GOVERNMENT. Since 11374 the government been under the control of three eommissioners appointed by the President. and approved by the Senate. The citizens have no direct voice in the appointments to office within the District, having no vote in District or national affairs.
Estimates of the money needed for muni cipal purposes are sent to Congress by the Dis trict Commissioners and an appropriation hill is framed, based on these estimates. In the year 1903 the total amount carried in the District bill was $9,354,287, The principal items were RS follows: schools, $1.378,909; interest on debt and sinking fund provision, $925,408; improve ments and repairs of streets. $791.000; sewers, $897,000: police, $800,325; fire department, $37'2, ISO. Half of the amount appropriated is paid by the United States and the other half is raised by taxation from the citizens of the District. This division of the municipal burden is based upon the large ownership by the United States of property in the District,w'hieh,of course, is untaxed and which is estimated, counting the streets, to be one-half of the entire area. All the expenditures of money thus appropriated, made under the direction of the Commissioners. must pass the scrutiny of the auditing officers of the Treasury Department, just as in the ease of all Federal expenditures. With these safeguards about municipal disbursements and the practical elimination of local politics, the affairs of the District are managed with a degree of economy and efficiency that is believed to he without a parallel in the history of municipal government. The tax rate on both real and personal property is $1.50 per hundred. In the case of real estate it is upon the assessed valuation, which is not less than two-thirds the actual value. The funded debt of the District in 1902 was $14,198, 3311. The assessed value of real estate in 1903 was $208,519,436, and of personal property $'2'2, 249,935.
The water supply is brought from the Great, Falls of the Potomae by means of an aqueduct 12 miles long. The water-works are owned by the Government. The fund from the water tax is kept separate from the general fund. A sand filtration plant is a new feature that is to hit added IC) till system.
PoeilwrioN. In IMO the population of the Distriet was 278,718, of whom 191,532 were white and 86,702 were colored.
Dismal-. For a number of years after the 1u•olutionary War the country had no permit neat capital, and there was great rivalry among the principal cities to secure the seat of govern. meat. At last, in 1790, prtly as the result• of a compromise and partly in deference to Wash ington's judgment, the Potomac county was chosen and Virginia and Maryland each offered to redo a tract to the Ceneral Ciwerninent. By
art of .Nlareli 30, 1791, Washington was author ized to select thin site and mark the boundaries, and this he did early in the year•, the corner stone of the Federal territory being laid on April 15th. cn the spot chosen an Englishman named Francis Pope had settled in 1663 and had called the place Rome. Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant. a French engineer who had served in the Continental Army. was chosen to lay out Ilse town, and. though dismissed in March, 1792, Ile drew up a plan which was adopted by the commissioners in charge and iii aceordance with which Andrew• Ellicott laid out the city. In September. 1791, the. name Columbia was adopt ed for the District and the name 1Vashington for the city. The District was originally ten miles square, taut in 1846 the Virginia portion was ret roceded, leaving a land area of 60 .qua( The laud within the area of Washington laid out in lots was divided by agreement equally between the Cnited States and the proprie tors, except certain portions which were pur chased by the Government. By the sale of land dugs obtained a part of the money used in the erection of the public buildings was seemed. In order to facilitate this division, the land-owners deeded their entire holdings to the Governnm•nt, receiving from the latter title deeds. For this reason the land records within the original ur ban limits start from the Government's title to the whole acquired in 170. During the first few years the large scale on white]] the plans were drawn was in such striking contrast to the act ual size of the place that by travelers and others Washington was derisively called 'The City of Magnificent Distances,' The City of Streets Without House.' The Wilderness City,' and 'The Capital of :Miserable Huts.' In 1800 the north section of the Capitol the cornerstone of millet' had hem' laid in 1793, was finished, and Congress held its first session there in November, the archives having been transferred from Phila delphia somewhat earlier. A letter-writer in this year said: Capitol is on an eminence near the c•ent•e of the immense country called here the city. There is one good tavern and several other houses arc finished or being built." The city is now regarded as coextensive with the Dis trict. though there are some differences in taxa tion between the 'urban' and the 'rural' parts.