there is any opposition to it, it is without the District of Columbia, and we earnestly urge that your committee will report the measure favorably in order that it may pass at an early date.

As you are aware, a similar bill was passed unanimously by the Senate in the last Congress and reported favorably by this committee, and we feel that it is, as I said in the beginning, a simple act of justice.

Mr. BOUTELL. Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that Mr. Justice Harlan be given an opportunity to be heard.

STATEMENT OF MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. Justice HARLAN. Mr. Chairman, I never read this bill until a moment ago, though I have heard of its substance. I am very sure that our distinguished friend from Illinois has not as yet done any greater act in his legislative career than to frame this bill, whether we look at the interests of the whole country or the interests of this District.

I do not know that any apology is needed for one in my judicial position appearing before a legislative committee about a matter of this sort. It involves no political or sectarian considerations, and, so far as I can see, it involves no question of law-certainly no question of law that will likely come before the court of which I am a member. I am here at the request of the president of that university simply from a sense of duty and for what I conceive to be for the best interests of this District and therefore of the country.

When I first heard of this measure I put to myself the question how it was possible that the Congress of the United States could be giving the benefits of this Morrill Act to the people of Hawaii and Porto Rico and yet denying it to the people of this District. What proportion of the people of Hawaii are of our kith and kin or that want to be, or that we want to be, either? What proportion of the people of Porto Rico are of our particular race? Is it possible for anybody to suggest a reason why the people of Porto Rico should have these advantages and the people of the District of Columbia denied them? The Porto Ricans are not yet citizens of the United States in the full sense of the word. We have not agreed they should be. If I were in Europe, standing under a monarchial form of government, I would say that the Porto Ricans are our "subjects"a word I hate and yet we are giving our "subjects" the benefit of this act and denying it to the people here, who are completely under our authority and are citizens of the United States. Porto Ricans are under the Constitution of the United States in a sense, but not in the full sense, according to the judicial decisions.

Congress can pass criminal laws and subject those people to punishment for crime without making them citizens of the United States. But every citizen of the District of Columbia is subject to exactly the same laws that apply to every part of the United States. I know there are some who think, or who did think at one time, that the people in this District were not entitled to the benefit of the Constitution of the United States; but I take pride in the fact that I had the honor of voicing the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States some years ago in a case when that suggestion was made, and

our court unanimously said: "No; whatever guaranties of life, liberty, and property belong under the Constitution of the United States to any citizens of the United States in one of the States belong to the citizens of the District of Columbia." If the citizen of Illinois, for instance, on trial in the federal courts sitting in that State, is entitled to invoke certain clauses of the Constitution of the United States, a like citizen on trial in the District of Columbia can do the same. He can claim his right of trial by jury. He can claim he shall not be punished for any infamous crime except upon indictment or presentment of a grand jury. These people of the District of Columbia are subject to be drafted into the army of the United States in the case of war. They are subject to every duty that may be put upon citizens of the United States elsewhere, except that they can not vote. I shall not, however, enter upon that question.

In point of character, in point of patriotism, the people of the District of Columbia will compare with any people anywhere in the United States. I think I know them as well as I know any people. It so happens that on this very day thirty-two years ago a long while ago I took my seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. [Applause.] During that whole time I have mingled with these people, old and young. I think I know them. I think I know what are their needs, what are their wants. The distinguished gentleman who first opened this discussion well referred to the fact of the number of people who are here for years often who are not citizens of the District, who are here of necessity, and to whom we owe a duty. If they were back in their own States, they would get the benefit of this Morrill Act there. Being here, why should they not get the benefit of it here? I speak with some knowledge of the proportion of young men who live elsewhere and those who are born and raised here and are here permanently. I am connected with George Washington University in another branch of it, the law, and I have been lecturing to law students on the subject of constitutional law for about twenty years, and I know that a large proportion of the classes that I have taught from year to year is composed of young men who after a while go back to their own homes, their old homes, and become connected with society there. That institution, then, is training young men who are here to go out into every part of the United States and take upon themselves the full responsibility of the duties of citizenship. It does seem to me that it is as little as the United States can do to place the people of this District on an equal footing with the inhabitants of Porto Rico and Hawaii. This District, it is true, is not an organized Territory of the United States like, for instance, New Mexico, yet it is in its real sense a Territory of the United States. New Mexico has a legislature of its own to care for its people. This District has no legislature except the Congress. Congress stands in the place of the legislative body that is to care for all the interests and wants of the people of this District, and they can only look to you.

