St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-28
The VIEW OF ST.PAUL
Taken by Julian Ralph in His
Second Magazine
Article.
Do Taxes and Benefits Go To-
gether in City Gov
eminent?
A Step Backward in Creating
the Dual Style Of
Council.
Two Novelties Often Seen in
Typical Cities of the
West.

| ceSS1ul type. Inc SKelcH was LIe WoTk
of Julian Ralph, in Harper's Magazine.
J In the current number of the same peri
odical is a second series by the same
writer on "Western Modes of City Man
agement," in which, after a discussion
of Chicago and Minneapolis. st. Paul Is
very interestingly handled. In phllo-
sophical vein, he begins:
1t was in st. Paul that a leading Off
cial confided to me his observation that
sthe better municipal commission Is,
the worse for the taxpayers" He ar
gued that in howsoever great a de-
! gree the head of department
evinees desire to distinguish himself
by his work, in just thot degree he will
increase the cost of his department.
| That is true; but whether that will
prove the worse for the taxpayers de-
| ponds entirely upon whether the money
! spent is wisely put out. A very thought
| full friend of mine is III the habit of say
| ing that "the greater the tax is, the less
will be the burden" He finds property
/ values and the general comfort so in
creased by wise public expenditures
| that the people in progressive communl-
| ties feel the benefits more than they
D. L
wav and backward rural districts, where
very inferior roads and schools are the
only visible returns, that the people
complain against having to pay taxes
whose sum totals seem to others rldlcu-
lousy small.
Proceeding, the writer says: In max
ing the short journey TO st. Paul we
pass to still
Another Experiment
in city government. There they enjoy
the same very excellent system of
liquor licensing. In combining the sa-
looms to the business and manufacture
ing precincts, whole wards where the
dwellings, are found are under the taboo.
They issue about 800 licenses year III
st. Paul at $1,000 each, and keep
license inspector at 81, 800 year and the
cost of horse and buggy, 10 protect the;
licenses and the city. The officials
boasted to me that there is not one un-;
licensed saloon in st. Paul. AS was
the case in Minneapolis, they said that
strangers could not procure liquor TO-
be drunk ON the premises in
those drug stores which violate the;
law. But while, in the MAN,,
the same excellent method of liquor
licensing obtains in both towns. was:
permitted to gather the notion that IN
st. Paul there is lOoSenesS about
minor details Of the uperlntendence,
which does not exist in Minneapolis
For, instance, it is found impossible to;
close the saloons at IL O'Clock at night
or Oh Sundays, as the law commands
They keep open until midnight, or even
later, and on Sunday follow the New
York device Of closing the front doors
and opening those side or rear doors,
...t,. r. Fo., n i'm
New York called ''fanily entrances"
When | was first told that the law
could not be enforced. it occurred to me
that perhaps the impoSsibility was Ii Ike
that which defeated the better impulses
of a little child of my acquaintance
when he ate an apple which he was
carrying to his sister. He explained
that he truly could not help eating it;
it really would be eaten, and he could
not stop it." But | found afterwards
that the law was an enactment of the
state legislature and not of the local
authorities, and that the city is different
from Minneapolis in that it posses ses a
very much more mixed population of
transplanted Europeans. The failure
to enforce the law therefore empha-
sized two well-established points:
first, that cities should govern them
selves; and second, that laws which re-
fleet the prejudices or peculiar tenets of
a class or race are extremely difficult to
enforce in mixed community. Yet it
is always pity when they are loosely
administered and disobeyed Such a
condition is a grave mlSfOrtune, for
nothing but harm can come of permit
ting any community to witness the con-
temptuous treatment of any law. Would
that all officials charged with carrying out
the statutes were of Gen. Grants mind,
to insist upon the enforcement of mis-
taken as we'll as wise laws, that the first
sort might the sooner be repealed.
The Dual Council.
| found st. Paul undergoing govern
mental revolution, owing to gift of
new charter from the legislature. Again
the mayor here rose to Importance. and
divided honorS and work with the COM
mon council-he making half the APP
pointmentS, and they administering the
more important trusts. Bat it is dual
council = double-barreled board of
superyisors-called aldermen and as
Semblymen. Each ward elects one al
derman, and there are eleven III ali,
while the nine asSemblymen are elected
at large from all over the city. Both
serve two years, and receive $lG0 a year
presumably for car fares. They meet
on alternate Tuesdays. The majority
of the members of the two houses are
Irish Or Irish-Americans. The city is
Democratic. The mayor appoints the
chief of police and the policemen under
him, and has power to remove as well
as to appoint. He does so with the adj
vice and consent of the council; but it
is said no conflicts have arisen in the
matter of removals, eth CT under this or
the former charter. The mayors salary;
has been raised from $1,000 to $4,000.
The judges of the municipal court are5
elected; they receive 81, 900 year, and
have civil jurisdiction where the sum at
issue is under $500. A feature that
would seem to be the outcome of sage
reflection is the conference committees
1t is composed of the mayor, president
of the assembly, chairman OF the ways
and means committee of the aldermen,g
the comptroller, treasurer, engineeE3
and the heads of nearly all the bureaus
of the city government. They come to-
gether once month to confer upon the
work each has in hand. R2
l asked high official of the city gov
eminent, who is a practical Demo
cratic politician, why the new charter
had established return to the old plaiie
of double legislative body. He said
that it was Republican effort to put
check to Democratic expenditure.
When | asked If it would have that eff
feet, he dropped in my ear this aston
IShing reflection. which / will set down
without any further comment than
that it appears to possess the quality of
frankneSS in marked degree.
Political Trades.
among politicians" said he, "all
legislation is trading. You know that
as we'll as L do. We all use our oppor-
tunities ami influence to help those who
have been of service to us. That is the
main consideration in politics. Every
alderman who is elected is indebted to
certain influential men in his ward, and
he expects to legislate to pay his debts
1t cannot be so easy to do this If the
legislation must afterward pass body
of men elected at large, and not in
debted to the same persons for their
election"
LII the rnvernment of II Iahac