Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-05-31

calls Tor is not the advent OF nero ana tnCl0
a respectable man in city politics but the
enlistment of the whole body of the intcll
gent and reputable citizens. Then good
people must go into citypoltics; they must
all go in, and they must go in to stay. 10
occasional spout of civic patriotism, like
that which rescued New York from the
Tweed ring and Philadelphia from its gang
and that which has just delivered Brooklyn,
will serve the purpose; the campaign is
precisely ms continuous as the struggle with
selishness in the human heart This is the
calling whcrewth they are called. This is
the sovereignty to which they are ordained.
If intelligence and experience have any
place in democracy they are hero to load.
What else, in heavens name, can they be
hero for And when those elements to
which leadership belongs abdicate their
function, why should wo expect to escape
from pandcmouium
Our good people, then, must so into poll
tics. They must frequent primaries, as long
as the present party organizations are main
tanned. not here and there shame faced in
truler, but in platoons. They must meet
the men where they find them, as one man
meet, another, in frank and friendly con
ference about the things to be done. They
must not he too nice to talk with people
who smoke vile cigars and talk bad gram
mar. citizenship in this FREQ and indo-
pendent republic means something, and they
must find out what it means. They must be
ready TO take Office when il is offered to
them-any Office, no matter how humble
which they are qualified to fill. They must
be ready, the busiest and the brainicst of
them. to take positions on the school board
and in the city council, and to give days
~
ed labor to the service Of the city. These
good people are not exempt from such ser
vice as this. Too busy \ man might Us
well say that he too busy to furnish food
for his children or to attend his mothers flu
neral. This is one of the primal, sacred in
alienable obligations. No man who has any
Just sense of what citizenship in n republic
means will be asked to he relieved Of it.
The man who has tine ability to render in
telligent and efficient service to his fellow
citizens as IA member of the city council,
and who refuses such service Oh the ground
that his business cares do not allow it, is
guilty of bad kind of treacherv. lie has
no right to have business cares which inter
fere with the performance of his highest
duties. There can be 10 business which has
a higher claim on him than the business of
the city in which he lives.
FOREIGN BRAINS NOT TOO BUSY TO SERVE.
In other lands the best citizens recog-
nize their personal obligation. Go into
the city councils in European cities and
YOU fad there the ablpst. the best edu-
Gated. the most distinguished men. Lord
Rosebory, the present prime minister of
England, was the first chairman of the
London county council: | believe that, with
all the wcighty cares of the empire upon
him, ne still keeps his seat there. Sir John
Lubbock was his successor. The strongest
men in London are in that council. That is
why European cities are well governed.
We have men enough in our American
cities who are capable OF giving us good
government, but the great ma jority of them
refuse to touch it with the tips of their
fingers. This, say, is the one central and
sufficient reason for our bad city govern
| ments
OF course We need and must have, in
many places. some radical changes in our
municipal machinery. Many of our politi-
cal methods are so bad that it is difficult
for the best mon to do good work with
them. They were evidently constructed by
the devil OF misrue. But after ali the one
deepest need is a revival of civic patriotism.
There is one passage in Mr. Mcrwin's At
lantic article that stings and blisters. He
is talking about New y ork.
"rhe upper cass--at least the richer class.
the class chiefly talked about in tho papers
is, with exception, of course, given over
! to material luxury and Cstontation. 1t is
without high aims, without sympathy. with
out civic pride or feeling. 1t has not even
the personal dignity of a real aristocracy.
Its sense of honor IS very crude. And as
this class is devoted to tho selfish spending,
so he business class is devoted to the re
morsecss getting of money. a Wall street
| financicr would overreach his own father in
a business transaction. To get the better of
the man with whom ho is dealing has be
come law of his nature, and it is on that
plan that business in general is done. The
tone of DelmOnico's, of the Union club, of
the Merchants Exchange, of the Stock
brokers board, is no higher than the tone of
Tammany Hall. 1t may be more refined
but it is probably less honest. A man of
Mr.. Cookers origin, for example, common
ly has an instinct of honesty. just as ne has
an instinct of pugnacity, but this primeval
instinct has almost entirely died out of the
trading and speculative class.
do not pronounce upon the truth of this
Indictment. Certainly, if We assume its
/
ceptiOns pointed out Let us hope that
these exceptions are rapidly multiplying
But assuming these words TO be mainly
true, how does the truth stand related to the
evil municipal conditions which affect New
York Are we dealing with cause or effect ?
With both. | think. Tho government of
New York is what it is to-day because these
men are what they are. Their seltishnoss,
their lack of conscience, has given over the
city into the hands of a sordid and brutal
tyranny. But, on the other hand, how
much of the debasement of this upper
clas.n is due to its relation to the govern
ment Of the city Not a little, | believe
'Inasmuch as we did it not is good ground
for damnation. The perlidy which spurns
this supreme obligation must withor and
blast the soul No man can trino with such
trust without degradation.
If what Mr.. Merwin says is even approx
matcly true, and if conditions at all similar
prevail in other cities, then it would seem
that Il great revival of civic patriotism is
needed not only to save our cities from mis-