I feel this interest in this matter because it is connected with the cause of education, national education. If our institutions are to last as long as we hope they will last, it will depend in large degree upon the extent to which we provide means of education for the people of the United States. The States take care of their own people immediately with their money and for their local purposes. Here is a fund

and property belonging to the United States. How shall they use it? I am not complaining that the United States does this for the people of the organized Territories. They ought to do it. I am not complaining that they are doing it for Hawaii and Porto Rico, because we will always have those Territories. The Anglo-Saxon never takes his hand off land when he once gets it on. We will always have them, and our duty is to put them in the way of education, so they can eventually become citizens of the United States, and worthy to be citizens of the United States. Here is a part of the population of this country equal to any in the whole United States. I think I have seen a good many parts of this country, and I may say with great confidence that the population here in the District of Columbia compares favorably with the population in any part of the country.

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, having performed what was to me a pleasant duty, to come here and make these few suggestions in support of this scheme for the benefit not only of this District, but for the country, I thank you.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES W. NEEDHAM, PRESIDENT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.

Mr. BOUTELL. Mr. Chairman, this bill provides specifically that the fund shall be distributed by the George Washington University. That is simply because it is the only institution in the District of Columbia that is now giving instruction in agriculture and mechanic arts. The president of the university, Doctor Needham, is here, and I am very sure, Mr. Chairman, that you and the members of the committee would like to hear specifically the condition of the university and its ability to administer this fund, and to ask him such questions as you may desire.

Doctor NEEDHAM. Mr. Chairman, I shall confine myself entirely to the university and its work.

The university was organized in 1821, within a few years after the suggestion of President Washington that there should be a university in this District. President Madison and others expressed a hope that the Columbian College, as it was then named, should become that university or college. Many public men at that time expressed this same hope, that it would become the college of the District. It continued under that control down to 1872, when Mr. Corcoran gave a gift to the then college for the express purpose, as he said in his letter, of making it a university, and to be used for that purpose.

I came to the university first as dean of the law school in 1898, and afterwards as president in 1902. It then had, speaking generally, a college, a law school, and a medical and dental school. That work was being carried on by the fees of the students and such money as was received from its small endowment and such money as was given to it and as was realized upon property and assets that were free. Beyond this matter of receipts from fees, there was a deficit, as there is in every institution and which is not peculiar to our institution a deficit of from $15,000 to $20,000 per annum. That had to be provided for by the trustees. I took up the work and endeavored to familiarize myself with the conditions in the District and the requirements of the District.

As we had a college established, the matter of putting in a college of engineering and a teachers' college for the education of teachers in the District, and a division of architecture, in order to teach men that profession and science, involved simply the expense of putting in the technical courses. The cultural courses were already provided in the college. Having been approached by many people and young men desiring this line of education in the District, I took up the matter with such men as Dr. Andrew D. White and others who had established colleges of engineering to ascertain what they thought of the desirability of establishing such a college in the District of Columbia. It was their unanimous and most hearty conclusion that there was no place in the country open at that time that gave such promise for a good engineering and mechanic arts school as the District of Columbia, owing to the number of students already here and in the immediate vicinity that had no opportunity for such education. I presented the matter to our board of trustees and said it would involve an extra expense to put in this line of education, but that I believed if it was demonstrated by the number of students that attended it that it was needed here it would receive support either from Congress or from private funds. That work, therefore, was put in. We established the college.

The CHAIRMAN. At about what time?

