The record-union., 1894-04-28
eRoUNDswELLs OF REFORM.

would be a wholesome deterrent upon
the alien in the matter of law breaking.
GROUNDswELLS OF REFORM.
The remodeling of municipal govern
ments is going on in New York's vicinity
with surprising speed. The breakup of
the McKane gang, and the conviction to
date of forty mine election conspirators in
New York and Brooklyn have encour-
aged the good government idea. until
now there is regular boom in the busi-
ness.
The difficulty is that such booms are
not long-lived. After clearing the stables
the people are very apt to become weary
or careless, and the rats soon take pos
session again. Yonkers is now all on fire
with reform activity. and the New Jersey
towns have caught the fever, and the cry
Good Government Clubs are formed on
all sides and issuing proclamations. One
would think that sort of municipal
millennium has really dawned in all that
region. We quote from one of these
proclamations to illustrate what the City
Clubs are proposing to the people:
If you esteem citizenship above partisan
ship, join the City Club. II you want the local
offices manned by honest and capable men.
irrespective OF party, join the City Club. If
you are tired OF boss rule and want govern
lnent OF the people, by the people and for the
people, join the City Club. II you want fair
elections, with an honest count of the votes
cast, without. bribery and without corrupt
deals, join the City Club II you want the ex-
penses OF the city government lowered, so as
TO afford a surplus for municipal improve
ments without an increase or public indobt-
edness, join the City Club. If you want
cleaner, better-lighted and better paved
streets, d more complete system OF sewerage,
better facilities for transit and other pubic
necessities and convenlences, join the City
Club. If you want New Brunswick to be made
attractive TO suburban residents, so that It's
population may grow, the tax rate be re-
duced and your property increased in value,
join the City Club. If you, the honest voters
OF New Brunswick, want these ana other
things which q wellgoverned city can afford,
it lies in your own power to have them. All
that is needed is for you to JOIN hands, with
out fear OF any man and without enmity to-
ward any man, a matter OF pure business,
which has nothing whatever TO do with poll
tics or with political parties. II you are III
earnest you are supreme. Iou are in the ma
jority, and the majority rules. Join the City
Club.
Now all that the city clubs propose is
possible. The decent element in all cities
and towns of considerable size is in the
majority, if it will but assert itself Now
and then, when extravaganza and mall
administration become too rank to be
stomached, this decent, fair-play ele-
ment moves, and then comes a ground
swell that washes the shores of local
government clean. But the undertow
only rarely returns with second swell,
for the reason that the decent element is
too busy to meddle with what it is
pleased to term politics. 1t will not
forego the counting-room, the church,
the opera, the club. or the toasting of its
toes before the CRATE at home, long enough
to go down into the caucuses and pri-
maries, and assert its power. Once in
while, just as is now going on in the vi
cinity of New York, this element rises
equal to the emergency, but the effort ap-
pears to exhaust it.
What we need in this country is not
periodic reforms in municipal govern
ment; not long-separated tidal waves
and shore washings, but such education
of the civic conscience that there will be
constant conviction of the call of duty;
we want thorough conviction of the citi-
zen's moral sense of the truth that he
owes more than taxes to the town in
which he lives.
1t will then be possible to have models
like Birmingham in the United States.
And to attain this end we are convinced
that the beginning must be made far
down the scale, with the youth in the
schools, for instance, where should be
taught as a part of the preparation tor
citizenship the obligations of the citizen,
the duty incumbent upon him to take
part in all municipal activity, to be in the
true sense a politician, to feel it incum-
bent upon him as sacred duty to make
himself felt in local and other govern
ment.
For it is demonstratsble that we have
costly, inefficient and corrupt municipal
government not because of the greed of
bosses, the corruption of the vicious, the
domination of the ambitious, or the pur-
chase of the purchasahle, but simply be-
cause of the neglect, the inactivity and
the consent by silence on the part of
those who really prefer economy, eleanli-
ness and decency.