The New York herald., 1876-02-11
Public Spirit VS.. Municipal Abuses.

When the citizen of a free country hears
the subject of an absolute ruler account for
his Indifference to what we regard as tyranny,
by saying that his strong government
saves him world of trouble by its vigorous
way of dealing withs the small concerns of
life, the citizen is likely to regard the sub
ject as a submissive slave. He accepts the
odious intrusion of the policeman and the
spy and the menace of the armed janissary
because these officers of despotism regulate,
discover and overawe the offenders or proba-
bic offenders against the rules of comfortable
civic or rural existence. The Partisan
bourgeois or the French farmer under the
Empire would probably give such reason
for his passive acquiescence in its national
enormities. Liberty is, however, too inesti-
mably valuable to be weighed against such
small advantages, and our most Indifferent
citizen would scout the idea of sacrificing
his great rights for the best municipal sys-
tenn that could be devised. He would
hasten to assure you that under our system
the good can be enforced and the bad elm
mated The proof of the pudding is in
the eating, and when we receive such letter
as that on street abuses from Mr.. Derby,
which we publish elsewhere, we recognize the
difficulty that besets reform in all its branches
among us, not only in enacting, but in en-
forcing. We find that the constant tendency
of getting other people to do things and
caring little how they do them is the great
evil A universal Sinking of responsibilities
prevails, and it is only when some victim
emits concentrated groan, like Mr.. Derby's,
that citizens begin to say to each other, ''the
same thing has happened to me sir, it is
infamous" Fifty men who would promptly
follow up each infraction of municipal or
dinances that came under their notice would
put nine-tenths of Mr.. Derby's tangible COM
plants out of sight. Grumbling in private,
writing to the newspapers or asking an in
different policeman to do something will
never effect as much as a single determined
prosecution of any one offence.
When Police Commissioner Smith came
into office as President of the Board he in
formed the public through convenient re-
porters, that henceforth all laws and ordi-
nances were to be enforced, the city swept
and kept clean by his new broom the gar
bage to be separated from the ashes by his
new system, the policemen to be vigilant
and even polite under the new rules, and re-
form in every branch of his department to
become as fixed in thelcity as the north star
in the sky. But the light of his reform
waned as rapidly as the moons after the full.
1t was as uncertain as a will O the wisp and
as unsubstantial. The streets were never
filthier; garbage is dumped into the ash
carts robberies are unchecked policemen
still chat at corners, dodge the roundsmen
and receive citizens complaint with quiet
scorn, or a threat to ''club the head off you"
We suppose General Smith to be, like other
men, prone to let things slide when nobody
finds fault with his inactivity, and when it is
so hard to achieve perfection. The remedy
lies in individual citizens keeping officials to
their work. The newspapers will be found
ready to do their share, but public spirit
must be the real reformer which will bring
offenders to justice and be q constant terror
to boasting and neglectful or criminal OFF,
cials. With vigorous prosecution on each
count Of the indictment. "Public Spirit VS..
Municipal Abuses will always end in vic
tory for the plaintiff