St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-11

uOuUG tnal Iner6 is large room FOR re-
form in our fashion of American
municipal government. But. my fell
low citizens, that reform will never be
found by following the illustrious eX-
ample of your country's capital. How
would st. Paul enjoy having all her mu-
nlcIpal affairs turned bodily over to the
tender mercies of the state legislature?
Not much" whispers my friend. the
banker, or the real estate owner. "Why,
every legislator who voted for a meas
ure In the city's interest would want
bonus of $500 or SO for doing it," EX-
actly. Well, congressman are as much
higher in the market. proportionately,
as Minnesota legislators are higher
than your SIS per month aldermen. |
tell my cOmpatriOts, con Incidentally, of
course, that it is mighty expensive
luxury to have real live statesmen
who don't own a dollars worth of
property in your city-legislate upon
municipal affairs, and fix upon what
improvements shall be made. and how
much they shall cost, and when and
where and how and by whom the money
snail be expended. Statesmen are rare.
They know 1t. They fix their own price.
They are responsible to a constituency
far, far away in the blue depths of the
receding West, in the etfete and sordid
East, or beneath the perpendicular rays
of the sun of the sunny South.
IF the people of Washington do not
like our gait let them move out of the
city," was the remark of one of them.
Brutal, perhaps, but it seems to express
a certain sentiment that is more or less
prevalent among members of congress.
The national government owns more
than half the land in Washington. Con-
utility or beauty, valuable CIR worthless.
national or local-and makes the tax
payers foot half the bills. Both the
utility and beauty of the city are at the
service of the people of the nation and
the nations representatives. The peo-
pie who own property here foot the
bills.
Milwaukee and Washington are alike
in population, each having 265, 600.
Milwaukee has a debt Of 1904. 900,
Washington pays interest OIL S19, 2333, 726.
Philadelphia, with 1.l70000 people, has
only about S3,0OO,000 more of debt. st.
Louis, with 650.000 people. has only
S2,000,0 900 more OF debt. There is no
city in the country near tine size of
Washington that has one-half its public
debt.
Congress. at the request of the Smith
society entirely foreign to and indie
pendent of the city,, established ZOO
logical park for the perpetuation of
American fauna. Congress compelS the
people of the clty-Wlthouta asking them
how they enjoy ito pay half the eX-
penSe of creating and maintaining the
free animal show. The park is SPLEEN
did municipal feature. but how would
my fellow citizens of ST. Paul or Mime
apoliS enjoy having crammed down
their Threats luxury of this character
without the suggestion ''By your
leaVe?"
am of opinion that the average
American wherever born. if he
be native born-loves the recurrence of
the regular municipal shindy. 1t sug-
gestS business" 1t wakes up the
echoes of departed enterprise and clears
the mould off from the mental and
moral shilleilahs long disused. The
alderman who has taken pay not rec
ogniZed by the city charter for his time
and trouble is then delicately
reminded of his mistake. The mayor
who has not properly administered
his Office is allowed his inalienable
right to decline reelection; and the
boys proceed to whoop 'er up for some
more popular fellow citizen. Citlzen-
ship grows more valuable and precious
when it has freedom to exercise its
muscles. Men become better friends
and closer neighbors, and love each
other altogether more when they meet
frequently.and grow strong III body, and
spirit through the virile agency of a
good, healthy municipal fight.
An election gives great metropolitan
journals room i'll which to expand their
intellectual chests, and large practice
for their trained mental muscles. 1t
opens treasures long closed, and pours
out gentle streams of fructifying Doodle,
which gush aud gurgle with sylvan
sound into the open and erstwhiIe
empty pocket of the heeler. 1t makes
gorgeous flowers blossom upon noses
| that have long since ceased to blush and
grown solid through exposure to the
biting frOSts of winter.
1t makes stir and noise and confusion
everywhere, and out of the Warsaw
order of the city's selfish rest there
comes the better and higher, if still inn
perfect, order of human action.
Poor Washington! 1t is the city of
the great disfranchisedl We sympa-
thetic Americans open the sluices
of our Iachrymal glands and weep
floods of tears over stricken
Ireland; while Dublin and Cork
and Derry and Belfast-the bell
mouth vying with the bloody Far
downer-send the "Who-o-o-ioo-loo-pw
of triumphant JOY to us across the surg
Ing waters of the Atlantic in honor of
twenty or thirty or forty members of
parliament elected to represent them in
one Of the effete imperial monarchies.
Sorrowing citizens love the justice of
home rule for Ireland so much that they
send millions of money and rivers of
sympathetic tears over there to secure
it for that abused people. Who weeps
or 'swhacks up" for desolate Washing
ton?
Now, honest, is it not ludicrous-o
would it not be too funny if 1t were not
savagely cruel-that the capital city of
our country, of which, as patriots, every
American should be SO proud, is the
only fragment of this yastand populous
Union which has no rights that any