FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1465 
Mr. Reagan. It is $1. 
Mr. Harris. It is more than that. 
Mr. Hoar. Will the Senator pardon me for one observation, if it 
does not interrupt him? I was a member of the House of Represent- 
atives when the present system was established and gave my assent to 
it, and, as I understand, it was based on the theory of requiring the 
people of the District of Columbia to pay on their own property a tax 
equivalent to the average of the well-governed cities of the country, 
and if I mistake not that was estimated to be $1.50 on a hundred—1.5 
per cent. ‘ 
Then, as it was understood that as the Government was the great 
real-estate owner here, had its reservations and its public buildings 
and its monuments which are of a national character, and as a vast 
portion of the people of the city was made up of persons who came here 
for Government and temporary purposes, having their home claims 
upon them, and many of them their property elsewhere, intending to 
go home when they got a competency, to spend their old age, it was 
fair that the Government should pay the rest. That is the theory on 
which it went, and it seems to me it is a theory which is a very sound 
and wise one. 
Mr. Ragan. If the Senator from Massachusetts is correct in his 
supposition that the people of this District are taxed as high as the 
people of other cities of like size, then it is the most remarkably mis- 
governed city under the sun if they pay that tax. Remember that the 
general Treasury pays more than the people do, so that if the Senator 
is correct in his supposition the taxes for the support of the govern- 
ment of the District of Columbia would be double that of any of the 
great cities. I think the Senator must be mistaken. 
Mr. Hoar. If the Senator will pardon me a further observation, take 
Pennsylvania avenue. There is an avenue three times as wide as any 
economically governed city would build for itself. So of all the great 
avenues which are put here as matters of national ornamentation. 
Then the avenues pass the great reservations which can not be improved 
for private benefit, which separate private properties from each other. 
There are these numerous parks and squares and small inclosures 
which furnish no income for taxation whatever. 
Then, in addition to that, here are these great national buildings 
which are policed in the preservation of public order by the city. The 
city police protect them from the mobs, the thief, the burglar, and 
from fire. Here is this great mass of people who are not residents 
here except temporarily, who go home to vote elsewhere and who have 
all their obligations there. They are protected here. 
The residents of the city themselves do not get half the benefit of 
this expenditure which the Senator says makes it a badly governed 
city. It is a well-governed city, and it is growing and improving in 