Doctor NEEDHAM. Three years ago. Four years ago the ordinance was passed, and we started the work and have carried it on as best we could ever since.

The work is recognized now by other institutions doing the same work, where our students go out, as some of them do. Quite a number of them went out in the last year in order to get laboratory facilities, which we are unable with our present funds to give them. They went to other institutions, engineering colleges, and received full credit for the work done here. We are hoping to put in the neces sary laboratories-and I shall speak of that in a moment-to do the entire work.

The expense at the present time, with our present faculty, amounts to $41,037, according to our present budget. We are carrying on our work with a deficit over our income from tuition fees and small endowment of $113,000, this deficit amounting to $55,000, which we have to provide for this year. Forty-one thousand and thirty-seven dollars of that is for this mechanic-arts work, leaving the deficit beyond that just about what it was when I came with the university. In other words, if we were to drop this work we should be just where we were before, so far as our financial standing is concerned.

The question therefore presents itself, Shall we carry on this work in the District? That involves the question, Does the District need it?

As I have stated in a brief paper which I have sent to members of the committee, there are two classes of students here. They are just the same in quality of mind, but we speak of them as different classes because the first class is unable to attend the work during the whole day, while the second class can only attend part of the time. The first class consists of sons and daughters of those who reside in the District of Columbia. Our registration last year was 1,500. This year we have already registered 1,309 up to the present time, and will register during the second semester from 100 to 150 more;

so our registration is, or will be, practically what it was last year. Of that number, one-third, 573 last year, had no other residence than the District of Columbia; that is to say, their fathers had residences in the States, but they were children born here or brought here at an early age, and they had no residence and can establish no residence in the States. That class of students is dependent almost entirely--certainly all but 10 per cent of them are dependent entirely-upon the advantages in the District of Columbia for education. Their fathers are receiving comparatively small salaries, and they can not afford $1,000 a year to send the boy to college, especially if they have more than one in the family. They are dependent entirely upon the facilities which are offered in the District of Columbia. Therefore, I say they belong to the District of Columbia. They must be educated here or they can not be educated anywhere.

Look for a moment at that class. If they can not get an education in this line of work, the whole field of industry-the whole industrial field which offers the greatest opportunities to men of character and ability to-day for employment, the greatest number of places-is entirely closed to them, and they have to go out into life to be stenographers and typewriters and salesmen, and work that any man with a fair education can do.

The question before you is: Shall this body of students, now between 500 and 600 in this institution, be continued in this work that will enable them to go out into the industries of the United States and maintain themselves along these lines or not? No institution can do tion. We can not maintain it without help. No institution can do SO. It has to be maintained by somebody. If we get this appropriation this year, it is $40,000, just what we have to expend in this behalf. We have, then, to take care of our college of arts, and we can do it. That deficiency we will take care of without any trouble, but this expense must be taken care of or else the work must go down.

The other body of students consists of those who have been referred to so ably by Mr. Boutell, men who are here part of the time. They come here largely to serve the Government, or serve Members of Congress or executive officers as secretaries. There are in this District to-day from 2,500 to 3,000 students of that kind. We have 1,000 of them in our institution. There are scattered through the other institutions or profession schools of the District from 1,500 to 2,000 more; I can not give the exact number. These men are here to fit themselves for better service in the professions. They are all studying the professions, as a rule. There are some of them who come in as did Mr. Boutell's son. We have probably of that class in the engineering and mechanic arts and in architecture and in the teachers' college 200 to 250. These men must get their education here. They can get it nowhere else. A gentleman in New York who distributes great charities and benevolences for educational work said to me, Why do they not go over to Johns Hopkins? Why do they not go to the University of Virginia? They are near you. Why do they not go there?" They can not go there. It is a physical impossibility. They are here, as you gentlemen know, to do their work every day. They have part of their time off, perhaps one-third of the time, and their nights for study.

These men will give their time-and they are a splendid class of students. I wish you gentlemen could come into the university and