Mr. BRADY. Absolutely; it is not what you did, but what you consent to their doing.

Mr. LANHAM. I see; it was a question of constructive or actual dedication?

1

Mr. BRADY. Not actual, dedication, but constructive dedication. After hearing evidence almost all day and argument, that is the final decree entered by Judge Stafford, and it was never appealed from by the defendant, Mr. Hogan's client; there is a specific finding that it is not so controlled.

Mr. MALTBY. Following his statement, Mr. Hogan defended the defendant against Gassenheimer at that time. That matter was for a temporary injunction to stay until maybe a year later, and Hogan went to work for the Capital Traction Co.

Mr. LANHAM (interposing). You are now getting aside from the subject. My inquiry was to get in a sentence or two a statement as to where the laws harmonized.

Mr. MALTBY. I see.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Well, that is all, if you are through.

The committee will stand adjourned until Friday morning next, at 10 o'clock.

(And thereupon, at 12.15 o'clock p. m. the committee stood adjourned until Friday next, at 10 o'clock a. m.)

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE

ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Friday, March 19, 1920. The committee this day met at 10 o'clock a. m., pursuant to adjournment taken on Wednesday last, Hon. Frederick N. Zihlman (chairman), presiding. Also present: Hon. Clark Burdick.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. The committee will be in order. I would like to put into the record the fact that Mr. Lanham, who has been in attendance at all the hearings, is ill this morning and unable to be here.

We will now hear from Commissioner Brownlow on the pending bill.

STATEMENT OF MR. LOUIS BROWNLOW, COMMISSIONER OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. BROWNLOW. Shall I proceed with a general statement, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Yes.

Mr. BROWNLOW. In the first place, I want to confess that I have not given the text of this bill the careful study that I should have liked to have given it before appearing before the committee. I have been for three weeks before the subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the House, defending our annual estimates, so that I have been so very busy that I have not gone into this matter in detail. But I thought it might be useful to the committee, without discussing the bill in detail at this time, to give you, for what it is worth, such views as I have on the general subject at hand, and which views are based on my experience of five years in the

office of District Commissioner, during all that time having been in direct charge of the police department. During none of that period have I had the direct supervision of the licensing office, although I have been more or less familiar with its administration, and with the difficulties of administration which have been encountered. The difficulties being, in the main, in my opinion, the result of an insufficient force rather than of a faulty organization. To that end then, I will state that it is my opinion that it is not necessary to establish a new office of commissioner of motor vehicles, since I believe that the superintendent of licenses of the District of Columbia can do the work, providing his staff is sufficiently enlarged.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. That is, he can do the work of issuing licenses? Mr. BROWNLOW. Of issuing licenses. The other matters I want to speak of later. All of the work of issuing licenses, the collection of license taxes, the issuance of permits to motor-vehicle drivers after a proper examination, all can be done under the existing organization, provided more help is furnished. There is no question but that permits to operate motor vehicles are now being issued without a sufficient examination by the District of Columbia; the reason for it is that we have never had a sufficient staff to give a proper examination. At the same time I want to record my opinion that a comparatively small number of traffic violations and of traffic accidents are traceable to the fact that permits have been issued to persons who are incompetent, since it is my belief, based upon my observation, that in the majority of cases reckless driving is indulged in by men who are very competent to drive motor vehicles, and who could pass any examination that could be devised; and sometimes the greater the competency the greater the recklessness, because the man has too great confidence in his ability to control his car.

I believe that there should be a definite revision of the whole system of automobile taxes. As you know, we now have an annual fee for the registry of motor vehicles, which is paid for when the identification tags are issued, and in addition thereto the ad valorem tax. Mr. BURDICK. What are the fees?

