1364 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
applying to all cities a general act requiring the property abutting on 
the street to pay for the improvement, and a street would be improved 
whenever a majority of the property owners on the line of the pro- 
posed improvement asked for it. That has occasioned a great deal of 
improvement in San Francisco and other California cities which would 
not have been made if the money had been paid from a general appro- 
priation. 
If that were done here it would relieve the Government and relieve 
the large taxpayers and improve property considerably, and then the 
General Government could well afford to expend more money in 
beautifying the parks and in what relates more to general matters. 
I know it will be said that a large portion of the city having been 
improved from the general fund, to make the change would be unjust, 
and the rest should have the same advantage; but now is a good time 
to make the changes, because the taxes have been principally levied 
on the property inside the boundaries of the city. I say that it occurs 
to me that now would be a good time to make the change, inasmuch as 
nearly all the streets inside of the boundary are already improved, 
and the plan in most of the cities is that where the streets are once 
improved the necessary repairs shall come out of the general fund. 
Many new divisions are now being laid out outside of the city, and if 
the property owners who expect to make money out of them were 
allowed to improve the streets whenever they feel disposed to do so 
at their own expense, it would be a great relief to the District gen- 
erally and to the Government. 
The money expended by the Government should be applied to more 
general purposes in keeping the streets in repair, but the new work 
that is to be done might be done by the property owners. Whenever 
a majority of the property owners on any street for any particular dis- 
tance desire to have work done, let them do it, and the city would 
then grow fast enough; but if things go on in this way there will be 
a contest as to the improvement of this and that street out of the 
general fund, and that will become more and more intense as the city 
extends outside of the boundary. 
There is no objection to having the District all improved if the 
people are willing to put their own money in it; but there is objection 
to taxing the Government or the portion of the city that is built up 
for extending streets into the country. If people are willing to do it 
for the benefit of the District and to increase the assessable value of 
property and aid everybody by the expenditure of the money, it 
seems to me that such a policy would be best. It has been tried in 
the Western cities and has been found to work well, and I suggest 
that it be tried here. 
As to the present appropriation, it seems to me this park for the 
purpose of preserving animals ought to be a national park, and I 
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