The record-union., 1896-02-07
HIM jIPAL GOVERNMENTS.
Their Defects, Causes Of Failure, and Pro-
posed Remedies.
Address Delivered Before the Young
Mems Civics Club by Presi-
dent Weinstock.

dress was delivered by II. Weinstock,
the President of the club, his subject
being "The Causes of Failure of Amer
lean City Government, and Their
Remedies" He said:
The American nation presents an
anomaly and paradox that is not
easily understood by intelligent OBJ
servers of other countries and by but
few observers even in our own country.
With a National form of Government
that commands the admiration Of the
world; with form Of State Govern
ment that as a rule operates admirably;
with g. form of Government within a
Government which gives its citizens
the amplest freedom of thought and the
fullest freedom of action; with an army
of State and Federal officials that as a
rule are honest and efficient and that
serve the people earnestly and faith
fully; with conditions such as these it
is no easy matter to explain why a
people whose genius has enabled them
to establish and to maintain with pro-
nounced success a most wonderful
form of National and State Govern
ment should so utterly fail in the less
important affair of city government
1t is no easy matter to explain why
it is that a people who, as a nation, can
handle and disperse billions Of money
without waste and without dishonesty,
fail as members of a community to
handle and disperse very much smaller
sums without corruption, without
thievery and without roguery.
It is no easy matter to explain why
1t is that a people who can maintain gi-
gantic Federal branches of service,
such as the War, the Navy, the In
terror, the State, the Treasury and the
Postal Departments in a most credit
able and economic manner, depart
ments many of which employ armies of
men and handle vast sums of money;
departments against which the tongue
Of scandal rarely If ever has been sue
cesfully raised, should fail to conduct
their comparatively small Police and
Fire and Street Departments without
such departments being the constant
subject of scandal and disgrace.
With our city governments the laugh
ing stock of the world, we are much in
the position Of the General who as the
commander of a great army is a sue
cess, but who as the Governor of his
own little family is a failure.
1t hardly seems possible that the
people who make and unmake our State
and our Federal administrations are
the same people who rule our cities. It
hardly seems possible that people who
succeed in governing a great nation
should fail in governing a city.
But such nevertheless are the unde-
niable and unpalatable facts. There is
scarce an American city that does not
pay the highest possible price for all
its needs and receives the poorest serv-
ice and the least possible value in re-
turn
Charges of municipal corruption and
tnefficiency are so constantly heard
from the borders of the Atlantic to the
borders Of the Pacific that American
ears have long since become calIous to
them and complaints of municipal res
callty now seldom command more than
passing attention
1t IS only when local government be-
comes 50 thoroughly rotten as to seri-
ousIy endanger the welfare of the com
munity; it is only when a Boss Tweed
or Boss Buckley has become so thor
oughly brazen as to flaunt his contempt
OF public opinion openly and defantly.
that the people are aroused to action
and for time bestir themselves 10
better their municipal conditions. only
too soon to fall back into the beaten r1lt
and to once again become the prey of
political pirates.
That the American people know too
well the weakness and the faiIines of
their form of city government is ma ade
evident by the constant changing of
fundamental laws and the frequent
adoptions of new charters for local gov.
ernment. We have lived under one Ma
uonal charter for over a hundred
Years and there are few to advocate a
new one taking its place.
Few of our States have changed their
original fundamental laws. while few.
If any, of our American cities have re-
tained their original fundamental laws
These facts would make it evident
that the science of municipal govern
ment, at least in these United States. is
yet in its infancy Doubtless the cause
for many Of the defects in local govern
ment lies in the constantly changing
conditions surrounding most Of our
American cities
The villages Of to-day, so to speak
frequently become the towns of to-
morrow; and the towns of tomorrow
frequently become the cities and some
times the great cities of the day to fol
low
Thus the form of municipal govern
ment that may have been suited to a
certain community one day, may be.
cause Of the pronounced change in its
environment and in the altered charac-
ter of its population, be entirely un-
suited to it not long thereafter.
The form Of local government that
was good and wise for Philadelphia and
for Boston when they were moderate
sized towns with a population com
posed chiefly of English-speaking colo
nists would hardly be suited TO those
cities to-day with their hundreds ot
thousands Of foreign. and more or less
unassimilated inhabitants
The constant and rapid changes il
the conditions and in the growth oi
population Of American cities stanc
perhaps without precedent in modern
history, and may, IN q measure, ex-
plain the difficulties encountered fix
striving to have good local government
keep pace with such changes and
growth.
The checks and the balances and the
division Of power and responsibilities
that worked well in the beginning havt
utterly failed in the end, and the ten
dency on the part of most cities TO still
further increase the checks and the
balances, and to still further divide
power and responsibility have only
made matters, already bad, mucf
worse.
The plan of shifting the Legislative
power for cities to the State Govern.
nent, as was largely done in New York
x~0rtrod a1rt rAxV evils and sin .~r,a.a 81