San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-02-09
MUNICIPAL REFoR n.
To the Daily LIGHT.

ment and heat OF city election Is not
| good time to urge measures OF municipal
reform. To me the marvel Is that men
who see their cOuntry's benehcent
institutions, their rights OF property and
society itself in jeopardy, can remain ST.
lent and inactive in times like these
when the panorama OF events show Amer
leans the pro upt necessity for resculn2
their politics from the hands OF the sor-
did. the mean and the vile.
/ What we do not say today las we ought
in council for the political sa walton OF
our people and State) whether from fear,
supinneSS or the happy go-lncky way
Americans have for letting politics take
care of themselves, we shall later on in
des per alton cry from the market place
and the hOuse-t top.
After a century OF experiment and ex-
perience under repub lean institutions,
differentiating the curses and blessings OF
a government by and for the people, we
are aUle today to say what we want and
what we must have 10 order to abrOgate
the evils as well as 10 pPrpetuate
the good of Democratic rule. IL seems
rvtlOusly strange that at this late
day OF the world with all the lights OF
history for our guide, especially those OF
ancient Greece and Rome and modern
England. France and Germany, we are
most positively at fault here in enlight-
ened America about the best methods or
governing communities.
At this moment throughout the length
and breadth of our country we have no
where model CITY 'yernment and the
subj CT of municipal reform, whether
upon the Atlantic or Pacific seaboard, Is
essentially In solution. Yet we may pro-
coed il we will, by natural processes to
discover the sources OF difficulty in the
pr emises, and having found them go on
surely ana quickly TO the correction OF
the one, and the elimination OF the other.
1t can be successfully shown that the
material interests OF the whole land and
people are immPdi 4tely and positively at
stake 10 this question and the matter
simply cannot longer be neg lected. We
are compelled to face it whether we will
or no, by the powers Of evil which have
Strewn the annals of the centuries with
the wrecks Of many bright and glorious
republic, and which now challenges In
every city Of our American comm n.
wealth the very life Of our beloved cOun-
try. Said appointment politician. in my
presence recently, The very II of the
nation depends upon good municipal gov.
eminent
Having to meet the question, the sooner
we grappe with IL, and the more de-
term nedly and courage 0usy we deal
with il. the better for every conceivable
interest, whether moral. or material, Of
our whole land. The niger we delay &C
ton the greater the loss, the greater the
peril, privately and publicly. and this in
the end we shall as surely realize as the
fact that the sun shines by day.
In the City OF New York we have
an example of NAL administration
worthy our profound study. How it was
foStered, became for a con siderable period
esta biShed. and finally has received at
least a check, II not its death blow, may
well be examined carefully by us to our
great profit, as well-wishers ana interest
I'd persons of good civic government. The
train TO the powder house which contains
the supplies necessary to the defense of
our institutions, the baIlOt-bOX, has every
where been laid by the same hands, the
political spokesman. He has ten thousand
times blown TO useless atoms the good in
tentiOnS and deeds of patriots throughout
the nation, by trickery, fraud, and theft,
defeating again and again the deliber.
ate, earnest and honestly expressed will
Of the American people.
At every polling place we can spot him:
but his appearance there Is so regular, so
common, so much a matter OF course, we
are not only accustomed to him, but have
actually become condoners of his presence
although We could easily prove IL we
would take the trouble, precisely what he
is there for what are his methods, and
who are his dupes.
And from election to election it seems
to be no sOciety'S business. no individuals
affair, no even the sworn public officers,
to arrest the red handed thief OF the lib
erty OF sixty-tive millions Of people, dis
covered in the very act OF firing the
magazine which is to bring down upon
our heads the noble dome our fOrefatherS
gave US, the temple OF human freedom.
There is not the slightest bit OF exaggera-
| tion about this statement: it took place
| at the last election in this city OF San An
| tonic, and for many and many an election
| before 1t, and it Is an extremely safe pre-
| dictiOn to say that II will occur again
| within few days in open day aud before
| the eyes Of our good, honest, well mean
ing citizens, who annually go up to what
| an EngliSman calls the great American
| auction block there to record mOdeStly
| what he would like to have done In pub
| lie matters. while the said political spoils-
man laughs in his sleeve and giving US
the time OF day gathers to himself the re-
suit CT our feeble efforts to control our
civic destiny.
how proud we free, independent Ameri
can citizens feel as we button up oul
coats and walk away from the polls hav
ing exercised the inalienable rights of thu
freeman to govern himself, and leaving
our ballot safely locked up and in tn,
custody of whom? A disinterested ant
impartial person? No! Seldom or never
but some one deeply and closely identified
with the one or the other candidat
standing for office, who is placed in tn
way Of that greatest Of temptations whicI
few men can successfully resist, of falsi
flying the election returns, in favor Of tn
cause which means to himself, with smaI
chance Of detection and punishment, pre-
ferment and gain.
Proud OF ourselves? The fact is W
Americans are the most easy going, pa
tient. gulibe endurers of political evi
all the while our massive and splendt
roof.tree is on fire about us, and Is in dar
ger at no distant day of crashing in CpO