The San Francisco call., 1897-09-07
THE MAYORS POWER.

To the Editor of the San Francisco CatE-SIR: !:
All thoughtful men who may in any true and
large sense be called genuine Americans and
therefore strongly attached to our republican
institutions, and yet who are led to think favor
ably OF municipal charter which practically
makes the Mayor dicta tor as a means of Sc
curing better government, must now and then
De haunted with misgi wings and perturbed by
qualms of conscience. 1t cannot be true that
they never have moments when they are at
least dimlv conscious of the Inconsistency OF
upholding in theory our form of government
as the best, and in practice OF repudiating it
as failure.
Unsuspected by these men. there may lie
concealed IN this theory subtle purpose,
cherished by the leisure class of this country,
whose great wealth and social aspirations u n
mt them for much sympathy with the common
people without ref tnement of manners, whose
hands are hard and rough with rude and
coarse work, but which has been frankly ex-
pressed by Professor Peck of the Colum bia
University.
In paper written by Professor Peck on
''Modern Educa ticn'' for the July number Of
the Cosmopolitan Magazine, on page 270 he
holds IN at the higher institutions of learning
should produce only, as he puts it, "a small
and highly trained patriciate, caste. an aris-
tocracy, If you will, whose intel
iectual force and innate gift of government
TIMES Of States, driving in harness the hewers
OF wood and drawers of water, who constitute
the vast majority of the human race, and
whose happiness is greater and whose welfare
is more thoroughly conserved when governed
than when governing"
No believer in the divine right of kings and
the superiority OF mobiles could speak with less
concern or regard for "the vast ma jority of the
human race" than this teacher Of Latin in the
great New York university, OF which Seth Low
Is president. beg to dissent from this view
OF the proper place of the vast ma jority as
mowers OF wood and drawers of water driven
in harness by an aristocracy in our American
commonwealth or in any other country, and
turn from Professor Peck to Presiden Lincoln,
with his deep love and tender sympathy for
the great plain people as the true American
and noble p,triot
think IL not wise and not safe, If can read
Alright the signs of the times, to begin TO u p
small dictators in the deusive name of law
and order in our American cities and throw
discredit on the intelligence, honesty and
trustworthinesS of the American people. 1t
VIII be sad day for our country when this
view prevails. Mark one first result and con-
slider we'll the sequence of events.
The first result will be the implanting in the
government must have dictator for Mayor
Many Of the great daily newspapers from
which most men take their political views are
already indus.riousiy inculcating this idea OF
a dictator for Mayor. These newspapers are
not owned by poor men who voice the conyic-
tions of the great PLAIN people, but the mass OF
readers do not seem to be alive TO this impor-
tant fact. In due time the public will become
accustomed TO the dictatorship of the Mayor
precipice. When they awake they vii be at
The otto m aud dictator will be in he Presi-
DENTAL char. JOSEPH AsBURY JOHNSON.
Ii Essex street, Sept 8, 1897.