The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-16


show how the right man is to be
brought before them.
Elective city government has come
down to us from the middle ages, when
the largest cities were villages COM
pared with London or New York; when
the police was "Dogberry," when the
water supply was conduit, when the
sewer was the street. and when the
sanitary administration consisted in
carting away the filth as often as some
royal procession came along; when,
moreover, city society was not an ag-
gregation, but community; while the
leading men lived, not in suburban VII
las, but in the heart of the city, ana
made municipal office their highest aim.
/ Is to be borne in mind, too, that the
governments of municipalities in Eng
land during the middle ages, and down
to recent period were for the most
partnot popular but oligarchial that the
power was in the hands of a close cor
poration. and what was called election
was really cooperation. Under our
present system the rates are voted
and the expenditure controlled by
part of the population which pays lit
tie, and of that little has large part
returned to it in free education. A
municipality is now practically COM
mercial concern, its chief business be-
ing the raising and expenditure or
money. A commercial concern would
hardly be well managed in which the
incidence of expenditure was separated
from the control. The question will be-
come more serious If politicians inn
prove upon the lesson which they have
now learned, of buying votes of the
many with the money of the few. In
every great city, moreover, there is
body of electors who, though inhabi-
tants, are hardly permanent citizens.
If the city We're ruined, the mechanic
would have only to take up his tools
and go elsewhere.
when matters come to the worst a
spasmodic effort is made. But you can
not get it sustained. The vigilance COM
mittee which you have formed for the
purpose, breaks up when the tension is
over; indignation cools; excitement
passes away, and vigilance goes TO
sleep. The commercial men will not
year after year leave their offices to run
an election. The ward politician, whose
vocation is regular and whose industry
is increasing regainS his ascendancy,
and things slide back into the old
groove You have grand moral insur-
rection, get your Tweed into the peni-
tentiary. slumber happily for some
years, and find Tweed installed again.
81, S.itntr hA-
cause, as DR.. Shaw truly says, there is
an evident tendency to the growth OF
the city at the expense of the country.
Apart from causes strictly economical,
such as the reduction of the number
of farm hands by the extended use or
machinery the tendency is promoted
by the ease with which, owing to the
multiplication of railroads, the rustic,
especially the rustic woman, gets
glimpse of the shows and pleasures OF
the city, and, by the influence of the
high schools, which educate the sons
and daughters of the farmer above
farm work. Against a general ten
dency it is in vain to talk, though all
our notions, not only of poetry, but OF
health. physical and moral, must be
cnanGeu
dency as entirely good. The fact Is as
DR.. Shaw says it is, and 1t calls on us
to solve without delay the problem OF
city government on an elective basis.
If that problem is capable of solution.
The impression that one gets from Pro-
fessor Smiths article is that he does
not have a large degree of faith In such
a solution But before one comes TO
this repellant conclusion, let him wait
until the effort to reach that solution
shall have had. reasonable chance.
AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS:
Zola is coming to America.
Miss Sarah Orne Jewett is convalescing
| from her recent serious Illness.
The biography of Tennyson, by his son.
| the present Lord Tennyson, VIII not ne
completed before 1897.
II took George Meredith ten years to
write "The Amazing Marriage" which Is
published as serial in "Scrbner's Magd-
zine
NJ. Chatrain, so we'll known In this coun-
try as one of the colaborators of the Chat-
rian- -Erckmann novels, Will arrive IN New
York from France next month.
The Russian censors will not permit
Professor Bryce's book, "The American
Commonwealth - to enter Russia. They
fancy 1t teaches too good an example.
william Dean Howells pays high trib-
ute to a neglected American novelist j..
| W. DeForest. of Connecticut. He praises
DE Forests Miss Ravenels Conversion"
as the best novel occasioned by the civil
war
/ II N
Southworth says she has never been af.
| nicted with pen paralysis, although Ia
working off her innumerable novels she
wrote twelve hours a day for many years.
| She didn't give her nerves time to be para
| yzed.
The Cambria society, of Washington,
recently passed a resolution of thanks
to Miss Edith Brewer, of Wilkes-Barre,
| for her "masterly and scholarly article
| on "rhe Meaning of an Eisteddfod," In
| the January number of the Atlantic
Monthly.
While the homoeopathists of America
are raising a fund of $4,000 for a monu-
| ment in Washington. to the memory of
| Samuel Hahnemann, 1t has remained for
n Philadelphia physician, DIR. Thomas
Lindsey Bradford. to write the first bio
graphy of the father of homeopathy.
| Among the book events of the new year
will be the issue by the j. B. Lipplncott
company of "Mlss Cherry Blossom, of
Tokyo" a charming and entirely new
story of Japan and America. 1t will i've
originally and sumptuously bound, and is
by member of the Philadelphia bar.
who writes for the first time over his
| own name.
The Metaphysical Magazine from New
York, Is a new monthly devoted to the oc-
! cult sciences, spiritual philosophy and the
metaphysical aspects of astronomy and
archaeology, 1--WE are convinced de-
clare the editors. that in the psychic
realm there Is a sphere of knowledge al
most entirely unexplored, and that mans
highest and best powers are yet to he
Demonstrated
| The New York Herald offers $40 900 for