The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1884-10-16
THE GROWTH OFOIrLBs.


The London Spectator Is>alAEmsd by
the phenomenal growth of the BrItish
metropolis. at d becoming question"
saYs that paper in is issue Of Septem-
be1 Is, eRhether the prepOsterous
growth of ne capital does not involve .
grave social danger. Evennow, though
the pace has been little checked, Lon
don adds 9 new Brighton to itself every
year, building from twenty-five to thirty
thousand houses, and in q short period q
fourth Of England will be concentrated
in a district a few miles square Dhich
produce nothing"
All over the civilized Worlo, g society
becomes more complicated in its strue.-
ture and human wants multiply, this ten
dency of man 20 collect In cities Is felt,
and leading as It does to the increase
Of nOn-productive treas, and to
the preponderance In influence and pow
er Of these centers of population over
the rural communities it may be felt a.
involving . social problem of more than
superficial importance. In the thick1y
settled countries Of the old world where
the ratio Of population TO territory il 90
large, the purely material phase of il il
felt, calling for just such . note Of warn
ing as the one above quoted. It Is in
the great cities that the hard problems of
hun an misery grind with their inexors-
BILE force most pitilessly upon men and
women, the unsolYed problems Of ''the
degradation.of man by poverty, the ruin
Of women b. starvation, and the dwarf.
ing Of children by physical and spiritual
night" In the new world. with
our vast unsettled territory offering
employment for the laborer and homes
for the poor, we do not feel the stress
of these misery. bringing social condi-
tions attendent upon the growth Of
cities, a. do the crowded lands of Europe
and Asia. But in the United States to-
day there ia one phase of the evil In
fuence OF cities which Is giving grow
ing ground tor serious apprehension ;
the political influence of the IrrespOnsl-
BILE classes In our cities, not only in mu
nicipal government but in holding the
balance OF power In national affairs.
''Paris is France, !" could once be truthful
1y said. In the United States. while
probably 1t can never be said "NeW
York Is the UnIon," it has come to be
that the vote in the state of New
York, below the Harlem river, may
neutralize for good or evil, the vote not
only Of one but Of the thlrty-eight states,
and determine the drift OF national af-
fairs for years to come. New
York, Chicago, Boston, CIncin.
natl, in their respective states in every
contest furnish the vote which must be
overcome in order to the triumph of the
best governmental and moral principles.
Nothing threatens the success of the re-
publican experiment with greater men,
ace than the problem Of municipal gov
eminent and the political influence of
our cities on questions involving the
business prosperity and the
social and moral welfare of
the Union. In the local government
of cities, the danger lies in putting the
power into the hands OF classes without
interests, and who, being for the most
part non-taxpayers, are easily led to
sanction measures involving extrava-
CANT outlay and hardship for those upon
whose shoulders fall the burden. In
Chicago, for instance. the best citizens
are thus helplessly in the hands of dem
agogues and criminals, and they
are the more helpless because many cit
zens whose financial and bust.
ness interests ere really with the NUM-
cipalitY find homes in the suburbs and
thus have no voice in the management
of its affairs. The social conditions OF
our great cities are especially dangerous
politically because they afford so easy q
field for the manipulations OF
'bosses" and "ringsters' who fatten
upon public theft and afford protection
TO crime and social evils, in order 70
profit by their ill-gotten gains. The
safety Of our popular government lies
in the moral balance furnished by the
agricultural and rural communities ol
great commonwealths like our own, but
when toreign-born Boston counter. bal
ances the:moral influence of Puritan
Massachusetts, and when Garter
Harrison's Chicago has almost be.
come more than all the prairiel
Of Illinois, the danger to be feared from
an unproportIonate preponderance o
the political influence of the great citiel
is not fancied one; though the evil
associated with 1t hopeful view en-
ables US to feel are happily remote, 81
long as our broad prairies and undevel
oped resources and our standards Q
popular Intelligence and morality con
Time NJ a aafennard