The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-23
THE gRUFK ARouT GLASGOW.

Our evening contemporary has on
various occasions referred to Glasgow.
Scotland. as a model city. one after
which this city should pattern. Thus
Wednesday evening it said: when the
voters of Salt Lake City read what
-partisanism has done FOR Glasgow,
Scotland, they are pleased
We asked our contemporary to tell
what nom partisanisn had done for
Glasgow, and how 1t was secured. but
it has made no reply. The fact is that
-partisanism hasn't done q single
thing for that city
The News has sought to convey the
idea to the people Of Salt Lake City and
Utah that Glasgow had had partisan
government such as we know it in the
United States. and that il had become
a great modern city and had achieved
signal success in solving municipal
problems by abandoning partisan GOV
eminent. Nothing could be faIser That
from which the people of Glasgow
sought to free themselves. and from
which they finally have to a very great
degree. was not partisan government,
but guild and corporation government.
the very kind Of government that the
non-partisan committee is endeaYoring
to fasten upon Salt Lake City. One who
was in Glasgow very lately for the
special purpose of studying it's munich
pal administration. tells how GLASGOW
was governed. He says:
erned at all, was ruled first by the
church and then in the regulation mid
| dle-age stvle. Great trade and ner
camille corporations. combinations of
the dealers and OF the workers in the
community, gradually, as in other cit
les. acquired strength and power, The
Merchants House and the Trades
House, self-conunuing corporations.
gained by various charters absolute au-
thority over the city. Their officers and
appointees ruled it: they did not soy
ern.
All that has been changed. Now only
the dean OF the Merchants House and
the deacon convener of the Trades
Guild sit as members of the common
council OF Glasgow.
And what were these old town coun-
| ellis from which the people of Glasgow
have been longing TO be free for hun
dreds of years2 Sir James Bell. the
| lord provost of Glasgow, says that the
/ town councils were close corporations,
sitting i'll secret conclave, and were out
of sympathy with the desires and wants
! of the mass of the population. They
were looked on with suspicion and dis
| like, an unwilling obedience was rem
dered to their rule, and the taxes they
/ imposed, unequal in their incidence.
were grudgingly paid, under the fear
/ that they might not be applied to their
, legitimate uses.
How like the ways and methods of
I the local partisan committee! Is
not that committee just such a combi-
nation as ruled Glasgow and other
cities of Europe in the middle ages?
Under the false and specious plea OF
-partisanism the combination
known as the non-partisan committee
would fasten uDon this city the very
kind of government from which Glas-
gov has escaped, instead of giving it
the kind that that city now enjoys.
Even now that city is experimenting
with many municipal problems and
while they seem to be successful their
ultimate success cannot be determined
for long years to come.
What the municipal reformers of
Glasgow have been striving for is to
take the control of the city's affairs out
of the hands of guilds and close cor
porations and to bring it nearer to the
- r J..
Lake City are trying to do is to take
the control of the city's affairs out of
the hands OF the people and place it in
the hands Of the guilds and corpora
tons.