Semi-Self-Government

For 96 years, residents of the nation's capital have endured taxation without representation, living in a city managed like a colony of the Federal Government. Though in 1961 Washingtonians were granted the right to vote in presidential elections, Southerners dominating the House District Committee have persistently bottled up bills to give the city a government of its own. The reason: Washington, which has always had a sizable Negro population, is now one of two major U.S.

cities where the majority of residents (63%) are Negro. * Washingtonians may not be able to elect their officials for years to come, but last week they won something that approaches self-government. By a vote of 244 to 160, the House accepted President Johnson's plan to revise a municipal charter that has been in effect since President Grant's day.

The President's bill was an artful compromise that was considerably less liberal than the Administration's 1965 proposal to give the district full home rule. The current reorganization plan will provide at least the structure of conventional city government. It scraps the triumvirate of presidentially appointed commissioners who, no matter what their abilities, have always given Washington an unresponsive, cumbersome rule. In their place, the city will soon have a single chief executive, an assistant, and a nine-member city council. All will still be appointed by the President, and Congress will continue to appropriate the funds for Washington's budget--even though 80% of the city's current expenses are paid for by local taxes. Unlike the present government, the new administration will be permitted to transfer funds from one city agency to another without applying to Congress for approval.

The President is expected to appoint a majority of Negroes to the council, and possibly a Negro chief executive. Thus, for the first time since Reconstruction, Washington will have a local government that represents its population pattern if not--directly--its people.

* The other is Newark, N.J., with 55%.

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