharged and annually one-half of 
the interest as it accrues, amounts in the aggregate to the immense 
sum of over $21,000,000. 
Now that we have a surplus of about a million in the treasury 
(which, if the Senate amendment prevails, would leave it only about 
a half million or a little less) the gentleman says is an opportune time 
to spend money for a zoological park, and at the same time adopt the 
larger provision for a national park, the one which he is advocating, 
which is to swallow up the zoological garden and make it a part of it. 
The provision inserted in the bill to which he refers, reported by his 
committee, as I understand, provides not for the immediate payment, 
but for the creation of a debt running along for future years, adding 
up and piling up against the people of the United States outside as 
well as those inside of the District a further accumulation of debt for 
the luxury of a park. 
Why not, in the interest of the taxpayer, apply it to the water debt 
or to the three and a half millions of bonds that will be due July 1, 
1891—-within a year after the expiration of the year for which the 
appropriations of this bill are made? In my judgment there is no 
necessity in this city for a national park such as is proposed, as there 
is in other cities. The Government of the United States has reserved 
plats of ground all over the city, in addition to the larger reservations 
which we find everywhere, breathing places where the people can go; 
and: we have broad streets, and the Government has expended money 
in their improvement; and in the sundry civil bill each year is carried 
a large sum of money for paving the walkways through the reserva- 
tions, and paid for entirely out of the revenues of the Government; 
no part of it is paid by the District, nor is anything paid by the Dis- 
trict for the lighting of the reservations, for the convenience of the 
people of the District much more than for the people outside. And 
the gentleman himself has referred to the Soldiers’ Home, a place 
near by, which, while it does not belong to the city or the National 
Government strictly, yet it is a great place of resort and will remain 
there. 
Now, I believe the time has come when the Government of the 
United States is paying largely more than its proper share for the 
expenses of the District and that it ought to be reduced, and if the 
people of this city and District desire a park it is their business to 
provide it at their own expense ina larger measure than is provided 
in the amendment which it is proposed to incorporate in this bill. 
I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Mills] for five minutes. 
Mr. R. Q. Mirus. I was a member of the Forty-third Congress, 
when this strange copartnership was entered into between the Fed- 
eral Government and the government of the District of Columbia. 
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