The record-union., 1897-01-31
MUNICIPAL REFORM.
Demand for the Quickenins Of the Pub
lie Conscience.
Argument in Favor of the Churches
Assisting Reform Move-
mentS.

Thomas n. Strong, Third Vice-Presi-
dent of the National Municipal League
and President of the Municipal League
Of Portland, Or, has prepared for the
former the following paper:
| No intelligent person denies the ne
cessity of a reformation of our munich
| pal government; even those who profit
by the prevailing maladministration
and corruptions now render lip service
to the cause. a lip service that grows
clamorous before election, ceases en-
tirely with the victorious party, and
ends with a wall of the defeated as
soon as the official count is announced
I and thereafter comes aound Ito turn
/ the raScals out"
Here and there, however, are indi-
viduals or little groups of intelligent
men and women who recognize the
grave necessities of the case and they
disinterestedly plead for better meth
DDS and for a purer administration of
city affairs. There is apparently no
| open resistance. The politician lends
an attentive ear and makes no open
| objection. No newspapers give their
support and only very rarely does open
opposition manifest itself. Having
apparently convinced all men. who
have anything to think with, of the
| justice of the demand, why does not
! this conviction work out in practice
/ and more materially effect the ma
chinery of municipal administration?
There is, it is true, lack of pecuniary
! or personal interest in city affairs in
many of the voters, and this pers Onal
! interest might we'll be increased and
| quickened as suggested in Charles
| Richardson's article by urging the
extension of municipal functions to
all such matters as the supply Of
light water, street transportation,
! etc.
| This might be an important step in
advance, but suppose this personal in
! terest should be quickened and
| brought into existence, is there hot
something more necessary? Local ex-
! perience in Portland, Or, has been
that boards of our best citizens Sc
| lected and appointed as public-spirited
and disinterested men and taxpayers,
for the carrying out of work in which
every one was directly interested, have
perhaps as often as our elected Com
mon Council betrayed the interests of
the city and used the powers given them
not for the public good, but for selfish
interests, and this with rare exceptions
is the common experience of cities with
legislative boards and Commissioners.
However much the voters may be in
terested in selecting proper officials,
can they guard against this abuse of
power? Can they in any way compel
their officers to do their duty? BY a
single deal the large taxpayers on the
municipal board or committee can
make directly or indirectly more money
than the increase in their taxes so
brought about would amount to in fifty
years, and hence on such boards the
pecuniary and personal interests OF its
members not only utterly fails to act
as a check upon extravaganza and cor
ruption, but only promotes it. while the
public, however keen it's interest in the
work may be, cannot put intelligence
and honesty into it's servants; and only
very rarely can discover, expose or
punish it's guilty officers. Is then the
case hopeless? Or can we bring into
play some other agency or power COM
mensurate with the evil sought to be
removed?
The public has accepted and now
largely accepts three separate stand
ards of morality: The religious, the
business and the political, and strange
ly enough a man can preserve public
respect so long as he conforms to the
popularity accepted standard in the
proper place. Two entire and generally
accepted rules of conduct are bound up
in the statement that "businesss is
business and in the expression "Prac-
teal Politics." The business man
would be dishonored if he should bring
into his own business the maxims and
practices that generally prevail in poll
itics, and the same man viii do that in
politics which he would scorn to do in
business. Largely as the heritage of
our great Civil War. where under the
stern oompulsion of national necessity,
men We're taught to give up everything
for success, even life itself, has grown
UP a tradition of politics that success
is everything" which overlays and
hides from sight in public affairs the
eternal verities of truth and honor
In early days the miners of the Pa
citic Slope recognizing the presence of
gold beneath the great deposits of an
cient rivers were MUCH puzzled to get
at it. and thus in material matters had
presented to them very much the same
problem that is now presented to us
They solved it in a very simple way
From mountain lakes and running
streams they gathered the idly stored
and running waters and under hun
dreds of feet of pressure, through the
great hydraulic pipes, gave it impulse
and direction, destroyed the overlay-
ing deposits and brought the gold to
light
In some such way we must bring to
bear upon these corrupt political tradi-
tions and maxims of public conduct.
some power by which they may be de-
stroyed and removed so that men may
see the truth and seeing it may estab-
lish new political standards to which all
men must in some degree conform In
England a Gladstone or a Rosebery
may be a scholar and a gentleman,
may and can write theological or scien-
tific treatises, may hold to old-fash-
ioned ideas of honesty, sincerity and
right living. and yet in no way dis
credit his character as a practical poll
tician In this country politicians who
would have a good deal of trouble in
dealing with any of the sciences be-
yond the elementary principles OF ad-
dition, subtraction and division. and
whose followers are held to them only
by the cohesion of a corrupt self inter-
est, arrogate to themselves the exclu-
sive title of practical politicians"
England honors its literary and states
n1anlike type of politician, while in
America there has been developed a
graat deal of unreasoning admiration
for the ward politician who in common