The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-12-29
PUBLIC INDIFFERENCE AND PUB
Lie DUTY.

The Chicago Herald complains bitterly
of public Indifference to public duties in
that city. That apparent condition is not
phenomenal; it is pretty much the same
everywhere; it oftenest requires public
calamity, the threat of great evil, the
immediate presence, often, Of disaster, to
rouse municipal communities to action
that ought to have been taken as a pre-
ventive means by community officials.
This phase ofcity life is, however, greatly
less where the municipal authorities lead
instead of holding back. That commu-
nifty is cursed whose officials have to be
dragged to duty doing, who have to be
prodded by petitions and menaced by
mass meetings and public assemblies to
take action which they ought to pursue
without even suggestion. 1t is natural
that communities should lean upon Off
Gals chosen to discharge public trusts.
The people expect, and rightfully, that
officials whose duty it is to have the pub
lie safety and prosperity in constant view
should lead in all advance and defensive
movements. Whenever it becomes nee
essary to appeal to these authorities to
act; when it is found by the people that
agitation alone will stir officials to activ-
ity it is undeniable evidence that the
trust reposed by the people in such Off
GERS is not being discharged with vigor.
1t is not therefore just to charge a COM
munity with Indifference or ignorance of
its needs because it does not at once rise
up and protest and appeal to municipal
authorities. The people, as a mass, are
conservative; more than charitable, in
deed; they wait patiently and trustfully
for officials to discharge the duties of
offices they have accepted; in short, they
permit all presumptions to prevail in ia
vor Of the municipal authority, and hence
1t is only when public safety or business
prosperity is menaced that communities
in this country arise and manifest the
interest they really have entertained all
the time in the common veal
So, we maintain, that which is so often
charged to be Indifference on the part of
the people to public evils and needs is
oftenest conservatism that is opposed to
revolutionary and irritating methods; it
is entertainment of the hope that au-
thority will do as it should. It is not.
save in rare instances, therefore, to be
taken as insensibility on the part of the
people of city to the welfare of their
town, or to the ills that af1iict them or to
Instructions that retard their progress.
The Herald mistakes when it scolds the
people; it mistakes for Indifference and
insensibility that which is simply the
trust that is born of a republican system.
Volunteer and non-official interposition
is the last resort, and all our history
proves that the people are averse to the
employment of such means until the last
moment. They leave criticism and the
use Of the spur of publicity to the press,
but the town-meeting lash is applied only
when there is no longer any doubt re-
naming of the stubbornness or neglect.
the venality or the Indifference of the
municipal authority. Officials know this
to be true; that they presume upon it is
constantly evident.
Take it in our own city; time and time
again the people have waited with con-
sentative patience unparalleled and that
was exasperating to the more fiery and
progressive spirits; never, so far as we
can ascertain, have they risen and re-
buked and petitioned until there was
clearly manifest purpose on the part of
officials to pursue the uneconomic and
erroneous course and ignore the plain
dictates of wisdom and prudence. Yet
this patience never has been such as to
warrant the charge of insensibility on the
part of our people to public evils or in
to public needs.
When, therefore, the people do arise
and in fair public assembly, or by gem
eral representative petition manifest their
wishes, the municipal authorities may
take it as proof positive that the ex-
tremest limit of patience has been reached.