St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-24
EXECUTIVE DISCRETION: ITS NECESSITY auG IT; abuse

law or not, as it may suit his inclina-
ton or interest. In general, it may
be said that if an executive does
not enforce the law, the better class
of citizens have themselves to blame.
There is entirely too much indiffer-
ence on the part of citizens on the
subject of good government. Our
government is an excellent device,
but it will not run itself. 1t needs
somebody to run it. The best engine
ever constructed will not run itself.
It requires the guiding hand of
competent machinist. The good citi-
zens Of the community are charged
with the duty of seeing that the one
who guides the governmental device
is honest, capable and fearless, and
that he will administer the laws.
The great difficulty in securing the
enforcement of law and the election
of proper officials lies in the inertia
of the friends of good government.
They will sit comfortably by their
firesides and let the business take
cred that good nominations or cleo
lions have not been made, there is a
great hue and cry of ''the gang and
gang rule" I am willing to hazard
the assertion that there is not city
in America today where there is "a
gang" or "gang rule" but that it is
the direct result of Indifference and
neglect on the part Of the better ele-
ments of the community.
What is needed in this country to-
day is not more or better laws, but
the creation of a public sentiment
in favor of the enforcement of the
laws. Whenever the public senti-
ment demands it, a law will be en-
forced. Whenever public sentiment
Winks at the non-enforcement of it,
that law will not be enforced. In al
most all cases the executive is mere
ly the thermometer that indicates
the public feeling. In almost all
cases the executive officer will en-
force such laws as he knows in his
heart public opinion wants enforced.
L
there never has been a time since
the foundation of this government
when, as now, there is such a keen
public interest in legislation; in laws,
state, national and local; in their en-
actment and enforcement. There has
never been before time when the
subject of municipal reform was re-
ceiving such universal attention
from all quarters of our country.
There is truly a great awakening on
the subject, which has been all too
long neglected. The shameless man
ner in which many of our city gov
ernments have been administered
has started a sort of LeXoW 1nVesu-
cation into the methods of almost
all of them from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from the lakes to the
gulf. There never has been time
in our history when so many minds
were studying and considering the
problem of how to accomplish good
government for cities.
Purity and economy is inscribed
league reformer. The people are be-
ginning to see and feel that there
must be enforcement of the laws
and the application of better busi-
ness principles, if there is to be any
hope of better government. L, for
one, have every confidence III the
ability of the American people to
reform themselves and their govern
ments. The independent voter has
come to the front as the saving rem
nant. There is no question but that
a new era of better government is
dawning for the nation, the state
and the city. The people have
awakened and decided that the eat
ing cancer of gang" misruie must
be cut off from the body polite.
The sleeping giant of public opinion,
when once aroused, will make it i'm
possible for ring government to
longer find a resting place.
When the good citizens of the COM
munity get together and unite in
demanding better government and
the proper enforcement of all laws,
then will the much-deSired result
come about: This, the laW-abiding
are doing in almost every commun-
ity. Gang rule for cities is surely
doomed; there is no installing the
signs of the times. The people have
tried the experiment of letting
executives exercise their discretion
in the enforcement of laws, and it
has been a failure. It will continue
to be a failure and to breed the very
rankest kind of bad government.
The only way for the people to lift
up our municipal governments and
free them from rottenness and cor
ruption is to rise up in their might
and elect executives who will en-
force the laws. The only way to
get such executives is to sustain
them by public sentiment. The war
cry of the reformer is THE gang
must CO." 1t is a good cry, and has
accomplished about all that has as
yet been accomplished in the way of
better government for cities.