Mr. ZIHLMAN. This is the present fee-top of page 8 of the bill. Mr. BROWNLOW. The annual fees are $3 for each motor vehicle of 24 horsepower or less, $5 for each motor vehicle between 24 horsepower and 30 horsepower, and $10 for each motor vehicle of more than 30 horsepower. For many years we had no annual registration in the District of Columbia, an identification tag being issued on the application of the owner of the vehicle, and it was perpetual. A few years ago, by an amendment to the annual appropriation bill, the annual feature was adopted, with a fee of $3, $5, and $10; that is in addition to the ad valorem tax on the value of the vehicle as appraised by the tax assessor. In many States the two taxes have been consolidated, and I believe that would be useful here. In some States the tax has been based solely upon the horsepower; in other States on the two factors of the value and the horsepower; and in some States the combination of three factors-the horsepower, the value of the car, and the weight of the car. In my opinion the most equitable single tax would be an annual license tax pro rated by months, based upon the three factors-horsepower, value, and weight. Mr. BURDICK. Why do you put in the weight?

173006-2011

Mr. BROWNLOW. I believe that a large motor truck ought to pay more than a light passenger vehicle.

Mr. BURDICK. On account of its character?

Mr. BROWNLOW. On account of the greater wear and tear on the highway. I believe also that a motor car that costs $8,000 ought to pay a greater tax than one that costs $800, even if the horsepower is approximately the same. I believe there would be a discrimination in favor of the more expensive car if horsepower were the only factor considered.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. You can not very well tax all the motor vehicles in the District of Columbia under the present ad valorem system?

Mr. BROWNLOW. I was just going to say a great many escape taxation under the ad valorem tax. The car is sold-the ad valorem taxes are all based on the 1st of July-and the car is taken out of the District, and a great many escape taxation, whereas if the whole tax were paid at the time of the issuance of the license there could be no question of the payment of the tax.

Then there is an enormous expense in the collection and assessment of the ad valorem tax, which would be eliminated if the entire tax were collected at the time of the issuance of the annual identification tags. The personal-tax assessor appraises the car and then the owner comes in and appeals from that appraisal and says that it was not worth that much; that it was old, or something else, and the personal-tax assessor has to make a change, and a good deal of unnecessary expense is involved in the question, all taking up the time of the assessor's office, which would be entirely eliminated were the taxes consolidated.

Mr. BURDICK. How are you going to fix the value at the time of the issuing of the license; is the licensor to have the say about the value?

Mr. BROWNLOW. The licensor would know the original value of the cars of the several makes. The person who applies for a license gives the make of the car and the year of manufacture, and as the prices of automobiles are so well standardized it would be a very easy matter for the superintendent of licenses to establish a scale or schedule upon which the various rates could be based.

Mr. BURDICK. Well, I was thinking that he would have no more information than the present tax assessor.

Mr. BROWNLOW. No, Mr. Burdick; it would be different in these cases. The suggestion that I make would be based on the first cost of the car of a certain type, whereas the ad valorem tax is a diminishing tax each year during the life of the car.

Mr. BURDICK. So that the licensee with a new car will pay no more than the licensee with an old car?

Mr. BROWNLOW. No, sir; but it will be based on the type of car which he has.

Now, I do believe this-this is a very minor matter-if the committee decides to establish a new office of the commissioner of motor vehicles to take over the duties of this character, which are now conducted by the superintendent of licenses although I do not believe that is necessary-I believe what should be done is to augment the staff of the superintendent of licenses-but I do believe that there should be some other title than commissioner. That is a mere matter

of title, but there are so many commissioners in the District of Columbia that it is becoming a matter of great confusion to the public.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Would you like to go further into that question of commissioner at this time?

Mr. BROWNLOW. I would be glad to answer any questions.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. I would like to ask this question: It has been stated before this committee that there were 36,000 informations filed for violations of the motor-vehicle regulations in the last year. I think it was also stated by one of the officers testifying here that there were 18,000 in which fines were collected or that went up to the police court. Now, with that great number of violations, and with this constant growth of the motor-vehicle traffic in the District, it seems to me that it is essential that somebody be given charge of the regulation of motor traffic and the inforcement of the motortraffic laws and motor-traffic regulations. Now, that will have to be done either by a commissioner, as we will call him at this time, or by an officer of the police department, probably some one with higher rank—I am not familiar with the salaries paid your captains, at least so that it seems to me that it would be about the same thing if we appoint a man who is especially designated to take charge of this work of the enforcement of the motor-traffic laws and regulations, either in the police department or as a separate official having entire charge of this work and nothing else.

