The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-05-30
DON'T WHINE, VOTE.
The Way to Effect Municipal
Reforms Pointed Out.
Mayor Ochs of Chattanooga to
Municipal League.
A MATTER OF MORALS.
Bad Citizenship ofGood Citizens
Responsible.
They Lament but Do Not Work
and Vote.


league was resumed this morning in the
rooms of the Chamber of Commerce. In
the morning George w. Ochs, mayor of
Chattanooga, Tenn, read a paper on
"The Municipal Condition OF Chatta-
nooga."
Mayor Ochs began by explaining in
detail the present government of
his city and continuing he said:
The legislative interference with
municipal government by special
enactment cannot be too strongly con-
demned The citizens are the best
judges of what their community re-
Qulres No governor now lives and none
will ever be discovered who can choose
officials to conduct the affairs of a city
better than its own people.
No present day legislature, nor future
Legislature, unless the early days of the
millennium are at hand, can properly ad-
minister the government of "a city which
perhaps the great majority of the mem
bers never saw"
The speaker then directed his atten-
ton to the reforms accomplished in the
municipal government by those in au-
thOrity devOting their personal attention
to the affairs of the corporations; by
giving IFS business the same scrr tiny,
tU0 SdIu0 IuOURuL,lu same luOTOuGil COu-
sideration that they give to private Or per-
sonal concerns All Legislative remedies,
, he said, are absolutely futile and will
accomplish Eothing unless the spirit ami
mates the officials.
Careless and negligent public officers
! under ideal laws will not stop waste, pre-
vent extravaganza, or keep out vicious
methods; prudent unremitting attention
to details under the most pernicious laws
| toll Inf
| 1t is not SO much IA question of methods
as of morals. A 'fee-grabber,' a dishonest
official. will find a way under any sys-
tenn"
Continuing he said: "The misfortune
in our cities is the bad citizenship of
good citizens. They shout aloud their
woeful lamentations, they sob in dire dis
tress over the evils that prevail, they are
reduced to these lachrymose spells in
the wrong pIaces-either beneath some
high vaulted temple as this, or on the
| night of election primaries when
candidates are nominated, they
pour out their sorrows in the
bosom of their families in their COM
Portable drawing rooms, and on election
day they "go fishing" or become so alb
sorbed in the contemplation of the evils
that they actually forget to vote.
"Study the election figures of all the
cities of the United States, compare the
vote for president. for congress, for gov
ernor to the vote for mayor, for alderman
and what do you find? In nine cases out
of ten the presidential vote is twice or
three times as large as the vote for
mayor. 1t is so in my city, and l pre-
sumo l am safe in saying that it is the
case at the home of nearly every dele
gate here present.
whence comes the loss. Certainly
not from the machine the ward heel
ers.' The election b'hoys.'
"The good citizens must be taught that
no city government can rise above theo-
ries of those governed. He must be
taught that the eyes of civil government
do not make reforms. Sentiment is good
enough and theories fine educators
But while sentiment and theories are
diffused through precinct in the course
OF years, votes will sweep a whole city in
a day.
Papers were also read by Rev. Gregory
]. Powell, secretary of the municipal
league of Omaha, Lucius B. Swift of In-
dianapolis, VIM. Kennedy, mayor of AL
legheny, Pa, md Hon. E. ]. Blandin of
Cleveland.
At the afternoon session Vice Presi-
dent Charles Richardson, of the national
league, read an interesting paper on
municipal government by national par
ties"
After discussing the method of politi
cal nomination of candidates for public
office. Mr.. Richardson continued: even
if the machinery of the leading parties
could be SO purified and improved ard
their vote is so educated and stimulated
that their nominations would really be
representative it would still be true that
a national party is as unfit for the gov
eminent of city as an axe is for dig
ging ground or spade for cutting down
; trees.
'The real issue in municipal elections
relates solely to the management of
municipal business and the custom of al
lowing such contests to be decided by
combats between national parties is just
as irrelevant and absurd as the medi-
aeval plan Of having a battle between
| two mail-clad knights in order to decide
; which of their lady loves was the most
| ! beautiful"
} Continuing, the speaker said: mo one
, who is familiar with city politicians and
:, ward workers can suspect them of being
actuated as class, by genuine devotion
to great principles. There are few
if any whose moral percep
tions are not blinded by
their anxiety for personal and
5 partisan successes, by their be-
4 lief that success can only be achieved
: by the aid of those whose assistance
! | must be purchased with public offices
illegal protection or opportunities fol
, public plumber
, at is therefore essential for the pros
perity of our national parties that they
l should be forced to abandon municipal
t functions, which have been at once the
Il chief attraction and the main support Of
their present masters"
"If there were no intruding thought oil
a national issue voters could not be Hind
ed to the direct connection between theiI
votes and the size of their tax bills, or the
}, health, prosperity, and beauty of theil
CITY,"