The sun., 1897-02-25
Tho Greatest Triumph OF Popular
Government.

Aho oFC1tCot VI oPeA@H
Government.
II IL fashionable among the little knot
of detractors and defamers Of American
civilization to assert as a sehevident prop
osition, that our popular government has
been tested most unsatisfactory In the
government Of great cities. They even go
30 far as TO declare that there its failure has
been actually demonstrated. That being
their assumption, they proceed to criticise
the proposed charter for the Greater New
York as a proof Of the incapacity Of the
people for self-government.
The fact is that In no department Of
government has our political system been
more thoroughly vindicated In practical
operation than the municipal The govern
ment Of great aggregations OF urban popu-
lations, moreover, is the most difficult and
most complicated Of the problems with
which all civilization Is now concerned.
The tendency Of modern society is toward
concentration in such large communities,
and IL has been stimulated by the ad-
vantages Of civilization which, unquestion-
ably, are offered to them In a much greater
measure than In districts where tho popu-
lation Is scattered.
In 1850 the urban population of the
United States was not equal to the present
population Of the Greater New York alone.
1t comprised only about one-eighth of
the population Of the Union. Now IL is
about one-third, and It's proportionate in
crease continues to be much greater than
that Of the rural districts. New York con-
tanned then only about one quarter as many
inhabitants as now. Brooklyn, whose
present population Is about one million,
was not one-tenth as large then. and was
only town Of about the size Of Albany
now. Within twenty or thirty years II had
advanced from q mere village. Chicago was
actually village In 1910; and In 1850 It
was little bigger than are now minor muni-
cipalities like Auburn, for instance.
The great development in our urban popu-
lation and urban civilization, then, has oc-
CURED since 1850, and chiefly during the
last generation. Populous cities have
sprung into being, and small municipali-
ties have been magnified rapidly into great
centres Of population. Meantime q vast
foreign immigration has effected radical
social change, and the transformation has
been most complete In the great cities-
Their population is made up chiefly Of the
foreigners coming hither since 1880, and
their descendants.
The young fellows, wise in their genera
tion, who constitute the paltry membership
of the so-called Good Government clubs, do
not remember municipal government as 1t
was forty, or even twenty five years ago. They
were not born then, or they were mere babes
and sucklings. Consequently, they cannot
appreciate the really marvellous progress
which has occurred meanwhile in the gov
ernment of New York. During that period
the whole city has been practically rebuilt
1t has been repaved; the improvement in
the lighting of streets and Of public and OF
private buildings has been steady and
wonderful the water supply and its
distribution have been increased and
extended 80 vastly as to make the earlier ex-
istence seem to this new generation to have
been well-nigh insupportable. Scientific
sanitary regulation and precaution have
driven dangerous epidemic diseases from
the town, and lowered greatly the death
rate; the poorest habitation Ia protected by
scientific plumbing against dangers to
health and life which then imperilled the
richest. In spite of the rapid increase in
| lHc popuiabiOh, anu thc III It's CDhf-
acter because OF the accession Of unassimi.
lated immigrants, the improvement in the
social order, in the efficiency of police
protection, and in the administration of
the laws against criminal breaches of the
peace, has been astonishing In all this
country, not even In the most placid
farming community, Is there greater
security for the citizen and the stranger
than in New York; nay, 1t Is greater
here than In communities which have
not relt the marvellous progress which
has been manifested in municipal govern.
ment on the largest scale. Elections, once
occasions for riotous ebullitions, for vio-
lence and bloodshed, now take place amid
quietude like that Of a village Sunday.
The Haunting Of vice, once repulsive, has
disappeared. The gangs Of young rufdAns,
which, twenty y-hve years ago, made whole
districts of the town dangerous after night
fall, have been broken up completely.
The truth is that in no department OF gov
ernment has the triumph of civilization
been so supereminent as in the government
Of great cities, and this achievement In
America has been most conspicuous In this
city of New York. Every contribution
made by rcienOe and mechanical skill for