Mr. BROWNLOW. Well, up to this point I have confined myself purely to the duties in the matter of issuing licenses and permits and the collection of the tax.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Yes.

Mr. BROWNLOW. Now, as to the enforcement of the law, I believe that it ought to be left in the police department. It has been the constant effort of the authorities here for many years to reduce rather than to increase the number of separate police organizations, and it is absolutely necessary, if we are going to progress in the enforcement of traffic regulations, that the entire police force shall cooperate with the traffic branch of the police force in the enforcement of all those laws and regulations with reference to this matter, and I would very much prefer, in a jurisdiction such as the District of Columbia, that the whole matter of the enforcement of the traffic laws and regulations be left with the police department.

Now, in a State, where you have State jurisdiction, and county jurisdiction, and city and village jurisdiction, and so many jurisdictions, I thing it is highly desirable to have a commissioner whose jurisdiction is coextensive with the boundaries of that State, but in the District of Columbia the police jurisdiction is coextensive with the boundaries of the District, and I believe it would cause administrative confusion and result rather in harm than in good to take away the primary responsibility for the enforcement of traffic laws and regulations from the police department and put it under another man who has not the disciplinary control of the policemen, who must, in the last analysis, do the bulk of the work. If this is done under the police department it is done under the superintendent of police, who has disciplinary control of all the men who are charged with enforcing the law.

Now, I would be very frank to say that our efforts in improving the traffic work of the police department have been delayed and interfered with by circumstances to an extent which is a matter of great regret to the commissioners. We succeeded last July in having officers authorized for the traffic branch, a captain, lieutenant, and two sergeants, and they have been appointed and have given careful attention to the traffic and have made progress.

But the depletion of the police force has been such that we have not been able to organize that traffic squad as we had contemplated, and as we desired to do. During the war, while we greatly lowered the standard for service in the police department, at one time we had more than 250 vacancies on the police force. And now, although the salary bill increasing the salaries of the policemen has been the law since the 5th of December, and although the bonus law of $240 applies to the policemen, in addition to that salary, we have now 72 vacancies on the police force, and in the three months and a half since the salary bill passed we have had a total of only 21 applications for the police force, and of that 21 only 9 passed, so that you can see that we are still greatly under our authorized strength, and even the authorized strength is not sufficient, in view of the greatly increased population and the very greatly increased vehicular traffic. We have lived in hope from week to week and month to month, and I expressed the hope before this committee when the salary bill was being considered, that we could immediately recruit the force up to the authorized strength. But now, when there is agitation and discussion of the elimination of the bonus, which means in actual practice a reduction of $20 a month in salary on the 1st of July, recruiting has stopped and the resignations have increased. And even with the bonus the present salaries of police officers are not as high as they are in many cities of similar size in the country, because in many cities there have been increases, and in some instances two increases have been made since we discussed the salary bill with the District Committee.

I am very firmly of the opinion, however, that the evils which are here could be met with such steps as will insure a recruiting of the police force, and that all laws of whatsoever character should be enforced under the Metropolitan police force, because where there are different agencies there will be conflict. Another thing, the man who is responsible for the enforcement of the law should have disciplinary authority over the men who make the arrests and prosecutions, else you will find inevitably, even with the best of will and the heartiest cooperation between the heads of the two divisions, trouble below. And hearty cooperation sometimes is difficult to achieve, even if it is the desire, since the commissioner of motor vehicles will complain of the inefficiency of the police officers to the head of the police department, and the head of the police department is inclined, as all men are inclined, to defend his own. On the other hand, if the policemen are charged with laxity in the enforcement of the traffic laws, he can pass the buck to the commissioner of motor vehicles. I am convinced on general principles, as well as with reference to this particular feature, I am very positive in my belief that the administration of the law will be advanced by consolidating all of the police work under the head of the Metropolitan