The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-30
CITY GOVERNMENT REFORM.
POWERFUL THANKSGIVING DAY
 SERMON BY DR. T. 4. MUNGER.

 Street Cleaning and Psvements-Ths city's
 usnith-Tax or Sell Electric Street ataii-
 rond Frsnchises to Raise Money for
 School Purposes-The Evils of Partisan
 Politics and tho Power of Rings
 A large congregation was present at the united Thanksgiving day service at Center church yesterday morning. The Scripture lesson was the 103d psalm. af- ter which Rev. Dr. W. l.. Philips of the Church of the Redeemer led In prayer A sermon of much power. eloquence and brilliancy was then preached by Rev. pr. T. T. Munger of the United church, on the subject of Municipal Reform" The text was: And the city lieth four square, and the length Is as large as the breadth; and He measured the city with the reed. twelve thousand furlongs. The length. and the breadth and the height of 1t are equar'-Revelation xxi, 16. He spoke substantially as follows:
 Tt Is not my purpose to-day to un-
 
 fold this mystical utterance further than to say that 1t describes city of perfection, the idea of realizing which Is lodged In the bosom of humanity as it's supreme ideal. Our city will never be as that one here described, because it Is unattainable by human beings. But to us 1t is given to persue the per feet and live in the joy of perpetual pro- gress. And we can see in what perfec- tion consists Here in this passage we have all the marks of perfection-the clearness of the perfect day, propor- tions fixed according to the measures of a true humanity.
 'It is not pleasant task to turn to the American city of to-day. But 1t is on Thanksgiving day that the New England Congregational minister con- siders 1t his duty to discuss the affairs of the city. The Puritan theory of gov ernment is not extinct, nor will 1t be until all sense of origin, nature and law dies out It is peculiarly fitting to speak state Itself recognizes its divine rela- tions. So take up this subject which the economist. the business man and the lawyer have all claimed as their special province. and with a good of justice, too. The professional politi cians also claim that they know how to deal with these subjects. Their claim, however, is not entitled to the least con- sideration. Their only power is in vir- tue of possession.
 "We hear a great deal about people being too much governed, and that that people Is the best governed which is the least governed. But such talk is non- sense. There is no doubt that govern ments may often go too far in govern ing and caring for their citizens, as in pensions this government has un- doubtedqy gone too far. But the munich pality has certain definite field of la bor and duty to perform for its citizens. A city should not act on the theory that a government should do what the indi- vidual cannot do. Any man can find enough burdens to bear to keep him in a good, healthy moral condition, and ss for the weddings, they must be wisely cared for under any system. If the work of city were to be stated in a word it would be the promotion of its civilization.
 ''The first question shall take up is, what is the duty of city in regard to its health? Once it was the work of the individual, but now it is the work of the city. When people lived on farms or in villages, if one mans we'll was poisoned, it did not affect anyone but his own family. But if to-day the city water is impure, it affects the whole community. This transfer of re- sponsibility from the, individual to city is due to the scientific knowledge of diseases and to the close contact of city life. The germ theory of disease has done much to show that sickness is due to general condition. Here in America we are in some respects much behind the cities of France, Great Brit ain and especially Germany. We col lect enough statistics, but we do very little in the way of analysing and ap- plying them. The good Dr. Levi Ives used to say that statistics showed that Iuc Y uSI WdIu o1 ANCW IldVcN was lHG healthiest place in the world, but he felt better anywhere else. People in New Haven live on floor of sand up from the sea. It's streets are shaded by gigantic elms whose leaves drop on un- swept and mostly unpaved streets, forming compost pile most dangerous to health. In dry weather the dust is blown in our eyes and into our houses, causing malaria, besides a great deal of discomfort. We are getting some pavement from year to year, but why should we not have all our streets well paved and well swept? There is hardly 8 city in Germany or England that is not ahead of us in this respect. If we try to get any such improvement here, the party out of power immediately raises the cry of extravaganza. And they are justified, too, in so doing, be- cause the party in power takes advan- tage of any large contract to steal the public money and enrich themselves. Boston spends annually ten million dol lars in improving and keeping in con dition its streets and parks Birming- ham, England, only spends one mill lion. Of course a part of this differ- ence is due to the difference in the price Of labor, but the main difference is due to jobbing.
 '.The next question shall speak of is that of education. Some say, let any man who wants to educate his children