The morning call., 1894-07-29
LIVE CITIES.

and it was noted that fast as our great
cities are growing German cities are grow
ing faster. The figures were taken from
an exhaustive study of German munich
palities made by Albert Shaw for the
CentNy Magazine, astudy which contains
much that may be profitsbly considered in
this country.
Our municipal officials are the driftwood
of politics. In Germany municipal ad-
miniStratiOn IS a business which young
men study at college or in engineers
offices, and in the pursuit of which they
spend their lives. The municipal machine
is twofold-a legislative branch, which Is
chosen by the people voting by classes,
according to their standing as taxpayers,
and an executive branch, which is ap-
pointed by the legislative branch. The
municipal councillors who constitute the
first branch serve without pay, but they
are highly respected and are often chosen
for Offices of state. In Berlin and Breslau
three-fOurths of them are househOders;
in Frankfort, Dusseldorf, Nuremberg and
Hanover 50 or 80 per cent of them; in the
Saxon cities an old law provides that one
half of them shall u OF be hoUseholders.
responds to our Mayor, and is called in
Germany burgomeiS!eT, is chosen by the
councillors. He is selected on the ground
of his knowledge Of municipal service; he
has generally grown UP in the service,
passing through all the grades in turn.
He is paid a salary which for Germany
is large. The Mayor of Berlin gets $500,
and other mayors from that figure to $500;
all practically hold for life. They are as
sisted by a magisterial council, half Of
whose members are paid and half unpaid.
Those who are paid receive from $500 to
$4,000 a year, a salary which commands
the highest ability in Germany, especially
as the post is permanent
1t is claimed that this system secures for
the municipal government a maximum of
efficiency, with a minimum chance of
corruption. Municipal administration is
lifted ont of the political cesspool which
is its normal resting place in too many
American cities. There are no Drofes-
siona bosses, no thieving contractors. no
departments run for the fattening Of
knaYes at the taxpayers expense; nothing
but an assemblage of experts, who bring
to bear on the problems OF its government
the latest and completest discoveries in
municipal science. Everything is designed
TO be slow and steady purposed; even the
unpaid legislators hold Office for a period
OF years, and only one-third of them go
out at a time; thus unity of purpose is
infused into the machine.
How this plan works in practice each
separate department shows. The German
cities have grown by encroachment on the
country, and in laying out the new additions
the municipal council has been ena bled to
establish a far-sghted system of railroad
terminals. We all know what scram Bile
new railroads in this country have to en-
gage in to get a foOthold in terminal
cities; in the German cities the council
chooses grounds for terminals, and the
Mayor lays them out with far-sighted
provision for the future. Every railroad
which enters Berlin has its own ground,
and its tracks are iDtersected by the
stadt balm, which bisects the city from
east to weS;, and the ring balm, which
circles round the city. These city lines
distribute the freight without delay or
blockades. The River Spree used to be
muddy stream flowing through
quagmire; the city dredged it out, diKed
It ont with stone levees aud made it one of
the chief channels for freight transporta-
ton from one part of the city to the
other
Twenty years ago Berlin was supplied
with water and gas by private companies.
and the city sewage was allowed to drain
into the little Spree, which was utterly in
capable of carrying it off. The municipal
administration acquired both the water
and gas plants and proceeded to enlarge
and improve both. The engineers. who
were in the city employ, were hidden to
furnish a strong and constant supply of
pure water and to force it by ample
pressure through network of mains and
pipes penetrating every abode. This ac-
complished they were directed to collect the
same water, contaminated by refuse from
closets, kitchens and street drainage, and
to carry it off in pipes to a sewage farm
some miles distant. The drainage system
is the natural complement of the water
system. The city itself is only twenty-five
miles square, but the sewage farm is thirty
square miles in extent, and on its surface
from $4,000, 600 to 10000, 600 cubic meters of
sewage are deposited annually. The cost
VI bu6 SCWdsb ldt DlAOL Is
about S30,000,000 up to date. but in few
years the bureau is expected to be self
supporting, and in the meantime Zymotic
disease has almost disappeared and Berlin
ers have as good water as there is anywhere
in the world.
What modern science has done in Ger
many for the publication of water Ham
burg is there TO show. Ia 1892 the CITY was
devastated by one of the most frightful
devastations Of cholera recorded in history.
1t was demonstrated that the disease had
been pToUagated by the use of Ebe water.
and it was known that filtration would
remove the cholera germs. The Municipal
Council set to work with energy. Filtra-
ton works were established and the city
promised the people that they would be
ready in the spring of 1894. They were
completed year before then, and in Nav.
1888, the river water, when admitted to
the subsldence basins, was found to con-
tain millions upon millions OF cholera
germs. When it had passed through the
filtration works the closest analysis failed
to detect single germ. Hamburg has
set an example to the cities of the world
which will be followed wherever the mu-
nlclpality possesses life or intelligence.