St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-18

government. II substitutes legislative fiat
for the will Of the governed. Under this
principle we hold, in effect that while the
200, 900 Mormons, Gentiles and cowboys OF
Utah possess intelligence, moral RESPONSE
bllity and political knowledge enough to
frame their own state constitution, the 200, 600
citizens of Minneapolis or of st. Paul are
NOT intelligent and responsible enough to be
trusted to frame municipal charter.
accordingly, the 16S solons from the eighty
counties, Versed in everything, except city
needs and city charters-men elected on the
nationality racket and the bloody shirt howl
on every kind of issue, except that of
municipal charter-are gathered together to
teach you the principles and impose upon
you system of municipal government And.
after ninety days hurry burly, in which there
q prolonged and bitter senatorial fight,
state capitol fight. and a general miscel-
ianeous melee over railroad taxation bills
Inls imperial charter-making body brings
1orth out OF the turmoil and general grab
Dag this Howard charter act this vast blanket
affair of lis statute pages ready made and
patent niled, guaranteed to fit every Mime
sofa city or village, and warranted to kill
OF cure every municipal malady, if not every
municipality.
=, But at the general election of Nov next
mere VIII be submitted to the people con-
sssgitutlonai amendment allowing the cities of
obant 10 make and amend their own
- ters; Inc judges of the district court
VI tIe district in which a given city is To-
800 VIII name for the city a charter COM
thna On composed Of fifteen freeholders of
standing, and this commission after tiy
months elaboration, in which the antira
snuoJeet OF municipal government will he
the OubIio eanVasSed by the commission and
~ punt Will submit to the citizens of that
city charter bill, with alternate senti ;oia.
on the main issues involved so that tho nbor
e eTr as ADOPTED will represent the sentiment
anu needs OF the city, and therefore he Iit-e
me constitution of the United States. or the
constitution OF Minnesota, a charter DERIVING
and P tb .; from the consent, the conditions
anu Ine Will Of the governed
II has been urged that. by this homo r,Ia
pan, the people do not know what thew are
sheetihs, Whlie in adopting the Howard act
. .teg 10: l defy any citizen after a months
otuuy' 10 tel all there is in this Howard
charter Under the home rule Man nm tho
t other hand, the people know Just what is in
tnelr charter, because they make it and MT
nnd - o tbmeniseives, and then they have a sec
onu chahce Tor revision by voting upon al
eernate sections. 1t is said there was a time
"hen kings feared to trust the neonIe he
t t Vi the uncertainties. or rather the GER
.1sihties' mat might arise. II is said that
there are corporations and political bosses
ehat even still are afraid to trust the people
1or that same reason.
me editors of the Century Nation Har
pers Weekly and Review of Reviews tba
municipal leagues and good government clubs
Vi the country generally, officials of MANY
cltles and the governors of several states
nave advocated for cities the same home rule
chSrter privileges now enjoyed by the states
bul nome rule for American cities has
passed the point when an appeal to author
lty is required; we may now appeal TO the
arolter OF experience st. Louis has lived
under the home rule regime since 1877 Dur
ing the ten years prior to the adoption of
tne new charter the city's debt increased
2oo per cent, several times the rate of in
crease in population, while during twenty
years OF home rule this debt has Increased
only ~ per cent, Notwithstanding that the
city meantime has multiplied many times in
wealth, area, improvements and population
Kansas City adopted it's new home rule
charter In 1889. Kansas City has about the
same population st. Paul and its bank
clearings are double those of St Paul and
yet 1t collects to run its government less
than S75O.O00 of taxes, which is less than half
s snat OF 81. raul. Kansas City's bank clear
ings last year were $500, 600 900, as against
S372. OOO,O 600 for Minneapolis, and vet Kansas
CITY collects this year only S729 600 of taxes
while Minneapolis collects s., 957. 600. From
which 1t appears that, while business flour
ishes under home rule taxation does not
Kansas City has reduced it's tax levy from
% mills in 1880 to 1875 mills for 1896 and has
cut down its local tax from 81 O31 900 in 1890
to S729, 900 for 1896. ,4
AT this point allow me to protest against
the argument that there is any Minnesota
city in so precarious condition that it
is compelled to accept any mans charter in
order to save itself? Under your existing
| charter you have just reduced your tax levy
from 20.9 mills to 1875 mills. Since you
adopted the Bell charter in 1891 you have
not added dollar to your bonded debt; and,
on the other hand, you have wiped out a
million and a half of Indebtedness. You
have retrenched in your fire department
under the Howard charter system of alder
manic control. have increased the expenses
of our fire department $4,000. While you
have been adding not a dollar of debt, we
have been issuing a million OF new bonds.
You have been paying sos for an asphalt
paving which costs us $3.50. Minneapolis
| has a deeper and longer felt need to get out
| of its Howard charter regime than you to
get into one. You have had experience
| with the Howard charter single aldermanic
! board-a twenty years experience of bonded
| debt and municipal extravaganza. That ex-
perience gave you eight or ten millions OF
| bonded debt and other like donations, which
forced you in desperation to get the legisla-
| ture to pass special act after act to save you
from it. Your double board council all ad-
NIT has been a great step forward. Retain
it, and under the home rule regime add to
it other progressive improvements as your
wisdom and experience dictate. Be not STAN
peded. Take step that is not sound and
progressive and based on deliberate and ma
ture Judgment.
HOWARD CHARTER IS UNREPRESENTA-
TIVE.
The first Indictment which I bring against
the Howard charter is that 1t is unrepresenta-
tive In the making of this Howard act you
had less representation than the wheat grow
ers of the Seventh congressional district or
the farmers, miners and lumbermen of the
Sixth. You had IA out of total charter COM
mission of 16S Even your fourteen were not
chosen with reference to the charter question
They were chosen because they were Republi-
cans or Democrats, because they believed in
free trade or protection, because they be-
lieyed in free silver gold, because they
could carry the Irish vote or the German
vote, because they favored Knute Nelson for
senator or w. d. Washburn. The charter
question was not the issue. The product OF
that general scrimmage of 16S men could in No
way be called a representative of your views
| he oh rTaT no rd pt iC
unrepresentative, and as such it should not be
forced down the Threats of citizens in a re-
public which rests on the principle that gov
eminent derives its just powers from the will
of the governed
1t sweeps away what has been attained in
the way of charter growth in the various cities
during the past thirty years, and substitutes
a ready-made and cut-and-dried theory which
is to be forced upon all municipalities, ire
Spective of their varied and diSsimilar condi-
| tons. 1t fits theory and not condition
1t Is paternalistic and undemocratic in prin-
ciple and practice Suppose this city adopts
it, and that other cities do the same; and sup
pose that some provision is discovered that is
dangerous and oppressive in it's application to
your city. How you going to change it?
There is no way to change it for st. Paul ex-
cept to change the charters of every munich
pality in the state, for it is general act. The
only way st. Paul can rid itself of an OBJ
jectionable feature is to get the consent OF
Minneapolis, Duluth, Winona, Mankato, st.
Cloud, Brainerd Moorhead Fergus Falls and
so on round the list. And suppose Minneapolis
or Duluth or Crookston or Caledonia find some
provision which they do not like, but which
you do like. Then will occur tug Of war
and the city which can put UP the biggest
lobby and control the most legislative infiI-
ence will get what it wants and others will
have to stand it. Practically, il will be impos-
sible to amend the act, because it will be al
most impossible for city to get the other
cities of the state to consent to have their
charters changed simply to meet the wishes oil
one.
It gives the legislative lobby a club to worry